1900 :: Death of P.J. Kirtley

On this date in our family history . . . 116 years ago . . . the following news clipping announced the death of our 1st cousin four times removed . . . 

P.J. Kirtley, a veteran of the Orphan Brigade, died at Russellville from blood poisoning, caused by a wound received in battle in 1864. Mount Vernon Signal, December 21, 1900

1870 :: She Sews & Knits

A faded census page from 1870 bears the heading . . . Inhabitants in Greensburg Precinct, in the County of Green, State of Kentucky, enumerated by me on the 17th day of June, 1870. . . . on Line 15 is enumerated 55-year-old Mary Henry (nee Kirtley) . . . and under the heading "Profession, Occupation, or Trade" it is indicated that she "Sews & Knits" . . . 

Mary is enumerated in the household of her only daughter, who is listed here as Ann B Owen . . . this "Sewer & Knitter" is known to have had two sons, William and Francis . . . her first-born son, William Paschal Henry (1836-1912), left Kentucky and wound up in Texas sometime before 1860, mayhaps by way of Missouri . . . it is believed that she never saw him again once he left Kentucky . . . 

This William is a 2nd great-grandpa to the Keeper of this family history blog . . . he had settled in Milam County (in central Texas) before 1880 and remained in that area until his death in 1912, when he was laid to rest beside his wife at the Pleasant Grove (aka Murray) Cemetery . . . 

The dates of death and burial locations of his parents, Thomas Henry and Mary Kirtley, remain unknown to us at this time . . .


See also . . . Henry-Kirtley Timeline . . .

1849 :: Birth of Jeff Henry

On this date in our extended family history . . . the 26th day of February . . . in the year 1849 . . . James Jefferson Henry is born in Cedar County, Missouri . . . this "Jeff" Henry is a 1st cousin four times removed to the Keeper of this family history blog . . . and while Googling for information about my Henry kith 'n kin, I found the following information at Google Books . . . from History of Kentucky by Charles Kerr, William Elsey Connelley, Ellis Merton Coulter . . . 


Jefferson Henry may consistently be designated as the honored dean of the bar of Green County, and during the course of his long and successful professional career he has been identified with much of the important litigation in the various courts of this section of the state.


Though he is not a native of Kentucky, he is a scion of one of the old and honored families of Green County, this state, his paternal grandfather, Belfield Henry [my 4th great-grandpa], a native of Virginia, having been comparatively a young man when he came to Kentucky and numbered himself among the pioneer settlers of Green County, where his death occurred a number of years prior to the birth of the subject of this review. He became one of the extensive land-holders and farmers of the county, and prior to the Civil war owned a large number of slaves. He was of Scotch-Irish lineage, and the original representatives of the family in America came from Ireland to Virginia in the Colonial era of our national history. Belfield Henry married Miss Elizabeth Kirtley [my 4th great-grandma], likewise a native of Virginia, and both were well advanced in years at the time of their deaths.


Jefferson Henry, who is familiarly known by the abbreviated name of "Jeff," was born in Cedar County, Missouri, on the 26th of February, 1849, and is a son of James L. and Margaret (Brownlee) Henry, both natives of Green County, Kentucky, where the former was born in 1811 and the latter in 1810. The father died at Canehill, Arkansas, in 1871, and the mother subsequently passed to the life eternal at Burnet, Texas.


James L. Henry was reared and educated in Green County, and here became a successful agriculturist and stock-grower. In 1840 he removed to Cedar County, Missouri, where he became the owner of a large farm estate, including a stock ranch, and where he maintained a force of thirty or forty slaves in his extensive operations as an agriculturist and stock-grower.


He continued his residence in Missouri until 1862, when he removed with his family to Grayson County, Texas, where he became the owner of a large ranch near Kentuckytown, and where he took his slaves, who there remained with him until the close of the Civil War, which effected their emancipation.


In 1865, shortly after the close of the war, Mr. Henry removed to Canehill, Arkansas, with the primary object of giving his children the advantages of Canehill College, and there he remained until his death, in 1871. He was an uncompromising advocate of the principles of the democratic party, was more or less active and influential in political affairs in Kentucky, Missouri and Texas, and served as county judge of Cedar County, Missouri, from 1840 until 1860. Both he and his wife were zealous members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Of their children . . .

