Editing Henry County, Virginia (section)

==History==
[[File:Major John Redd.jpg|thumb|left|190px|Major John Redd, [[Continental Army]], pioneer settler of Henry County]]

The county was established in 1777 when it was carved from [[Pittsylvania County, Virginia|Pittsylvania County]]. The new county was initially named [[Patrick Henry County, Virginia|Patrick Henry County]] in honor of [[Patrick Henry]], who was then serving as the first [[List of Governors of Virginia|Governor of Virginia]], and some of whose relatives had settled in the area. Governor Henry also had a {{convert|10000|acre|km2|adj=on}} [[Plantations in the American South|plantation]] called "[[Leatherwood Plantation|Leatherwood plantation]]" (for Leatherwood Creek) in the newly named county (where he ended up spending 5 years between his third and fourth gubernatorial terms).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.myhenrycounty.com/leatherwood/patrickhenryleatherwood.php|title = Patrick Henry Leatherwood Plantation}}</ref><ref>[http://www.virginiaplaces.org/places/henry.html Places Associated with Patrick Henry, virginiaplaces.org]</ref><ref>[http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Henry/044-5172_Edgewood_2006_NRdraft.pdf National Register of Historic Places Form, dhr.virginia.gov]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.martinsville.com/tourism/index.cfm?topic=history&item=60&sub=20 |title=History, Martinsville and Henry County, Virginia, martinsville.com |access-date=September 5, 2008 |archive-date=October 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005015259/http://www.martinsville.com/tourism/index.cfm?topic=history&item=60&sub=20 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Henry County was never named Patrick Henry County according to ''The statutes at large; being a collection of all the laws of Virginia, from the first session of the Legislature in the year 1619. By William Waller Hening.'' In Volume 9, on pages 241 & 242, in the October 1776 session, it is stated: An act for dividing the county of Pittsylvania into two distinct counties....Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly of the commonwealth of Virginia, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That from and after the last day of December next ensuing the said county of Pittsylvania be divided into two counties, by a line beginning at the mouth of Blackwater, on Staunton river, and running parallel with the line of Halifax county, till it strikes the country line, and that all that part of the said county which lies to the westward of the said line shall be one distinct county, and called and known by the name of Henry, and that all the other part thereof which lies to the eastward of the said line shall be one other distinct county, and retain the name Pittsylvania. And for the administration of justice in the said county of Henry, Be it enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That after the said last day of December a court for the said county of Henry be held by the justices thereof upon the third Monday in every month, in such manner as by the laws of this state is provided, and shall be by their commissions directed....p.&nbsp;242....An act to establish the places of holding courts in the counties of Pittsylvania and Henry. For fixing the places of holding courts in the counties of Pittsylvania and Henry, Be it enacted, by the General Assembly of the commonwealth of Virginia, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That the justices to be names in the commission of the peace for the said counties of Pittsylvania and Henry, respectively, shall meet....

In 1785 the northern part of Patrick Henry County was combined with part of [[Bedford County, Virginia|Bedford County]] to form [[Franklin County, Virginia|Franklin County]]. In 1790, Patrick Henry County was split again: the western part became [[Patrick County, Virginia|Patrick County]] and the rest remained Henry County.

