Henry-Bacon Family Papers, 1785-1988
Held by The Filson Historical Society
Creator: Henry-Bacon Family
Title: Papers, 1785-1988
Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Curator of Special Collections.
Size of Collection: 2.66 Cubic Feet
Location Number: Mss./A/H521b
Scope and Content Note
The papers of General William Henry and his descendants in the Henry and Bacon families. Correspondence and land and financial papers trace the family’s eighteenth-century migration from Virginia to Kentucky, first in the Bluegrass region and then in Christian County. Numerous letters from the 1810s discuss the settlement of the area around Hopkinsville, Ky. and Clarksville, Tenn. and describe agriculture and slavery in the region. Letters, certificates and an order book detail Henry family service in the War of 1812, and correspondence to Dr. John F. Henry concerns his service in the United States House of Representatives in the 1820s. Other material in the collection addresses the family’s relocation to Iowa in the 1840s and journeys to California in the early 1860s. Letters, diaries, and military papers document John F. Henry, Jr.’s service in the Confederate army during the Civil War. Material from the twentieth century details family matters, social life, travel in the U.S. and abroad, politics, and other topics.
Related Collections
The Filson has an additional collection of Henry Family Papers (Mss./A/H521) and the University of North Carolina’s Southern Historical Collection has the Gustavus A. Henry Papers (Mss. #1431).
Separation Note
Photographs and published material have been transferred to The Filson’s Photograph Collection and Library, respectively.
Biographical Note
The Henry family was a prominent family in Virginia and Kentucky in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. General William Henry (1761-1824), the son of Rev. Robert Henry (d. 1767?), was a veteran of the Revolutionary War and immigrated to Kentucky in 1781. He settled in the Bluegrass region before relocating to Christian County in the early-nineteenth century. On October 12, 1786, he married Elizabeth Julia Flournoy (1767?-1813), the daughter of Matthews Flournoy (b. 1732) and Elizabeth Patsy Pryor Smith. During the War of 1812, Henry was the commander of the 1st Division of the Kentucky militia. Henry had numerous children. Those featured prominently in the collection include sons Robert Pryor (1788-1826), John Flournoy (1793-1873), Patrick (1801-1864), and Gustavus Adolphus Henry (1804-1880).
John Flournoy Henry, a Representative from Kentucky; born at Henrys Mill, Scott County, Ky., on January 17, 1793; attended Georgetown Academy, Kentucky, and Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa.; was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1817; served in the War of 1812 as surgeon’s mate of Kentucky troops; returned to Kentucky, working as a farmer and doctor; replaced his deceased brother in the House of Representatives, December 1826-March 1827, but was not reelected; professor in the Medical College of Ohio at Cincinnati in 1831; moved to Bloomington, Ill., in 1834 and in 1845, to Burlington, Iowa, where he resumed practicing medicine; died in Burlington, November 12, 1873 and buried at Aspen Grove Cemetery. For more information on William and Elizabeth Henry’s other children, see John F. Henry’s The Henry Family, copies of which are located in folders 45, 47, and 49 of the collection.
John F. Henry, Jr. (1839-1899) was the son of John F. Henry. He attended the Lebanon Law School, 1858-1860, but left before receiving his degree. He briefly lived in Colorado in 1860 but returned to Kentucky to enlist in the Confederate army. He served from 1862 to 1865, primarily in the western theater, but at the close of the war, he was part of Jefferson Davis’s escort following the fall of Richmond. Immediately after the Civil War, he lived in Augusta, Ga. In 1869, he married Mary Churchill Richardson (1848-1938). Their children included Lucy Ridgely Henry (1876-1969) and Violet F. Henry (b. 1880?). Around 1902, Lucy Henry married Ernest Jennings Bacon (1874-1958). In 1934, they relocated from Louisville to Los Angeles, where their daughter Frances Henry Bacon (1906-2003) worked in the animation department at Warner Bros. Studios. After living in Los Angeles, Frances M. Bacon moved to Colorado and then back to Louisville, where she died. Frances Bacon never married.