• the eldest was C. M., who was a prominent and extensive agriculturist in the vicinity of Canehill, Arkansas, for many years prior to his death, which there occurred when he was seventy-three years of age. He served as colonel of a Confederate regiment in the Civil war, near the close of which he received the brevet rank of brigadier general.
• Elizabeth became the wife of James T. Moore and both passed the remainder of their lives in Texas, where Mr. Moore was a prosperous farmer. He was captain of his company in a Confederate regiment in the Civil war, and was severely wounded in an engagement at Froggy Bayou, Louisiana.
• Martha died at Burnet, Texas, when forty years of age.
• Malvina became the wife of Dr. A. J. Culberson, a leading physician at Burnet, Texas, and there her death occurred.
• Jefferson, immediate subject of this review, was the next in order of birth.
• Malvina [sic] became the wife of William E. Culberson, and both died at Burnet, Texas, where he had been engaged in a mercantile business for a long period.
• William was drowned in a cloudburst in Wyoming when twenty-five years of age.
• T. A., who was for many years successfully identified with the banking business, died in 1919, at Red Fork, Oklahoma.

The above record shows that the subject of this sketch is now the only surviving member of this family of children.


The rural schools of Missouri and Texas afforded Jefferson Henry his preliminary education, and after the removal of the family to Canehill, Arkansas, he there attended the high school two years and the Canehill College for an equal period.


In the meanwhile he had applied himself also to the study of law, and on the 22d of January, 1872, he was admitted to the bar of Kentucky. In that year he established himself in practice at Greensburg, where he has since continued as one of the leading members of the Green County bar and where he has long controlled a large and representative law business, which has extended into both the civil and criminal departments of law and recorded the winning of many court victories of important order.


Mr. Henry is a man who has ever been a student, and his reading and study have covered a remarkably wide range, with the result that his cultural powers are of the finest type and his intellectual horizon very wide. At his pleasant home, known for its generous and unpretentious hospitality, he has one of the best private libraries in Kentucky.


His law offices are maintained in the Henry Building, of which he has been the owner since 1878, and which is situated on the west side of the courthouse square in Greensburg, his modern residence being at the corner of Main and Cross streets and being one of the finest in the city.


In addition to these urban properties Mr. Henry is the owner of a well-improved farm on the rich bottom lands at the mouth of Big Russell Creek, Green County.


He has always adhered to the ancestral political faith and is a leader in the ranks of the democratic party in this section of the state. He served eight years as county attorney of Green County, but in the main has had no desire for public office, as he has preferred to give his undivided attention to his large and representative law practice. Both he and his wife are active members of the Presbyterian Church in Greensburg.


The perennial youth of Mr. Henry has been largely due to his vital interest in men and affairs, and the questions and issues of the hour receive his appreciative attention. Thus it was to be naturally assumed that he would take a prominent part in the various local war activities when the nation became involved in the great World war. He was chairman of the advisory board of Green County, served on other war committees in the county, aided in the various campaigns in the sale of war bonds and savings stamps, and to the full limit of his means he subscribed to these issues and gave earnest support to Red Cross and Salvation Army service.


December 12, 1872, recorded the marriage of Mr. Henry to Miss Josephine L. Perry, daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Tebbs) Perry, of Green County, where both continued to reside until their deaths, Mr. Perry having long been a substantial capitalist and leading banker of Greensburg. Mr. and Mrs. Henry have but one child, Claudia, who is the wife of Early Vaughan, a successful farmer near Greensburg.

1917 :: Resolution on Bowdry Passed by Veterans

Dallas Morning News. October 29, 1917. Page 3. Special to the News. R.E. Lee Camp Expresses Regret on death of Comrade. Deceased Took Part in Important Battles of War and Was first Postmaster at Fort Worth.

