Wayne County Biographies



Part of the Indiana Biographies Project



James W. Henry, M.D.

This honored veteran of the civil war, now a practicing physician of Richmond, may be justly termed a self-made man, for from his early years he has been obliged to make his own way in the world, and bravely and victoriously has he met adversity. Born in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, April 6, 1840, he was orphaned ere he learned a parent's love. He managed to gain an excellent education, as, after completing the common-school curriculum, he entered Ewington Academy, at Ewington, Gallia county, Ohio, and subsequently was a student at the Westerman Academy, in the same county, for a period.

Having finished his English education Dr. Henry was occupied in teaching school for about a year, and then, for a similar length of time, he was in the dry-goods business. When the war of the Rebellion broke out he was too young to be received in the army, but on the 31st of August, 1862, he enlisted at Gallipolis, Ohio, in Company L, Seventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, and served until the close of the war, or just three years, his honorable discharge being dated August 31, 1865. The greater part of his service was in the Army of the Tennessee, his regiment being in the Twenty-third Army Corps. Besides participating in numerous skirmishes of more or less importance, he was actively engaged in the decisive battles of Crab Orchard, Frankfort, Somerset and Danville, all of which were fought in Kentucky. He won the praise of his superior officers for his promptness, bravery and strict fidelity to duty, and was respected and well liked by his comrades.

In 1869 the Doctor opened a drug store in Berlin, Jackson county, Ohio, and conducted the business profitably for some ten years. In the meantime he had given much time and study to medicine and disease, and had practiced to a limited extent in his immediate community. In 1881 he entered the Miami Medical College, at Cincinnati, Ohio, taking a three-years course, on the completion of which, in the spring of 1884, he was granted a diploma and the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Returning to Berlin, he resumed his practice, and continued to reside in that town until 1895, when he became a citizen of Richmond. Like many of the physicians of the present day, he carries on a general practice in families, but has made a special study of one department of medicine, being particularly skilled in the treatment of kidney diseases.

In 1868 Dr. Henry married Miss Jennie Ratliff, of Berlin, Ohio, and they have two children, namely: Lucius Norton, who is a graduate of Miami Medical College, and for the past seven years has been successfully engaged in practice in Ripley, Illinois; and Clyde W., who is a telegraph operator in the employ of the Western Union Company, at Richmond. The Doctor is prominently identified with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has taken the Knight Templar degrees in the York rite, and in the Scottish rite has attained the thirty-second degree, S. P. R. S. He formerly held membership in Trowel Lodge, No. 132, F. & A. M., at Jackson, Ohio. He is also connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Source:
Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana, Volume 1, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1899