Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Henry, William E 1820 - 
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Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com May 9, 2007, 12:11 am

Author: Portrait & Bio Album, 1890

WILLIAM E. HENRY. Examples of persistence in a chosen vocation and of honest 
labor followed by success, are numerous, and it is ever a pleasure to record 
the lives of those who furnish them. A portrait of the subject of this 
biographical record appears on the opposite page. He is one of those men who 
have spent many years in one calling and whose lives are marked by honorable 
dealing and moral principle. He is now engaged in the real-estate business at 
Joliet, where he has long resided. Joseph and Nancy (Apgar) Henry, the parents 
of our subject, were of German descent and natives of New Jersey, in which 
State the father was engaged in farming. He died at the age of about sixty 
years, and his wife passed away in 1864. Their family comprised three sons and 
four daughters, of whom the subject of this sketch is the first born. George 
died at the age of nineteen years; Jacob A., is living in Joliet; Mrs. Lydia 
A. Lowe resides in Fredericksburg, Ohio; Mrs. Rebecca Swackhammer lives in New 
Jersey; Mrs. Catherine Washburn, now deceased, resided in Massachusetts; Mrs. 
Ellen White, a widow, lives in Joliet. The subject of this sketch opened his 
eyes to the light in New Germantown, Hunterdon County, N. J., November 24, 
1820, and passed his boyhood days in his native State. At the age of twenty 
years he began his career as a railroad man by obtaining a position in the 
track department of the Hartford & New Haven Railroad. For thirty-three years 
he continued to do railroad work, during that time laying about two thousand 
miles of track in seventeen different States. His last venture in that line 
was a contract for laying one hundred and sixty-five miles of the track of the 
Grand Trunk Railroad, from Valparaiso, Ind., to Lansing, Mich., and terminated 
unfortunately, as he has never yet received his pay. In 1849, Mr. Henry 
removed to Wellington, Ohio, and made it his home until 1854, when he returned 
to his native State, ten years later coming to Joliet, Ill. Here he connected 
himself with the Chicago & Alton Railroad, as Roadmaster, continuing with that 
company until 1870, when he took the contract before mentioned, which proved 
an unremunerative one. During the years of 1863, 1864, he had charge of the 
railroad tracks, bridges, etc., in the army of the Potomac. At the time of the 
battle of Anteitam, Md., he was laying the horse-car road from Pennsylvania 
Avenue to the Post-office and Navy Yard in Washington City, as its contractor. 
The Chickahominy bridge was built by him, as contractor, before the war. In 
1873, he was elected Mayor of Joliet, and under his faithful oversight, the 
interests of the city were rapidly developed. In 1876, having permanently 
retired from the railroad business, he opened a real-estate office in which he 
yet continues. In politics Mr. Henry is a life long Democrat, James K. Polk 
having received his first ballot in the State of Connecticut, when a property 
qualification was required in order to secure the right of suffrage. He 
belongs to the Masonic fraternity which he first joined in Cleveland, Ohio, 
January 24, 1850. The first marriage of Mr. Henry took place January 20, 1845, 
his bride being Miss Elizabeth Stannard, of Westbrook, Conn., who shared his 
fortunes until 1854, when death removed her from husband and family. She was 
the mother of five children, two of whom are yet living, their names being 
George W., and Jacob J., and both being residents of Joliet. On January 20, 
1856, Mr. Henry contracted a second matrimonial alliance, his companion being 
Miss Susan C. Shurts. This union has been blessed by the birth of seven 
children, of whom those named below are yet living. John is the general 
manager of the Hubbard Publishing Company in St. Louis, Mo.; Elmer is engaged 
in the crockery business in Joliet; Joseph E., is a furniture dealer of this 
city; Flora and Lillie remain with their parents.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Will County, Illinois, Containing Full Page 
Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens 
of the County; Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1890

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