Fort Worth, Texas. October 28. -- The weekly meeting of Robert E. Lee Camp, United Confederate Veterans, was attended this afternoon by a number of veterans who had just returned from the National Reunion and Peace Jubilee held last week at Vicksburg. The veterans praised very highly the cordial reception given them by the citizens of Vicksburg. Many of those who spoke were veterans of the historic Vicksburg campaign of the summer of 1863 and in their addresses they again lived over the stirring days of the war between the States. Special tribute was paid the soldiers now stationed at the training camp at Vicksburg by the returning veterans for the kind treatment the soldiers accorded them.
Captain George B. Holland, historian of the camp, announced that the Confederate Grays, an auxilliary of Lee camp, had subscribed for a Liberty bond. The purchase was made yesterday. Captain Holland also announced that he had bought three individual bonds which he had given to his grandchildren.

Resolution on Comrade.

The following resolution on the death of P.J. Bowdry was unanimously adopted:

Commander and comrades of R.E. Lee Camp, Fort Worth, Texas, Oct. 28, 1917:

It becomes the painful duty of your undersigned committee to record the death of our late comrade, P.J. Bowdry, which occurred at his residence in this city on Oct. 23, 1917, after a lingering illness of long duration.

He was born in Missouri [sic, i.e., Kentucky] and was a prominent actor on the southern side of the Kansas border troubles before the war broke over us in 1861. Early in that year he enlisted at Albuquerque, N.M. in Company I, under Colonel Joe Shelby and followed the lead of that gallant Southerner who was soon promoted to the commande first of a brigade of Missouri cavalry, then to the command of a division under General Sterling Price in the Trans-Mississippi department. He was in all the prominent battles under General Shelby till the surrender at Shreveport, La., in the spring of 1865, among which were those at Lone Jack, Mo.; on Cowskin Prairie, and at Mark's Mills, Neosho, Mo. After which he was transferred to Gordon's regiment of cavalry, Jackson's brigade, when Shelby was promoted to the command of a division.

On the Fourth of July, 1863, his command, under General Holmes, made an unsuccessful attack on the Federals in their fort at Helena, Ark., in which he was severely wounded and was brought off the field by his comrade, Ed Bower, long time a resident of Dallas, until his death years ago.

Comrade Bowdry took up his abode in Fort Worth shortly after the war, when it was a mere hamlet, and shared in its growth to its present dimensions, and was for a time the first postmaster, after its incorporation in 1873. He was for many years an employee in one of the city departments, even to his death, and was ever an active and efficient servitor therein. He was one of the charter members of this camp and a constant attendant until the end.
Therefore, Be it resolved that in the death of our comrade we have lost a true comrade and deeply sympathize with his surviving relatives and friends in their affliction.

C.C. Cummings, Geo. R. Clarke, W.T. Shar, Committee.

FYI . . . this Paschal Jefferson Bowdry is a 1st cousin to my 2nd great-grandpa, William Paschal Henry (1836-1912) . . . their mothers were sisters . . . and both boys were apparently named after their maternal uncle, Paschal Jefferson Kirtley, who took care of his younger sisters following the death of their parents while the girls were still quite young . . .

1802 :: Birth of P J Kirtley

On the 29th day of April . . . in the year 1802 . . . Paschal Jefferson Kirtley is born in Warren County, Kentucky . . . this P J Kirtley is a 3rd great-grand-uncle to the Keeper of this family history blog . . . in January of 1826, he marries Mary Ella McDaniel (1809-1873) . . . and in November of 1826, following the deaths of both of his parents, he is made legal guardian of his three younger sisters . . . about 1827, his wife gave birth to the first of at least ten children.

I first met this man and his family back in the 1990s while searching census records at a local library . . . I was looking for some clue as to the parentage of my 2nd great-grandpa, William Paschal Henry (1836-1912) . . . whose remains reside in the Murray Cemetery in Milam County, Texas . . . and I found a 14-year-old William P. Henry enumerated in the Paschal J. Kirtley household on the 1850 Census for Barren County, Kentucky . . . my first feeble attempts at establishing a connection between the Henry and Kirtley families were unsuccessful . . . but once I began conducting genealogy searches online, I was able to locate a few Kentucky marriages between Kirtley women and Henry men . . . including an 1835 Barren County, Kentucky marriage record for a Thomas Henry and a Mary Kirtley (one of the orphaned sisters) . . . and they wound up being the 3rd great-grandparents I was looking for! So . . .

Thank you, Uncle P.J., for watching out for your little sister (my 3rd great-grandma), Mary, and for helping take care of her son, William P., after his father died.