Alonzo W. HENDRY

Birth: 22 Mar 1820, Eden,Erie,N.Y.
Death: 15 Apr 1901, Shawnee,OK Ter

Reference: I.2.4.7

Father: Samuel HENDRY
Mother: Eunice FOOTE

Family 1: Jane Ann PENFIELD

Marriage: 15 Aug 1848, Penfield,Lorain,OH

                                                     __
                                    _Thomas HENDRY _|__
                  _James HENDRY ___|
                 |                 |                 __
                 |                 |_Ann MILLER ____|__
 _Samuel HENDRY _|
|                |                                   __
|                |                  ________________|__
|                |_Mehitabel HALL _|
|                                  |                 __
|                                  |________________|__
|
|--Alonzo W. HENDRY 
|
|                                                    __
|                                   ________________|__
|                 _________________|
|                |                 |                 __
|                |                 |________________|__
|_Eunice FOOTE __|
                 |                                   __
                 |                  ________________|__
                 |_________________|
                                   |                 __
                                   |________________|__

INDEX

Notes

Line in Record @I0024@ (RIN 24) from GEDCOM file not recognized: _FA1 Line in Record @I0024@ (RIN 24) from GEDCOM file not recognized: _FA2 There is a lot of information on Alonzo that must be recorded in notes. Alonzo Hendry was a twin. He and his twin brother Alonson were born in Eden, Erie County, New York on March 22, 1820. He and his brother learned the blacksmith's trade of their father, Samuel Hendry, but not liking it, they determined to take up the profession of law. They procured a Blackstone and Kent and studied evenings and when not otherwise employed until they were familiar with the main points of common law. This note comes from the History of Steuben County, Indiana. 1885, Interstate Publishing Co. Chicago. pp. 411-412. Alonzo apparently articled with a lawyer in Oberlin or Sandusky and was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1842. His twin brother Alonson was admitted to the Indiana Bar in 1843. Alonson was examined in Lima, Lagrange County, probably by Judge Thomas Gale. Alonson later married Judge Gale's daughter Louisa. Alonzo was a Whig and later a Republican. He served as Probate Judge of Erie County, Ohio from 1863 to 1870. He was, before that, District Attorney. Later in the 19th century he became involved in real estate in Sandusky. He died in 1901 in Shawnee, Oaklahoma Territory. It is not clear what he was doing there at that time. His body was shipped home on the train. It was met by his son Frank Truman and his body is buried in the Hendry plot in Oakland Cemetery, Sandusky, Erie County, Ohio. Alonzo's life seems to have been spent first in Eden, Erie County, N. Y. until he was seven in 1827 when the family moved to Ashtabula County, Ohio. In 1832 the family moved to Wellington, Loraine County, Ohio. It is not known when Alonzo moved to Sandusky but he was working there as a lawyer when he wrote to Jane Ann Penfield in November of 1845. Records show that Alonzo's mother, Eunice Foote Hendry, died in Sandusky, Ohio on September 3, 1853 and is burried in the Hendry Plot of the Oakland Cemetery. Alonzo's sisters, some of his children and some of his nephews enrolled at one time or another at Oberlin College, Loraine County Ohio. There was a post office near where they settled in Loraine County that was called New Carlisle. That post office has long been defunct. The archivist at Oberlin College told me of the New Carlisle postoffice. It was the address Samuel Hendry's daughters (Alonzo's sisters) gave when they were enrolled at Oberlin College. Alonzo's wife, Jane Ann Penfield, is said to be the very first woman graduate of Oberlin College. Oberlin College may have been the first coeducational college in the United States. Jane Ann Penfield was enrolled in the "Young Woman's Program". More of Alonzo's remarkable life is recorded in early documents of Erie County, Ohio and Sandusky City. Alonzo married Jane Ann Penfield August 15, 1848 in Penfield, Loraine County, Ohio. They had seven children, two of whom, Alonzo and Frederick died before reaching maturity. His third child, Frank Truman Hendry was my grandfather. Alonzo's oldest child, Maria, is listed as "clerk", Recorders Office on census records 1892 through 1893. Records show Oakland Cemetary is where his infant children, wife and mother (Eunice Foote Hendry) are buried. I haveÿ2 CONT speculated that his involvement in real estate may have taken him to the Oaklahoma Territory at the time of the great land rush. That is only speculation and no effort has been made to trace