Columbia County PA Archives Biographies.....McHENRY, James Boyd 1851 - living in 1899
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  Author: Biographical Publishing Co.
  
  JAMES BOYD McHENRY, ex-sheriff of Columbia County and one of the valued citizens
  of Benton, who is highly respected for his many sterling qualities, was born in
  Greenwood township, Columbia County, Pa., February 8, 1851, and is a son of
  Benjamin and Lovinia (Conner) Mc-Henry, grandson of Daniel and Mary (Coleman)
  McHenry, and great-grandson of Daniel and Mary (Stephen) McHenry.
  
    Daniel McHenry, great-grandfather of our subject, was of sturdy Scotch-Irish
  descent and was one of the pioneer settlers of Columbia County. With an ax and
  provisions for six months he left his home and came to the county and took up a
  claim of several hundred acres of land in Fishing Creek township, which is now
  the property of his grandson, Daniel McHenry. He felled trees and built a log
  cabin, and then returned to his former residence and brought his family to their
  new home. He cleared a part of the farm and then engaged in the tilling of the
  soil. He was married to Mary Stephen, who bore him the following children:
  Benjamin; Mattie; Daniel; John, who was the first male child born in his section
  of the county; Moses; and Elias.
  
    Daniel McHenry, the grandfather of our subject, was born in Chillisquaque,
  Pa., and when he grew to manhood he purchased of his father one hundred acres of
  the original homestead and there carried on farming the rest of his active days.
  He passed from this life on his birthday, aged seventy-nine years, and was the
  grand-and great-grandfather of seventy-two children. He was wedded to Mary
  Coleman, a daughter of Benjamin Cole-man, a native of New York State. Eleven
  children blessed their home, who were named as follows: Betsey; Sally; Benjamin;
  Polly; William; Adeline; Mary; Moses; Uriah; Joseph; and Charlotte. Mrs. McHenry
  died at the advanced age of seventy-nine years.
  
    Benjamin McHenry, father of our subject, was born in Fishing Creek township,
  May 13, 1812, and is-the oldest McHenry living today. He has been a farmer by
  occupation, and has spent his whole life on the farm engaged in agricultural
  labors. He was very successful in his chosen occupation and was always
  considered to be one of the leading men of his community. He acquired a liberal
  education in the common schools and then purchased a farm in Greenwood township
  consisting of sixty acres of well-improved land, which he still owns. He also
  operated a threshing machine for twenty-six years in which he was very
  successful. A man of iron constitution, it is said that he has whip-sawed more
  timber than any one man who ever resided in Columbia County. He chose for his
  life-companion Lovinia Conner, a daughter of Thomas Conner, a well-to-do farmer
  of Greenwood township. She passed from this life February 14, 1885, aged seventy
  years. To Mr. and Mrs. McHenry were born the following children: Montville, a
  practicing physician of Exchange, Pa.; Alfred, a blacksmith, residing in
  Cambria, Pa.; Norman, a prominent farmer residing in Columbia County; Thomas C.,
  deceased, who was a physician; Mary, deceased, who was the wife of M. Smith,
  also deceased; James Boyd, whose name heads the above lines; Lloyd, deceased;
  and Alveretta, deceased. Our subject's father is grand-and great-grandfather of
  fifty children, all of whom are still living. Mr. McHenry, to whom an
  exceedingly old age has come, and yet who lives with as bright an eye and with
  faculties as clear and unimpaired as in the days of yore, is one of the most
  widely-known and highly-respected residents of Greenwood township. He is now on
  the sunny western slope of life, surrounded by friends of the present and the
  dear memories of the past, and is filling out a life that has been of use and
  advantage to himself and everyone who has come within the circle of his good
  influence.
  
    James Boyd McHenry was educated in the Greenwood Seminary and at the age of
  eighteen years he went to Cambria, where he learned the trade of a blacksmith.
  He then located in Roaring Creek; later in Benton, where he continued to follow
  his trade until 1894, when he was elected sheriff of Columbia County, serving
  until 1898. For eleven years our subject was associated with William Appleman in
  the manufacture of wagons. Later, with his brother Thomas C., he built the
  McHenry hotel, which was destroyed by fire in 1896. Our subject immediately
  rebuilt the hotel into a handsome three-story structure, 42 by 80 feet; he also
  built two large dwellings, which he rents. He owns a farm of one hundred and
  five acres near the town of Benton.
  
    Mr. McHenry formed a matrimonial alliance with Maria Moore, a daughter of
  George Moore, a resident of Sugarloaf township, Columbia County. Four children
  have been born to our subject and his wife, as follows: Annetta, wife of W. N.
  Kline, and having one child, Boyd; Rebecca and Lloyd C., who are attending
  school; and T. C., who died aged six and one-half years. Socially our subject is
  a member of the I. O. O. F. of Benton.
  
  
  Additional Comments:
  Extracted from:
  
  Book of Biographies of the Seventeenth Congressional District
  Published by 
  Biographical Publishing Company of Chicago, Ill. and Buffalo, NY (1899)
  
  
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