HENRY TOWNSHIP, VERNON COUNTY, MISSOURI

 

Henry Township is located in the northwest corner of Vernon County, bounded on the north by Bates County, MO; on the east by Metz Township, Vernon County; on the south by Richland Township, Vernon County; and on the west by Kansas.
 

History of Vernon County, 1887, pPage 12:  Henry Township.—A Fertile Prairie Magnificently Improved. Oil, Gas and Coal. Pioneer Days. Fails Store. War Incidents. Stotesbury. Hoover.

 

From the 1887 History of Vernon County:  "Peter Duncan was probably the first settler in what is now Henry township.  In the year 1839 he located nearly two miles north of the Osage, on the east side of the creek which bears his name (se. 1/2 sec. 5), where was afterward Duncan Creek post-office.  [Duncan Creek Post Office: 1870-1878.]  Here he resided for many years, at last selling the land to James Lawrence.  Mr. Duncan is yet living, a resident of Bates county.  During the Civil War, he was a Confederate soldier, and at the battle of Prairie Grove, Ark., was badly wounded by a saber stroke; from the effects of this would he has never entirely recovered.

     Wm. Bartlett came from White county, Tenn., in the spring of 1942, to the central part of section 15; N. R. Marchbanks came from Overton county, Tenn., to the same section May 9, 1841.  Mr. Bartlett died in 1864.  Mr. Marchbanks died in Lawrence county, Mo., in 1872, aged 68 years; he had removed to Nebraska in 1863, and lived there until the spring of 1866; he was a justice of the peace of this township before the war.

     Wm. Barnes came from Jackson county in about 1939 and settled on Duncan's creek, in section 8, south of Peter Duncan's claim.  Barnes was the contractor that constructed the U.S. military road from Ft. Leavenworth to Ft. Scott.  While executing his contract he visited this country on a hunting expedition and was so delighted with it that he determined to make it his home.  He died in Kansas many years ago.  Daniel Smith settled half a mile southwest of Barnes, and west of Duncan's creek, in 1839, and died there.

      Henry Jent settled on Duncan's creek in sw. 1/4 sec. 32-38-33, in 1844, the year of the high waters.  Joseph P. Avery came to the ne. part of section 8, a little south of Duncan's, in 1850.  There were very few settlers in the township besides those named until after the year 1850, when a few others came in.  During the Kansas troubles this section was in a constant state of excitement and alarm, and settlement and immigration were as effectually checked as they were a few years later by the Civil War.

     A man named Wm. B. Fail established a store on the Kansas line, just in the edge of the Osage bottom, in about 1856.  It was a huge log building -- a fortress as well as a storehouse.  Fail's customers were from both sides.  Kansas jayhawkers and Missouri border ruffians met here on neutral ground and bought their supplies, all in a friendly way, without collision, and without collusion either.  Fail died in 1859, and Capt. Staples' Vernon county company was stationed here during the famous Southwest Expedition, from November, 1860, to May 1861.

     David Cruise, after leaving Metz township, settled in this township, south of the Osage, on section 21, northeast of Hoover, and it was here that he was killed by John Brown's "liberators," in 1858, as narrated elsewhere."

 

Page 374:  And now as to Henry township. J. M. Turley, who lives in section 34, township 37, range 33 (Henry township), struck gas at 170 feet and has piped it to his house and has been burning it for fuel and lighting for the past two years. This well when first struck had a thirty-pound rock pressure and has increased to a forty-six pound pressure. This is the first practical use of natural gas in the county.

 

 

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