Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/164

 Mchenry

Mchenry

He joined the Continental army under Washing- ton in the latter part of 1775, as an assistant sur- geon, and in January, 1776, was in attendance at the American hospital, Cambridge. Mass. He was commissioned by congress medical director ; was made surgeon of the 5th Pennsylvania battalion, Col. Robert Magaw, Aug. 10, 1776, and was recom- mended by congress, Oct. 26, 1776, to an appoint- ment to the first vacancy in a surgeon's berth in any of the government hospitals. He was taken prisoner m)on the capture, of Fort Washington, N.Y., in November, 1776, was released on parole, Jan. 27. 1777, and was exchanged March 5, 1778. He served as a secretary on the staff of Gen. Washington from May 15, 1778, until August, 1780, when he was assigned to the staff of Gen. Lafayette, as aide-de-camp, and served until the close of the war. He was with Lafayette when Arnold's treason was discovered, and made Wash- ington's apologias to Mrs. Arnold for delaying breakfast on the morning of Sept. 24. 1780, when Arnold was riding to reach the British line. He wsLH promoted major, May 30, 1781, his commis- sion to date from October, 1780. He was a mem- ber of the Maryland senate, 1781-86 ; delegate from Maryland to the Continental congress, 1783- 86, and to the convention that framed the consti- tution of the United States in 1787, and a member of the Maryland convention which ratified the constitution in April, 1788. He was a member of the house of delegates of Maryland, 1788-91 ; state senator, 1791-96, and was appointed by President Washington in January, 1796, secretary of war to fill the vacancy caused by the promotion of Timothy Pickering to the office of secretary of state. He placed the country in readiness for war during his secretaryship, which extended into President Adams's administration by building frigates, armories and arsenals, and by establishing the U.S. Military academy at West Point, N.Y. He resigned the secretaryship in May, 1800, and retired from public life. Fort McHenry, commanding Baltimore harbor, was named in his honor. He was married, Jan. 8, 1784, to Margaret, daughter of David Caldwell of Philadelphia, Pa. He was president of the Mary- land Bible society in 1813. He published : A Directory of the City of Baltimore, Md. (1807), and The Three Patriots (1811), which portrayed the characters of Jefferson, Madison and Monroe. He died in Baltimore, Md., May 3, 1816.

McHENRY, James, author, was born in Larne, county Antrim, Ireland, Dec. 20, 1785. His father, a merchant, died when James was a boy. He was graduated from the University of Dublin and received a diploma from the college at Glas- gow, Scotland. He settled in the practice of medicine in Larne, Ireland, and from there re- moved to Belfast. He immigrated to the United

States with his wife and family and was in Balti- more, Md., 1818; Butler county. Pa., 1819-24; Pittsburg, Pa., 1824-26, and settled in Philadel- phia, where he practised medicine and carried on a dry -goods business, which was superintended by his wife, 1826-40. He was U.S. consul at Londonderry, 1842-45. After 1848 he devoted himself to literary work, and his residence at 36 South Second street, Philadelphia, was the haunt of literary men. He edited the AiJierican Monthly Magazine, for which he wrote " O'Hal- loran or the Insurgent, a Romance of the Irish Rebellion." He is the author of : Tlie Pleasure of Fnendship, poems (1823); Waltham, an Amer ican Revolutionary Tale in Tliree Cantos (1823); Jackson's Wreath, poem (1829) ; TTie Antedilu- vians, or the World Destroyed, a narrative poem (1840); The Wilderness, or Braddock's Times, a Tale of the West (2 vols., 1823); A Spectre of the Forest, or Annals of the Housatonic, (2 vols., 1823) ; Tlie Hearts of Steel, an Irish Historical Tale of the Last Century (2 vols., 1825); The Betrothed of Wyoming (2d ed., 1830); Mei-edith, or the Mystery of the Mescheanza, a Tale of the Revolution {1831); and Hie Usurper, an Irish his- torical tragedj' in five acts (1829). He died in Philadelphia, Pa., July 21, 1845.

McHENRY, John Hardin, representative, wa.s born in Washington county, Ky., Oct. 13, 1797 ; son of the Rev. Barnabas and Sarah (Hardin) McHenry, and grandson of the Rev. Francis Mc- Henry, who came from Ireland, settled in New Jersey and preached in Virginia, and of Col. John and Jane (Daviess) Hardin. He was educated for the law and became prominent at the bar ; was a member of the state legislature from Ohio county, 1840, and a Whig representative from the second Kentucky district in the 28th and 29th congresses, 1843-47. He also represented Ohio and Hancock counties in the state constitu- tional convention in 1849. His eldest son, Henry D. McHenry, was a representative from his county in the state legislature ; a member of the state senate ; a representative in the 42d congress, 1871-73, and a member of the state constitutional convention of 1891. He was also district delegate "to several Democratic national conventions, and for a number of years a member of the national executive committee. Another eon. Col. John Hardin McHenry, commanded the 17th Kentucky volunteers in the U.S. army, 1861-62, gaining distinction at the battle of Fort Donelson, and was dismissed from the U.S. service, Dec. 9, 1862, for issuing an order returning slaves to their masters from his camp in violation of an addi- tional article of war. A third son, W. Estell McHenry, represented Daviess county in the Ken- tucky legislature. John Hardin McHenry died in Owensboro, Ky., Nov. 1, 1871.