George McHenry

George Austin McHenry (April 30, 1858 - October 11, 1931) was an American military officer, Mississippi pioneer, physician, and entrepreneur. George Austin McHenry was born April 30, 1858, in Seneca County, Ohio to Cornelius and Rebecca McHenry. He received his early education in Ohio and Indiana, and studied at the University of Michigan. In 1881, McHenry married Eunice Whitaker at Angola, Indiana, with whom he had one child, Floyd Whitaker McHenry, born in 1891. The couple lived in Big Rapids, Michigan, where they owned and operated a pharmacy. In 1889, McHenry, his wife, and fifty-four families moved from Michigan to Mississippi in search of Homestead Land in the northern portion of Harrison County, near the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad, which was under construction between Gulfport and Hattiesburg. The location they selected became known as the Michigan Settlement, where McHenry and his wife built a General store to service the families and the booming lumber town that developed. When a Post Office opened, it was established under the name McHenry in honor of the settlement’s founder. In 1893, George McHenry obtained his Doctor of Medicine degree from Louisville Medical College and attended Tulane University to become a surgeon. In 1895, he and his wife began construction of a new home in McHenry. George McHenry's home is on the National Register of Historic Places in Stone County.