My Genealogy Hound

Dr. J. T. Henry is one of the very foremost of the professional men of the county, and is acknowledged by all to be an especially skillful physician and surgeon. He was born in Tuscaloosa County, Ala., in 1847, being a son of James and Mary Ann (Walser) Henry, who were born in South Carolina in 1811, and Georgia in 1816, respectively. They were married in Alabama, and from there moved to Mississippi in 1847, and reached Ouachita County, Ark., in 1858, and here resided until his death in 1884. His widow survives him, and both were members of the Methodist Church for many years. He was engaged in farming until the latter part of his life, then engaged in merchandising at Holly Springs. He was in the Confederate army from June, 1861, to January, 1862, then returned home on account of ill health. His father, James Henry, was of Irish descent, a farmer by occupation, and died in Bibb County, Ala. The paternal grandfather was Samuel Walser, a German, who died in Tuscaloosa County, Ala. Dr. J. T. Henry was the sixth of ten children, eight of whom are now living, and was reared to farm life, receiving a good common-school education in his youth, principally at Holly Springs. In 1868 he began the study of medicine with Dr. W. H. Falen, of that place, and then entered the Medical Department of the University of Kentucky, at Louisville, but after attending this institution one year he became a student of the Medical University of Nashville, from which he was graduated in 1873. He at once located near Bearden, where he has built up an extensive practice, but since 1889 he has been a merchant of the town, although that business has received his attention for the past ten years. He is a Democrat, a member of the A. F. & A. M., and was master of his lodge two years, but is now senior warden. In 1874 he married Miss Sidney A., a daughter of Garrett and Anna O. Gatlin, who removed from Georgia to Ouachita County at an early day, but afterward settled in Union County, where the father died in 1876, having been a farmer throughout life, his wife being a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mrs. Henry was born in Ouachita County, and she and Mr. Henry have become the parents of eight children, one son and five daughters now living.