About eight miles west of Lexington a gravel road leaves the highway and winds around and through the Juno Community. Once a thriving small town in the early 1800's it boasted a grovery store, three saloons, and a group of frame houses. A small post office was located in the stagecoach trail. A section of the town was destroyed during the Civil War; however in 1878 a large two-store building was constructed. A dry good store was operated on the lower floor and the upstairs rooms used as a masonic lodge hall.

The original name for the community was "Pinch" named for a character who was extremely stingy, always ready for a free drink, never ready to buy one. Today, Juno is a community bypassed by modern highways and a busy world. I visited the old Waller-Douglas Cemetery legened to have been started when in 1850 a family came to the Waller home searching for a doctor, as their small child had taken ill. Being a physician, Dr. Waller tried vainly to save the baby's life but all his efforts failed. The baby died and was buried on the Waller farm.

It is from Juno comes one of the most unusual stories I have ever heard. It is the story of Henry Armstrong, known by all the folks in the community as "Uncle Henry". The story is well told in a history of Henderson County, written by Auburn Powers, teacher and traveler. Just who Henry Armstrong was, where he came from, and why he lived the life he did, is a mystery and will always be as he died with no explanation. Legends say he probably fought in the Civil War and at its end came to Juno and settled to spend the rest of his life in Henderson County. He made his home on the old Sheard Place, now the Frank Fesmire farm.

Henry was a jolly, well-liked fellow, participating in community sport. But time passed and "Uncle Henry" grew old. Around the first of January 1892, Dr. A.L. Waller opened his door to find Henry standing shivering from the cold. A north wind was blowing and the ground was covered with snow and ice. Henry asked if he might come inside. The doctor readily agreed and Uncle Henry walked into the room. The doctor recognized immediately that the old man was seriously ill. As the doctor was busy with his practice, he requested that his wife take to help him. Mrs. Waller did all she could do, administrating medicines prescribed by her husband, but a few days later, he died.

Several men who went to dress him for burial returned in disbelief. To teh doctor and his wife they made a startling announcement; "Uncle Henry" was a woman, not a man as she had pretendd to be for the pasat 30 years. Everyone who had known him was shocked. She had entered the community as a man, worn men's clothing, worked as a man, and not once had ever given the smallest clue to her true identity. She was buried in men's clothing at the old Sheard cemetery in an unmarked grave.

A legend tells the story that Henry probably enlisted in the Confederate Army to be with a husband or lover, and after that person was killed, came to Juno in disguise. Dr. Waller, always puzzled by the identity of Henry, asked her a few days before her death if she would reveal her secrets. Henry refused. Recently I visited Juno, I found the ruins of old log cabins, the cemetery, the modern homes where folks live in a different world far apart from "Pinch" the stagecoach days, saloons and the unexplained mystery of a woman who posed as Henry Armstrong for three decades.