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Robert Henry:: A Western Carolina Patriot
Robert Henry is a character more suited for fiction than nonfiction. While just a boy, he fought with the Overmountain Men at Kings Mountain and battled British troops along the Catawba River. As a surveyor, he helped mark the boundary line between Tennessee and North Carolina. He had a long career as a prominent attorney and owned the famous Sulphur Springs resort. Yet while Henry is one of western North Carolina's most accomplished ancestors, he is also one of the most eccentric. He preferred to dress in moccasins and traveled with a walking stick nearly as tall as he. Some said he had the gift of foresight and was able to predict his own death. Join author Richard Russell as he navigates the unusual, contradictory and fascinating life of Robert Henry.
192 pages, Paperback
First published August 29, 2013
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 14, 2018
4.5 stars.
Read this for the genealogy research I've been doing. Robert Henry was my great-great-great-great-great grandfather, but he's pretty interesting even without a family connection: served in the Revolutionary War as a teenager (got bayoneted at Kings Mountain at the age of 13!) and then was an early surveyor, doctor, and lawyer in Western North Carolina before opening his own resort hotel. He died in the middle of the Civil War in his 90s, so he certainly saw a lot of history in his lifetime.
I was pleasantly surprised at what a good writer Russell is. His prose is immensely readable, and his research is very thorough. He's evenhanded and fairly presents Henry's good points and bad points and seems to capture his eccentric and at times unpleasant personality well. The end sort of turns into a litany of lawsuits and family quarrels, but Russell does a good job of breaking down the 19th century legalese.
It was a very helpful resource for genealogy--I learned all about some folks I've had trouble tracking down and found some additional resources to pursue. I also discovered that Henry really disliked his one daughter's husbands. Naturally, I'm related to both of the scoundrels. (It's complicated.). It amused me. :)
My only complaint is the index is poor. I think I've used the indexing program, and it does you no good if you don't go back through and combine entries. I don't think whoever did the index did that, so it's easy to miss references to people and events unless you read the entire index. As thorough as Russell was otherwise, I wonder if the index was the publisher's handiwork and not his.
Read this for the genealogy research I've been doing. Robert Henry was my great-great-great-great-great grandfather, but he's pretty interesting even without a family connection: served in the Revolutionary War as a teenager (got bayoneted at Kings Mountain at the age of 13!) and then was an early surveyor, doctor, and lawyer in Western North Carolina before opening his own resort hotel. He died in the middle of the Civil War in his 90s, so he certainly saw a lot of history in his lifetime.
I was pleasantly surprised at what a good writer Russell is. His prose is immensely readable, and his research is very thorough. He's evenhanded and fairly presents Henry's good points and bad points and seems to capture his eccentric and at times unpleasant personality well. The end sort of turns into a litany of lawsuits and family quarrels, but Russell does a good job of breaking down the 19th century legalese.
It was a very helpful resource for genealogy--I learned all about some folks I've had trouble tracking down and found some additional resources to pursue. I also discovered that Henry really disliked his one daughter's husbands. Naturally, I'm related to both of the scoundrels. (It's complicated.). It amused me. :)
My only complaint is the index is poor. I think I've used the indexing program, and it does you no good if you don't go back through and combine entries. I don't think whoever did the index did that, so it's easy to miss references to people and events unless you read the entire index. As thorough as Russell was otherwise, I wonder if the index was the publisher's handiwork and not his.
Displaying 1 of 1 review