Background
Andrew Henry was born in 1775 in York County, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of George and Margaret (Young) Henry.
Andrew Henry was born in 1775 in York County, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of George and Margaret (Young) Henry.
For a time Andrew Henry lived in Nashville, Tennessee, and from there, in April 1800, he went to Ste. Genevieve, in the present Missouri. He was again in Nashville two years later, but in 1803 returned to Ste. Genevieve, soon afterward settling in the present Washington County and engaging in lead mining. On March 7, 1809, he joined with Manuel Lisa, Pierre Chouteau, and others in the organization of the St. Louis Missouri Fur Company, and three months later left with its first and most noted expedition for the upper Missouri. As second in command of Pierre Ménard’s detachment, he took part in the first organized invasion of the region about the Three Forks of the Missouri; and though Ménard and a majority of the men, discouraged by the attacks of the Blackfeet, returned to St. Louis, Henry and some fifteen or twenty of the more venturesome spirits for a time stayed on. Abandoning the fort in June or July, he led his men south, and traversing a region never before seen by white men, ascended the Madison, crossed the continental divide, descended Henry’s Fork of the Snake, and near its mouth erected another fort. Here the party wintered, the first American trappers to operate west of the Rockies. The venture was a complete failure, and in the spring of 1811 the party broke up. Henry reached St. Louis in the fall and returned to his mines.
In 1814 Henry was major of the local regiment of which W. H. Ashley was lieutenant-colonel commanding. Early in 1822 he joined Ashley in the latter's project of trapping the mountain regions, and on April 15 set out with him up the river on the first expedition. At the mouth of the Yellowstone, whence Ashley returned to bring up 3 second expedition, Henry built a fort, and directed the winter’s trapping. In the spring of 1823, undismayed by his former experience with the Blackfeet, he set out with a party for the upper waters of the Missouri, but in May, near the Great Falls, was attacked and compelled to retreat. Reaching his fort, he learned of Ashley’s defeat by the Arikaras and hurried to his commander’s relief, arriving in time for the battle of August 9. A week later he started again for the Yellowstone, and in the fall abandoned the fort and led his men to the mouth of the Bighorn, where they wintered. In the spring of 1824 he followed the Smith-Fitzpatrick party through South Pass to Green Valley, dispatching his trappers in various directions. Collecting the furs of all the Ashley parties, he started for St. Louis, arriving late in the summer. Evidently discouraged by his experiences in the mountains, he returned to the mines, where he remained. He died at his home in Harmony Township.
Henry was tall and slender, and of commanding presence. He was highly respected for his intelligence. enterprise, daring, and honesty.
Andrew Henry was married, December 16, 1805, to Marie Villars, but separated from her early in the following January and obtained a divorce from her on October 15, 1807.
Henry was married a second time, in 1819 Mary Fleming, of Sainte Genevieve.