Hoodenpyl, Margaret Frances

Margaret Frances Hoodenpyl Pickett
Sequatchie County, Tennessee

John Ransom Henry served in the Civil War
in the 4th Tennessee Cavalry, Co. K.
 Enlisted 27 Apr 1864 in Dunlap, TN.
 Records state he was 5' 9" Tall -
Complexion: Dark - Eyes: Black - Hair: Black. 

Family Pictures
~Courtesy: Jan Foreman~

John Ransom Henry &
Louisiana Pickett Henry

John Ransom & Louisiana Pickett Henry & 3 Children:
(children, l to r)
Margaret Elizabeth, Iva Lucille & Willie Allen (child in arms)
Sequatchie County, Tennessee abt. 1904 - 1905

John Ransom & Louisiana "Lou" Pickett Henry & Kids
(l to r) Gladys Navaline (baby), Eula Mae, Ruby Thelma, Margaret Elizabeth,
Iva Lucille, Willie Allen, David Clyde (youngest son)
Picture made about 1918 

   Canyon, Texas Newspaper Article - Date Unknown
  Article written by Earl Moseley - Globe-News Staff Writer
 Interview with David Clyde Henry

   John R. Henry considered his joining the Union Army during the Civil War
better than remaining in Tennessee as a Civilian.  He said the army was a safe
place to be at that time, recalls his son, Clyde Henry of 1900 Sixth Ave.,
Canyon.  "Thieves, robbers and outlaws were roaming the country then - killing,
robbing and stealing."
   While his father was in the army, said Henry, "he got a hole shot in his
coattail.  It was sticking out behind him at the time, he told me."  The 73-year-old
Henry, a longtime resident of Muleshoe who now repairs antique clocks and sells
real eastate in Canyon, say his father was 16 when he was discharged from the
army on July 12, 1865, at Nashville, Tenn.  The discharge papers he still retains
list his father as 18.
   "He lied about his age.  So many did.  My father was born Sept. 4, 1848 in
Marion County, Tenn.," he said.
   "I was born in 1910.  He was 64 then.  He told me war stories when I was young,
but I didn't pay much attention to them.  He regrets his inattention now, he says.
But he's making up for it by researching the Henry family history.
   "I'm going back and getting all the records I can get," he says.  "There's still
a lot of checking to do.  A lot are tall stories no one would believe.  But I have
checked some of these out to be true."
   Parts that he can believe include an incident which occurred about 1888, when
his father, a longtime groceryman, owned a store in Tennessee.
   "Some drinking and fighting started there.  He had to throw one of the men out
the back door.   On his way home after dark - he lived some distance from the
store - he was shot with a shotgun.  He turned to see where the fire was coming
from and got hit in the other side.  He fired back but thought it was too high to
hit anything."
   A doctor picked only some of the shot from his father's body, say Henry.
   "One shot worked its way to the surface and was removed when he was near 80.
Some was still under his skin when he died at 84."
   Henry, born Sept. 22, 1910 near Dunlap, Tenn., was named for an uncle.
   "When I was two days old, my dad and Uncle Dave Pickett, my mother's brother,
were building a rock chimney.  A rock fell and hit my uncle in the head and killed
him.  I was named David Clyde Henry, although I have always gone by Clyde David
Henry."
   In 1952, he visited the place where his uncle was killed.
   "The chimney and rock fence were still there," he said.  "I also visited the
Pickett Cemetery and found my uncle's name on the tombstone.  He died Sept. 24,
1910."
   But Henry has been unable to identify the graves of his father, mother or his
father's brother.
   No one knows what happened to my grandfather," he said.  "Some reports say he
was a Cherokee Indian.  My dad's story is that my grandfather took him and his
brother down to a store on some river and bought them some candy, which was
very unusual.  Granddad crossed a river to a settlement that was having some
trouble.  That was the last time they saw him."
   His grandfather may have been an Indian scout or some kind of law enforcement
officer.
   "I have no information as to what happened to his mother at this time.  His
brother was connected with law enforcement.  He started into a building to arrest
a fellow and was killed with an ax as he went in the doorway."
   John R. Henry married his first wife in July 1866.  The couple had 10 children
prior to their divorce about 1891 at Huntsville, Ark.  He moved to Indian Territory
about 1890 and lived near Paul's Valley, Okla., in 1893.
   He married Lou Pickett July 12, 1897, at Dunlap, Tenn.  Nine children came of
this marriage, including Clyde Henry.  Five are still living in Oklahoma, Georgia
and Texas.  Two are older than Henry and the other two are younger.
   "People look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them my father fought in the Civil
War," he says.
   But Henry has retained his father's veteran's pension record.  Payments began
at $14 per month after his discharge and gradually grew to $100 monthly at the
time of his death.
   Clyde Henry married Nellie Mae Bostick on Nov. 14, 1929 at Purcell, Okla.
They had seven children.  All graduated from Muleshoe High School.
   Johnny Henry, named for his grandfather, is now in the real estate business in
Canyon.  Eugene Henry is a brand inspector in Amarillo for Southwestern Cattle
Growers Association.  Kenneth Henry sells insurance and real estate at Muleshoe.
Earl Henry is in the construction business at Levelland.  Edith Goss of Austin with
Internal Revenue Service 30 years.  Shirley Hyde is in advertising and real estate
at Shreveport, La.  Doyle Henry is dead.
   They also have 17 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
   Clyde Henry quit school in 1926 and went to Cromwell, Okla., during an oil boom.
   "I got a job, but had to have a minor's release signed by my parents before I could
work," he said.
   Henry moved his family to Lubbock County in 1937 and to Bailey County in 1942,
where they farmed.  From 1964 to 1969, he operated the Highland Motel in
Muleshoe.   He then moved to Austin where he was employed in the Brackenridge
Hospital maintenance department five years.  He retired and moved to Canyon in
1975.
   "God has been good to us in raising our family," he says.  "My wife has done a
great job in keeping us going.  We're thankful to the Lord for His help.  We
couldn't have done it without His blessings."

