Bio of HENRY, Francis Maxwell (b.1866), Hennepin Co., MN
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EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; 
Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. 
Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); 
volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical

FRANCIS MAXWELL HENRY - Vol II, pg 213-214
Francis M. Henry supplemented his early educational advantages by a course of
Lumber Exchange building, has been a resident of this city at different times
since the year 1894 and enjoys high standing in his profession. He makes a
specialty of investigating and reporting on properties. His birth occurred in
Orange, New Jersey, on the 20th of May, 1866, his parents being Evan J. and Lucy
Maxwell (Rigg) Henry, the former of Princeton, New Jersey, and the latter a
native of Kirkcudbright, Scotland. The father came of Scotch and Welsh
parentage.
Francis M. Henry supplemented his early educational advantages by a course of
study in Princeton University, in which institution he prepared for a
professional career and received the degree of C. E. During the succeeding nine
years he was employed as a civil engineer on the Pennsylvania railroad, with
offices in Jersey City, but resigned his position on account of insufficient
work during the panic of 1893 and became identified with the Brooklyn waterworks
on construction. Later he engaged in the private practice of civil engineering
and many important engineering works have been carried out by him. He designed
and built the first concrete dam in the United States in connection with the
waterworks system at Coldspring-on-Hudson, New York, for which he was the
engineer.
The year 1895 witnessed the arrival of Mr. Henry in Minneapolis, where he built
the first concrete foundations in the city for the Groveland apartments at Nos.
53 to 75 North Lyndale avenue. He advocated that Minneapolis obtain its water
supply from the admirable artesian basin beneath the city, and failing to get
the city to undertake this project, in association with P. and J. Conlan of
Newark, New Jersey, he made a formal proposition to build and install sufficient
artesian wells to furnish thirty million gallons of water daily at the suction
cylinders of the pumping plants existing at that time, for a period of ten
years, in consideration of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars cash and
guaranteeing the performance of the same by a surety company's bond for the full
amount. Mr. Henry also conceived and originated the plan for diverting Bassett's
creek from Medicine lake so as to have it flow through Cedar lake, Lake of the
Isles, Calhoun, Harriet, Minnehaha Creek and over the Falls of Minnehaha to the
Mississippi river. The first washed sand and gravel plant in the state was built
and operated by Mr. Henry, who introduced this material, getting the product
firmly on the market and displacing the soft, easily disintegrating limestone
found in the vicinity of Minneapolis. As above stated, he is a consulting
engineer who makes a specialty of investigating and reporting on properties and
his reputation in this particular is a most enviable one, his opinions being
largely accepted as authority. He is a member of the American Society of Civil
Engineers and the Federated Societies of Architects and Engineers in Minnesota.
Fraternally Mr. Henry is identified with the Masonic order, in which he has
attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and has crossed the sands
of the desert with the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of the
Minneapolis Athletic Club, also belongs to the Nassau Club of Princeton, New
Jersey, and enjoys an extensive acquaintance in both social and professional
circles here.