Born: Culpeper, County, Va., 1805.Died: Shelbyville, Ill., 1879.
Born: Culpeper, County, Va., 1805.
Died: Shelbyville, Ill., 1879.
Became a member of the Baptist Church at the age of nineteen and soon after began to preach. Came from Tennessee to Shelby County, Ill., in the fall of 1830. His ministry among the Baptists there was fruitful, resulting in the formation of several congregations. In 1832 he began to preach clearly three things: "The Bible as an infallible guide, baptism for the remission of sins, no name but Scriptural names for the followers of Christ to wear." In reaching these conclusions, his son, J. O. Henry, testified that his father was helped by no human being except his wife. Sympathizers with the views of Mr. Henry early began to be called "The Henry Party." These questions were debated until in 1834, when Mr. Henry and his friends were summarily excluded from the Baptist Church. This date was recalled because it was associated with the "sickly season" which occurred in that year.
Before this time among the converts of Mr. Henry were Willis Whitfield, Colonel Vaughn and Silas Rhodes, who never left the fellowship of the Baptist Church.
He was a man of prodigious industry. He led the work on his six-hundred-acre farm and traveled and preached in many places--a strong, valiant and intelligent proclaimer of the Word. In the earlier part of his ministry he was county evangelist for two years in Shelby. The first year he received as salary enough blue jeans for a pair of trousers, one pair of home-made woolen socks and $1.25 in money. The next year his salary was five dollars in cash. He was the first Disciple of Christ to take part in Sunday-school work in that county, helped in the organization of the State Missionary Society at Shelbyville in 1850, and was one of the original trustees of Eureka College. He was a mighty spiritual force in his time, all the while exemplifying his preaching by his daily life.
In 1868 a venerable and stately man went into the church in Springfield one Lord's Day morning and sat down well forward. He declined an invitation to preach, but presided at the table. He said. "This is an institution of the Lord's own appointment. The command to do this in remembrance of him is so gentle that it sounds like a request of one who loves us and desires to be remembered. That member of the church of Christ who has no providential hindrance and yet refuses to be present and bear a part in this memorial service, deliberately decides, for that time at least, he will not obey his Lord." That man was Bushrod W. Henry.
Mrs. O. W Stewart and Mrs. Errett Gates are two of his grandchildren.