San Joaquin County
Biographies
CAPTAIN SAMUEL HENERY
CAPTAIN SAMUEL HENERY, Chief Engineer
of the California Navigation and Improvement Company, was born at Steubenville,
Jefferson County, Ohio, June 24, 1842, his parents being Samuel, Sr., and
Elizabeth (Donaldson) Henery, both of whom were natives of Scotland.
He was reared at Steubenville, and there
learned the machinist’s trade. After the breaking out of the civil war, he
offered his services in behalf of the old flag, and was assigned to Company F.,
Eighty-fourth Ohio. During his service with this regiment he was engaged in the
guarding of Cumberland, Maryland. At the expiration of his term he was
discharged and returned to Steubenville. After a few months at his trade there,
he again went to the front, and became an engineer in the Government service,
in the Mississippi squadron. In this capacity he was first on the Silver Lake,
next the Reindeer, then the Victory, and finally the Grossbeak. While in the
Mississippi squadron he was engaged in the fighting in which its vessels took
part on the Mississippi, Tennessee, White, Arkansas, Cumberland and Ohio
rivers, on all of which streams they silenced rebel batteries. Among the
principal fights in which he participated were those at Johnsonville,
Tennessee, where they defeated three gunboats and many streamers, and at
Nashville, when Thomas whipped Hood, the navy doing valiant service. At the
close of the war Captain Henery went home to Steubenville on waiting orders,
and after he had been there three months he received an honorable discharge,
with full pay to date. In April, 1866, he started for California, making the
trip via New York and Nicaragua, on the steamers Santiago de Cuba and Moses
Taylor, landing at San Francisco from the latter vessel May 18, 1866. After a
couple months at Napa, he engaged in the work of putting the engines in the
steamer Cora, a Stockton-built boat. He next went as engineer on the old
Washoe, which was then in service as the San Francisco-Oakland ferry-boat. When
he left that boat he went to the Colorado river, and was chief engineer for the
company navigating that stream, from Fort Mojave to Port Isabel, at the head of
the Gulf of California. He held that position six year and a half, then went to
San Francisco, where he became interested in the California Navigation Company.
He became chief engineer of the line, and now holds that position with the
present company. He has for a portion of the time been acting agent for the
line, etc.
He was married in this city, June 3, 1877,
to Miss Lydia A. Walcott, a native of Maine.
Captain Henery is a prominent Past Commander
of Rawlins Post, G. A. R. He is a member of San Joaquin Lodge, No. 19, A. F.
& A. M.; is Scribe of Stockton Chapter, No. 28, and has been for three
years Warden of Stockton Commandery, No. 8, Knights Templar. He belongs to
Stockton Lodge, No. 23, A. O. U. W., and he and Mrs. Henery are members of the
Eastern Star.
Mrs. Captain Henery was one of the
organizers of the Women’s Relief Corps in this city and is Past President of
the local corps.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 610-613. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
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