Autobiography by
Margaret Elizabeth Henry

                                                       Written  about 1977

 "John Ransom Henry was born on September 4, 1848.  Lou Ann Pickett was born on November 12,
1876.  John and Lou were married on July 22, 1897.
   I was born on August 8, 1898 to John and Lou, in the town of Daus, Tennessee.  We lived in a house
in the woods of Sequatchie County not far from Walden Ridge.  On November 9, 1899, another girl,
Martha Jane was born.
   When Martha was about a year old we were playing when Biddy, the pet chicken, ran into the
fireplace.  I ran out on the front porch to call Ma and Dad.  "Biddy's in the fire!  Biddy's in the fire!"
I called.  Thinking I was saying, "The baby's in the fire," they came running.  They were relieved to
know that it wasn't the baby who was in the fire, but the poor chicken was dead.
   A few weeks later Martha and I were playing on a quilt near the fireplace.  I got tangled in the quilt
and my hand fell into the fire.  Ma quickly jerked it out and knocked off a piece of coal.  A colored
woman came and drew the fire out, then I kept a bandage on it until it got well.
   When Martha was seventeen months old she began to get sick.  The doctor said she had a disease
called spinal meningitis.  On July 15, 1901 little Martha died.  She was buried in a cemetery in Daus.
   On October 2, 1901 Ma, once again, had a girl.  She was named Iva Lucille.  On October 19, 1903
Ma had her first son, Willie Allen.
   When I was seven my father moved the family from Daus to Wanette, Oklahoma.  For the first time
we rode a train.  Our first stop was in Birmingham, Alabama.  In the depot there was an old coal stove.
It was a hard job to keep Willie, who was just learning to walk, from bumping into it.  From there we
went to Little Rock, Arkansas.  After the stop at Little Rock we traveled to Wanette.
   When we arrived in Wanette, we stayed with Dad's daughter (by a previous marriage), Dutch
Northcross.  Dutch had a grandson, Willie McCoy, the son of George and Dolly McCoy.
   Willie, the same age I was, had a little wagon.  He didn't want me to play with it so he put it on top
of the house, where he thought I couldn't get to it.  I managed to get to it anyway!  When he
discovered I had it he threw a rock and hit me on the nose.  After the bleeding ceased, Willie and I
"ceased" to play together.
   Dad put up a little room near Dutch's house.  We lived there and made a crop of cotton.  When the
cotton was harvested Dad sold it and the house, too.  He used the money to buy a wagon and two blue
ponies.  We loaded our belongings and started back to Tennessee.
   In Ozark, Arkansas the weather began to get extremely cold.  We built a fire to get us warm, then
traveled on.  Within thirty miles of where my grandmother, Margaret Hudenpyle-Pickett lived, we
ran out of food and money.  (Dad hadn't yet started to draw money from the government.")
   We camped on the side of the road for the night.  A man came by and began talking to Dad.  They
decided to trade horses.  Dad got a little money in the deal, too.  We moved along and at the first
store we came to, Dad bought some food.  After we had eaten we moved on to Grandma's house.  We
spent the night at her house and in the morning Dad went to see about the horses.  The one he had
traded for was dead.
   We lived with Grandma until Dad found us a house.  The one he found was old, had only two rooms
and a fireplace.  Dad worked at odd jobs such as cutting wood and cross ties and making syrup.  In
the mean time he was building a small store.
   By this time I was ten and going to school.  (Grades one through six were taught in one room.)
After I had gone there three weeks Ma had another baby.  Ruby Thelma was born on October 2,
1907, from then on I had to stay home and help Ma with the baby.
   We lived there until our house burnt.  We lost everything we had, except Dad's shotgun.  When
he saw that the house was burning he grabbed the gun, ran outside and shot it three times to let
everyone know that there was a fire.  Ma grabbed Ruby in a quilt and the rest of us ran out.  She
took us way off in the yard, by the time she got back the house had fallen in.