Other notable early settlers included: [[George Waller (colonel)|George Waller]],<ref>born in [[Stafford County, Virginia]], George Waller lived on his plantation at what was once known as Waller's Ford, today's [[Fieldale]]. He married Ann Winston (Carr) Waller, Patrick Henry's first cousin. Col. Waller's wife's sister was married to Col. Mordecai Hord. [http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Henry/044-5172_Edgewood_2006_NRdraft.pdf] Col. George Waller's daughter, Mary Winston Carr Waller, married Major John Redd of the Continental Army.</ref> [[Captain (land)|Captain]] [[George Hairston]] and [[Major (rank)|Major]] John Redd,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=hBwLAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22general+joseph+martin%22&pg=PA1 General Joseph Martin, by John Redd, Publications of the Southern History Association, Vol. VII, No. 1, January 1903, Washington, D.C.]</ref> all of whom were present at the surrender of [[General Cornwallis]] at [[Yorktown, Virginia|Yorktown]]; Col. [[Abram Penn]], a native of [[Amherst County, Virginia]], who led his Henry County [[Militia (United States)|militia troops]] with the intention of joining General [[Nathanael Greene]] at the [[Battle of Guilford Courthouse]] during the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]];<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=12H2EVqQc2QC&dq=penn+%22drysdale+parish%22&pg=PA126 Lord Dunmore's Little War of 1774, Warren Skidmore, Donna Kaminsky, Heritage Books, 2002]</ref> and [[Brigadier General]] [[Joseph Martin (general)|Joseph Martin]], for whom Martinsville is named.<ref>[http://www.virginia.org/wildernessroad/wrcommunity.asp?community=23 Henry County, The Carolina Road, virginia.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090813090133/http://virginia.org/wildernessroad/wrCommunity.asp?community=23 |date=August 13, 2009 }}</ref> Also prominent were Mordecai Hord, a native of [[Louisa County, Virginia|Louisa County]] and explorer, who lived on his plantation called ''Hordsville'';<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=VztVAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22colonel+george+waller%22+henry+county&pg=PA24 Thomas Hord, Gentleman, Arnold Harris Hord, Thomas Hord, Philadelphia, 1903]</ref> and Col. John Dillard, born in [[Amherst County, Virginia]] in 1751, wounded at the [[Battle of Princeton]] during the Revolution, and later a member of the [[Committee of Safety (American Revolution)|Committee of Safety]]. Captain [[Robert Hairston]], a noted politician in the [[Colony of Virginia]], owned [[Marrowbone plantation]], commanded a militia company and served as Henry County's first high sheriff.

During the [[War of 1812]], the 64th Virginia Militia, under Captain Graves, was formed in 1815 from Henry County. [[Benjamin Dyer]] was a lieutenant, then later a captain, of the 5th company of the 64th Virginia Militia. Private [[Alexander Hunter Bassett]] would later work large tobacco plantations in the county, and Wyatt Jarrett. Tavner Hailey (b.1793) of Martinsville became an early pioneer in Tennessee and served in the War of 1812. He was 1st Cpl. in Captain Brice Edward's Company, 64th Regiment, Virginia Militia."<ref>[http://www.oocities.org/heartland/fields/7126/gen/Hailey.html Hailey Family]</ref>

During the [[American Civil War]], the [[42nd Virginia Infantry]] was formed in part from Henry County volunteers. Its state senator, [[Christopher Thomas|Christopher Y. Thomas]], owned Henry's former Leatherwood plantation and would later briefly serve in the U.S. House of Representatives after the war. He was succeeded by [[George Cabell]], a Confederate army veteran ([[38th Virginia Infantry]]) born in nearby [[Danville, Virginia|Danville]] and from a family long prominent in the area.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brock |first=Robert Alonzo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fJJLAAAAYAAJ&dq=john+w.+carter+virginia&pg=PA599 |title=Virginia and Virginians: Eminent Virginians : Executives of the Colony of Virginia, from Sir Thomas Smyth to Lord Dunmore :executives of the State of Virginia, from Patrick Henry to Fitzhugh Lee : Sketches of Gens. Ambrose Powel Hill, Robert E. Lee, Thos. Jonathan Jackson, Commodore Maury |date=1888 |publisher=H.H. Hardesty |language=en}}</ref>

In 1902, the Henry County Historical Society was incorporated at Martinsville with its first officers being John W. Carter, J. Harrison Spencer and C. B. Bryant.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=7Q8SAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22j.+harrison+spencer%22+martinsville&pg=PA708 Acts and Joint Resolutions , Passed by the General Assembly, of the State of Virginia, During the Session of 1901–2, J. H. O'Hannon, Superintendent of Public Printing, Richmond, 1902]</ref>