Folder List
Folder 1: Correspondence, 1785-1799
Folder 2: Correspondence, 1802-1819
Folder 3: Correspondence, 1820-1829
Folder 4: Correspondence, 1830-1839
Folder 5: Correspondence, 1840-1849
Folder 6: Correspondence, 1850-1859 (click to access PDF)
Folder 7: Correspondence, 1860-1863 (click to access PDF)
Folder 8: Correspondence, 1864-1869 (click to access PDF)
Folder 9: Mary Churchill Richardson Henry Correspondence, ca. 1865-1867
Folder 10: Correspondence, 1870-1879
Folder 11: Correspondence, 1882-1899
Folder 12: Correspondence, 1901-1929
Folder 13: Correspondence, 1930-1934
Folder 14: Correspondence, 1935-1944
Folder 15: Correspondence, 1945-1950
Folder 16: Correspondence, 1951-1964
Folder 17: Correspondence, 1965-1988
Folder 18: Correspondence, undated, 19th century
Folder 19: Correspondence, undated, 20th century
Folder 20: John F. Henry, Jr. Diary, 1862-1863
Folder 21: John F. Henry, Jr. Diary, 1864
Folder 22: John F. Henry, Jr. Diary, 1865
Folder 23: Financial papers, 1782-1869, 1948
Folder 24: Legal papers, 1780-1829
Folder 25: Military papers, 1813, 1861-1872
Folder 26: Order Book, 1813
Folder 27: John F. Henry, Jr. Autograph Book
Folder 28: John F. Henry, Jr. Lebanon Law School Photograph Album
Folder 29: Autograph Album
Folder 30: Violet F. Henry Autographs
Folder 31: Jack F. Henry New Testament
Folder 32: Henry Family Printed Material
Folder 33: Genealogy
Folder 34: Newspaper clippings
Folder 35: Miscellaneous
Folder 36: M.C. Henry Diary, 1919
Folder 37: Short-Wilkins Family Notebook
Folder 38: Scrapbook
Folder 39: Frances Bacon Cancelled Checks
Folder 40: Kenneth W. Rendell Appraisals
Folder 41: Henry Family
Folder 42: Short Family
Folder 43: Richardson Family
Folder 44: Genealogy (including Anna Symmes Harrison & John Cleves Symmes)
Folder 45: The Henry Family – Mrs. John F. Henry copy
Folder 46: Material from Mrs. John F. Henry’s copy of The Henry Family
Folder 47: The Henry Family – Mary C. Henry/Violet F. Henry copy
Folder 48: Material from M.C./V.F. Henry copy of The Henry Family
Folder 49: The Henry Family – Lucy R. Henry copy
Folder 50: Material from Lucy R. Henry copy of The Henry Family
Folder 51: A Chronological Record of the Families of Charles Wilkins Short and Mary Henry Churchill
Folder 52: A Chronological Record of the Families of Charles Wilkins Short and Mary Henry Churchill typescript
Folder 53: Daughters of the American Revolution Charts
Folder 54: Lucy Henry Bacon Stamps
Folder 55: Antiques notebook
Folder 56: Lucy Henry Bacon Clippings
Folder 57: Miscellaneous
Folder 58: Miscellaneous (2)
Oversize
Folder 59: Maps and Newspapers
Subject Headings
Abolitionists – Autographs
American Party – Iowa
Authors – Autographs
Christian County (Ky.) – history – 19th century
Clay, Henry, 1777-1852
Colorado – History – To 1876
Confederate States of America – Newspapers
Crittenden, John J. (John Jordan), 1787-1863
Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889
Diaries
Dueling – Kentucky
Education
Europe – Description and travel
Greek letter societies – Southern States
Henry, Gustavus A. (Gustavus Adolphus), 1804-1880
Henry, J. (John), 1793-1873
Henry, John Flournoy, 1839-1899?
Henry, Robert Pryor, 1788-1826
Henry, William, 1761-1824
Henry family
Iowa – History – 19th century
Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845
Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826
Johnson, Richard M. (Richard Mentor), 1780-1850
Kenton, Simon, 1755-1836
Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier marquis de, 1757-1834
Lebanon Law School (Lebanon, Tenn.)
Lee, Robert E. (Robert Edward), 1807-1870
Letcher, Robert Perkins, 1788-1861
Mammoth Cave (Ky.)
Morehead, C.S. (Charles Slaughter), 1802-1868
National Republican Party (Ky.)
Politicians – Autographs
Presidents – United States – Elections – 1824
Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)
Richardson family
Robinson, James Fisher, 1800-1882
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945
Sayre Institute (Lexington, Ky.)
Shelby, Isaac, 1750-1826
Short family
Slave insurrections – Southern States
Slavery – Kentucky
Tennessee – History – 19th century
Toombs, Robert Augustus, 1810-1885
Tornadoes – Kentucky – Louisville
Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972
United States – Description and travel
United States – History – Civil War, 1861-1865
United States – History – Civil War, 1861-1865 – Veterans
United States – History – War of 1812
United States – Politics and government – 1815-1861
Woodliegh (Louisville, Ky.)
World War, 1939-1945
