My Genealogy Hound

Dr. M. J. McHenry, a prominent physician and surgeon and dealer in drugs, chemicals and sundries at Jacksonville, is a native of Shelby County, Ala., and was born in 1843. His parents were M. H. and M. M. (Moore) McHenry, the former born in Virginia in 1804 and dying at the home of his son in Pulaski County in 1888. The father moved with his parents to Alabama while in his boyhood, and there attained his maturity and was married. In 1847 he moved with his wife to Union County, Ark., where he resided until 1874, and then came to Pulaski County. He became a very prosperous planter, and was a noted politician in both Alabama and Arkansas, having served in the Alabama legislature for one term, and several times elected sheriff of Shelby County, in that State. He was a Democrat and an influential man with his party as well as an enterprising citizen. His wife was born in Georgia in 1816, and died one year before her husband at the home of her son in Pulaski County. They were the parents of nine children, of whom seven grew to maturity and five are yet living, one residing in Texas and the remainder in Arkansas. Two of the sons gave up their lives for the Confederate cause during the last war. Dr. McHenry was the second child of this family, and was reared principally in Arkansas and educated in the public schools of that State. His chosen profession was medicine, and he took one course at the New Orleans Medical College, afterward graduating from the University of Maryland at Baltimore in 1870. He first commenced practicing in Columbia County and then moved to Jacksonville, Ark., in 1871, which place he has made his home and practiced ever since. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in the Confederate army and served almost four years, becoming, when Capt. Wallace’s company was organized in Union County, a member, and being actively engaged for the remainder of the war; entering as a private, he was promoted to first lieutenant and finally took command of the company, his promotion being won solely on his merit as a gallant soldier. In 1872 he was married to a Miss Scott, of Louisiana, a daughter of Col. Thomas Scott, and by this union had one son, Garland H., who resides with his father. The Doctor lost his first wife in 1874, and four years later he was married to Miss Estelle Teague, of Alabama, by whom he has had four children. Dr. McHenry has been in the drug business ever since his arrival in Jacksonville, and carries a very select stock of goods. He is one of the leading physicians of Pulaski County, and is recognized as standing at the head of his profession, his large practice and wide popularity fully attesting to that fact. He owns 109 acres of valuable farming land, and has an interest in some 280 acres of mineral land containing lead and silver, which, from present prospects, will yield him a fortune in the near future. He is a Democrat in politics and a strong supporter of that party, and has served one term in the legislature to the entire satisfaction of his constituents. The Doctor is a courteous and pleasant gentleman in every way, and his many good qualities have won him a host of friends. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, as was also his first as well as his second wife.