   After this we moved into the little store that Dad had built.  Later we started building another
house.  While we were building the house Ma had a boy, David Clyde, he was born on September 22,
1910.
   Even with my help it took Dad a year to build the house.  He could only work in his spare time
since he had the store to look after, but finally it was built and we moved in.  The only things we had
to put in it were things we had gotten from our neighbors and friends.
   By then I was twelve and though there were four children in school, I still couldn't go.  On
September 26, 1912, Ma had a girl.  The name Eula Mae was given to her.  When Eula was two
months old Dad left us and went to Shawnee, Oklahoma.  (He had been selling bootleg beer and was
running from the law.)  When he got there he sent for us.  Ma packed all she could get on the train
and we left.
   We met Dad in Shawnee and from there we went to Wanette.  In Wanette he had rented a house
from a man named Dan Kessler.  This was a house that had been made as a storm cellar.  Now
there was a room built onto the front of it.  We lived there, half in the ground and half out, and made
a crop of cotton and corn.  Dad and I cut logs to build another house.  I was sixteen at the time.
   After the crop was in Dad got another covered wagon.  We put all our things in it and started
back to Tennessee.  There was no special reason for us leaving.  Dad just had rambling in his mind.
   We traveled all around in Oklahoma and Arkansas.  When we found a good place to camp we'd try
to find work there.  In the winter months we cut timber and cleared land.  In the summer we worked
on farms hoeing corn or picking cotton.  Once I picked blackberries from the woods.  Then I sold
them for fifteen cents a gallon.
   After we were on the road six months Dad began to draw a war pension (he fought in the Civil
War.)  He received fifty dollars every three months.  We had to stop for a month to wait for his
check, then we would move to a place where we could find work.  This went on for almost a year.  Ma
and some of us kids got sick with the fever.  We had to camp for a while.  It came a cold spell and
wind storm.  Not being able to get a fire started we had to get in the wagon and wrap up.  The only
heat we had was from Dad's lantern.
   The next morning we went to Stonewall, Arkansas and stayed in a wagon yard.  There we camped
until the weather got warm enough for us to travel.  After a few days on the road we came upon
another camping place and rested, for we were all tired and worn out.  One or two had the fever
again.
   When we got to Ozark again Dad asked us what we wanted to do - go back to Wanette or on to
Tennessee.  (We didn't like Ozark.)  Deciding to back to Wanette, we got as far as Eufala,
Oklahoma and Ma got sick.  She had a miscarriage.  It came a big snow, too, so we camped for a
while.  The next morning we found one of our horses dead.  We were stranded there, without
anyway or anywhere to go.  We were there quite a while before we realized we were close to
another family.  They found us and saw that we needed help.  There was a man, his wife, a boy, and
a girl.  They gave us all the firewood we needed and a wagon sheet so we could cook out of the rain.
   We were there Christmas Day.  The lady cooked our dinner and brought it to us, for Ma was still
in bed.  Dad called to Wanette to his son, George Henry (Dutch's brother).  He wanted George to
bring us another wagon and extra horses.  We arrived in Wanette on New Year's Day, 1914.  We
had been on the road a year, a month, and thirteen days.  All of us were worn out and sick, too.
   There was an old, Indian man who let us live in his cabin until we found a house we wanted.  The
one we found had eighty acres of land.  At this house on June 6, 1918, Gladys Navalin was born.
We all lived there until we were grown and five of us were married.
   Ma, Dad, Eula, and Gladys moved to Wamega, Oklahoma.  Wamega was an oil field town between
Asher and Shawnee, Oklahoma.  There Dad put another small grocery store.  He was close to
seventy-nine years old then.
   John R. Heny died on April 23, 1932 at the age of eighty-four.  Ma, Eula, and Gladys were left."