his activities in Oklahoma. He was 81 years of age when he died. Before he was married to Jane Ann Penfield, he wrote a letter to her that has been preserved and is in the possession of Thomas P. Hendry. Although he undoubtedly wrote many such letters, this letter gives a rare insight to his moral views and his character and seems to affirm the very strict presbyterian (Calvinist) orientation that was apparantly characteristic of his the family at that time. What follows is the paratial text of another letter written by Alonzo. This letter was written to a D.B. Hendry, presumably David Brown Hendry February 24, 1872. (A hand written letter.) D.B. Hendry Sandusky, Feby 24, 1872 Dear Sir: Yours of the 20th came duly to hand. You have aided me very much in getting some things that I was not aware of before. You speak of a mistake being made by putting the name of James on the tombstone in Harpersfield. I am inclined to think that there is no mistake in this. My Grandfather's name was James, and I think Mrs Buckingham is right, Thomas and James were killed on the 7th of April 1780 and my Grandfather, James, at the time of his death left three sons and one daughter, James, Reuben and Samuel (my father) - the daughter's name was Ruth, and I think it was my uncle James, father's brother, who signed the papers you speak of. I have been fortunate enough to procure some early history of our family together with a portion of the family record from Bridgewater, Massachusetts. (Here Alonzo repeats the records of marriage and births from the records of Plymouth County, Town of Bridgewater. Alonzo further cites information taken from "Judge Mitchell's" History of Bridgewater. He continues giving the date of his father's marriage and his father's children, including himself. See the section on Samuel Hendry. He closes giving the location of his brothers and sisters (George at Angola, Indiana - Elmina at Oscian, Indiana -James at Oscian, Indiana - Caroline at Shelby, Ohio - Euniec E. at Grand Rapids, Michigan - Charlotte C. at Elyria, Ohio - Martha Ann at Aurora, Illinois. He gives the dates of the deaths of his mother, Eunice Foot and his father Samuel Hendry, September 13, 1853 and May 7, 1861 respectively.) Sources of information concerning Alonzo include: 1. Letter Alonzo Hendry to D.B. Hendry, February 24, 1872 2. Map of Sandusky Ohio showing a street (Hendry Street) named for Alonzo 3. Sandusky, Ohio census for 1860, 1870, and 1880, Sandusky City Directories for 1865, 1860-61, 1867-68, 1873, 1878, 1882-83, 1884-85, 1890-91, 1892-93, and 1896-97, Sandusky Register, April 20, 1901 and February 23, 186, Peeke, Centennial History of Erie County, Ohio 1925, Peeke, History of Erie County. 1916, Aldrich, History of Erie County. 1889, The Firelands Pioneer, Volume IV pp. 53-54, June 1863, Volume XIV, p. 960. December, 1902, Oberlin College Archives, Letter, Alonzo Hendry to Jane Ann Penfield dated November, 10, 1845. Sandusky City November 10, 1845 Dear Friend: I am about to inflict upon you the trouble of reading another long letter. I am sorry for your patience but when I get time to write I like to do it up. I wrote you a note or two since at Oberlin and take it for granted you had left before it reached there. In that I wrote you of Martha - that she is homesick a c. I wonder you have not written me before this for I believe it is time to forget this formal Ediquitte and cold gentility whicxh may be of use inits place but which in our matters can answer no sort of purpose. It seems to me, to use a law phrase as if the day had gone by "to plead it ______________. I have been attending court almost constantly since I left yuou at Obverlin, at lower Sandusky, Tiffin and Norwalk, and we have justr finished at our place - Court has been in session here two weeks I believe I am now pretty much through with business until spring at all events that kind of which ties our (SIC) up all the while. I mean to spend some time in Lorraine County this winter. If I can make it convenient so to do. Fashionablre parties have already opened here for the winter. I have a pocket full of Invitations now but fortunately I can't go - this is the greatest sin I have been guilty of since I have been in Sandusky - but in such companyu as they have here _________ I do not covet a place when the character of society is to be fashioned and moulded by the hands of those who are notorious gamblers and disipated (SIC) wrecks of humanity whose verry (SIC) visage carries with it the unmistakable signs of drinking and Inibriety. These the patterns of modern society, the __________lity of whose conduct would debar them from an entrance ______ ________ ______ of the bottomless pit and which it made _______ would be a sterling (?) land mark to all succeeding generations of the follies of our enlightened age - but you inquire should we not seek a