Kentucky: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 5th ed., 
1887, Woodford Co.

CAPT. WILLIAM HENRY.  The family of which Capt. William Henry is a
representative is of Irish extraction.  His grandfather, Zachariah
Henry, emigrated from Virginia during the early settlement of Kentucky, 
and settled with his family in Woodford County, where he was engaged in 
farming until his death in 1828.  He married Lucy Kirtley, of Culpeper 
County, Va., by whom he had a large family of children, the eldest of 
whom was Newton, who, like his father, was a farmer.  Newton Henry 
married Lavinia Brown, whose parents also emigrated from Virginia in 
the early history of Kentucky and settled in Franklin County, near 
Frankfort.  The marriage of Newton Henry to Lavinia Brown was blessed 
with nine children, the eighth of whom is Capt. William Henry, the 
subject of this sketch.  His father, Newton Henry, having died in 1846, 
when William was but six years old, he, one brother and three sisters 
were left to the sole care of a widowed mother, whose means were so 
limited that the education and support of her children were subjects of 
much anxiety to her in her declining years.  She seemed determined, 
however, that William should receive a collegiate education, and 
accordingly placed him, when a small boy, at the celebrated school of 
B. B. Sayre, at Frankfort.  To show the perfect obedience of the boy to
the wishes of his mother, and the difficulties under which he labored 
to secure an education, it is only necessary to state the fact that 
during his four years' attendance at this school he walked nine miles a 
day, to and from school.  So formidable an obstacle to the securing of 
an education in this day would prove an insurmountable barrier to 
youthful ambition.  After four years of preparation at this school he 
entered the junior class at Centre College, Danville, in 1857, and 
graduated in 1859 among the honored of his class.  Soon after 
graduating, at the age of nineteen, he engaged in teaching in Woodford 
County, with the intention of adopting the profession of law; but the 
beginning of war between the States prevented, for a time at least, the 
accomplishment of his aim, and like thousands of other young Kentuckians
possessing a deep sympathy for the Southern cause, he left his home when
scarcely of age and enlisted as a private in the Southern army, then 
encamped at Bowling Green, under Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner.  He served 
through the war with honor to himself, and returned, at its close, to 
his native county of Woodford, and in the fall of 1865 again opened, in 
the town of Versailles, a classical and mathematical school for boys 
and young men.  His whole soul was in his profession from the beginning,
and consequently the fame of his school soon reached beyond the limits 
of his county, and continued to increase until his skill as an
accomplished educator has extended into other States.  Hundreds of young
men all over the country, who are now successfully filling responsible
positions in all the vocations of life, delight to honor the school
where the foundation of a manly and cultured character was successfully 
laid.  Capt. Henry was married on the 10th of March, 1868, to Josephine 
K. Williamson, daughter of Euclid and Mary K. Williamson, of Newport, 
Ky.; and on January 15, 1869, was born their only child, Fred W. Henry, 
who, having spent nine years under his father's training, is now just 
entering manhood.

Henry Kirtley Brown Sayre Williamson Buckner
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Culpeper-VA Franklin-KY Danville-Boyle-KY Newport-Kenton-KY