renovation of society the introduction of a pure morality a high___ such *Este _____ of ___ . Indeed - but we look for it not as the offspring of society under its present organization but as an indispensible requisite to be imparted to it by public sentiment nurtured and matured by the press of the pulpit and a (hundred) living oracles of viraatue whose lives are an unhidden commentary upon effects of a highly cultivated morality. Society is more blind to its own good and to measures which will advance its real prosperity thru individuals. In illustration of this I will speak of a young man who resided (here) two years ago and with propriety I can mention two. Fairchild a young man of 20 - was introduced into town by his uncle, a Mr. Stiles a man of wealth and standing in the county. Fairchild was just from the State of New York went into the Study of law in one of the first offices in town - and as it happened boarded ata the place I did and became a room mate - from him I learned his history. He was a reformed Inebriate at that age. Lectured will (SIC) on Temperance and had always abeen in Society it mattered not what kind to him he had a pleasantry that gave him friends Everywhere. The first ladies in town courted his society and had it, he was the theme of conversation at Church sewing society and Elsewhere - he possessed a mind powerful for the _______ of ______ of society. With a giant's arm he could tear it down or build it up and in a word mould its destinines. Many of our city youngsters trembled in their shoes lest this young cupit should be enthrowned in the affection of his dearest, he was handsome, fluent in conversation could sing well and was an orator - Reckless and profane, Immoral to the last degree - a heterogeneous mass of facts, follies and absurities combined, make him what he was an Extra-ordinary personage - to me he confided his secrets and relied upon me as a friend - every important event in his life I was in possession of - crimes for which he had banished himself from the land of his nativity rather than expiate them by suffering the penalty of its laws - if the past history of his life was an index of what was to come I knew society must sooner or later suffer by his conduct, and true as the needle to the pole - in less than three sort months he hired a horse at the Livery stable under pretense of going to given place and returning at given time but his return or that of his horse is yet among the hidden things of futurity - Those who coveted his friendship were left like the Mariner whose ship sinks beneath him in mid ocean and when each was ready to charge upon the the other the introducton of such a wreck into society - responsibility attached nowhere. But I have said enough upon a theme so dry. Winter has again come (to) our cold bleak Lake winds again whistle through our streets - the leafs have fallen from grove and the verdure vanished from the plains - they to us are the faithful monmitors of thje passage of time - Age steals over man and he takes not notice of it - but thes whisper to him its approach, add to this the idea of being an old bachelor and it makes the Spectacle perfectly appalling Yet these things must as our better judgment must govern lest a weakness imbicility and shortsightedness should triumph of our better judgment. I should say something to you of our arrangement but you think so seriously of the matter I will not disturb your feelings for my part I wish the time was at hand when and as soon as I can make my business arrangements such as will enable me to attend to it - I shall be one to consumate an end as desirable - The duties before us cannot but be Important in such so reasonable a station in life and a thorough preparation discharge them be to ___ amply provide for that we should know something of the adversities of life of the complex machinery of human nature is vitally important; and who is (a) person advancing in knowledge and information who does not look back with wonder upon how little he knew but yesterday - but will this not always be so - true it will - but we are the Judges - the artificers of our own fortunes and to get the expression of a poet Thus at the flaming forge of life our fortunes must be wroght and on its sounding anvil shaped Each burning deed and thought I think I shall be in Penfield during this month I think of going to Indiana this fall - If I should I shall not be there until sometime in December - About your teaching school I want you to do just as you please and not as I say - but I advise you nevertheless not to do it. very truly yours AW Hendry Miss Jane A. Penfield This was copied from a copy of a much earlier reproduction of the original and represents the best translation I can make of Alonzo's handwriting on the copy. AM Hendry (1996)


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