Horace Chapin Henry
Encyclopedia
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
businessman and founder of the Henry Art Gallery
Henry Art Gallery
The Henry Art Gallery is the art museum of the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, USA. Located on the west edge of the university's campus along 15th Avenue N.E. in the University District, it was founded in 1927 and was the first public art museum in the state of Washington. The...
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Biography
He was born at the Henry HouseHenry House
The Henry House, also known as William Henry House, is a historic home near Bennington, Vermont, built in 1769 and now operated as an inn. It is adjacent to the Burt Henry Covered Bridge....
in Bennington, Vermont in October, 1844.
He served as a First Sergeant
First Sergeant
First sergeant is the name of a military rank used in many countries, typically a senior non-commissioned officer.-Singapore:First Sergeant is a Specialist in the Singapore Armed Forces. First Sergeants are the most senior of the junior Specialists, ranking above Second Sergeants, and below Staff...
, 14th Vermont Infantry
14th Vermont Infantry
The 14th Regiment, Vermont Volunteer Infantry was a nine months' infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It served in the eastern theater, predominantly in the Defenses of Washington, from October 1862 to August 1863...
in the Second Vermont Brigade which was in the center of the line repulsing Pickett's Charge
Pickett's Charge
Pickett's Charge was an infantry assault ordered by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee against Maj. Gen. George G. Meade's Union positions on Cemetery Ridge on July 3, 1863, the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. Its futility was predicted by the charge's commander,...
at the Battle of Gettysburg
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg , was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac...
in the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
After the war he was a partner in Henry & Balch working on railroad construction in the Midwest. He moved to Seattle in 1890 to work on the Northern Pacific Railroad's belt line around Lake Washington
Lake Washington
Lake Washington is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle. It is the largest lake in King County and the second largest in the state of Washington, after Lake Chelan. It is bordered by the cities of Seattle on the west, Bellevue and Kirkland on the east, Renton on the south and...
, and later the Great Northern Railway's route from Stevens Pass
Stevens Pass
Stevens Pass is a mountain pass through the Cascade Mountains located at the border of King County and Chelan County in Washington, United States....
in the Cascade Mountains to Everett
Everett, Washington
Everett is the county seat of and the largest city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. Named for Everett Colby, son of founder Charles L. Colby, it lies north of Seattle. The city had a total population of 103,019 at the 2010 census, making it the 6th largest in the state and...
on Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
. In 1906 he won a $20 million contract to build 450 miles of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad
The Milwaukee Road, officially the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until its merger into the Soo Line Railroad on January 1, 1986. The company went through several official names...
line from the Montana-Idaho border across Snoqualmie Pass
Snoqualmie Pass
Snoqualmie Pass is a mountain pass that carries Interstate 90 through the Cascade Range in the U.S. State of Washington. The elevation of the pass summit is , and is on the county line between Kittitas County and King County...
to Seattle, which was completed in 1909.
Henry's 1901 home on Seattle's Capitol Hill
Capitol Hill, Seattle, Washington
Capitol Hill is the most densely populated residential district in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the center of the city's gay and counterculture communities, and is one of the city's most prominent nightlife and entertainment districts....
was the first of many Victorian, Neo-classical, Colonial Revival, and Tudor Revival houses built in the early part of the century. It is noteworthy for having been built with a five-car garage at a time when automobiles were a novelty in Seattle.
He was president of the Metropolitan Bank and National Bank of Commerce in Seattle, and formed Pacific Creosoting Company
Pacific Creosoting Company
Pacific Creosoting Company was a company on Bainbridge Island's Eagle Harbor. Its factory coated logs with creosote. It began operations as The Perfection Pile Preserving Company in 1904 and was taken over and renamed by Horace Chapin Henry in 1906 when he introduced the new Bethell Process.The...
on Bainbridge Island in 1906. A tanker which supplied creosote from Europe to this plant was named the H.C. Henry and was sunk by a German submarine in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
on September 28, 1915.
For his personal contributions and efforts to collect funds for the Fatherless Children of France, a charity for wartime orphan
Orphan
An orphan is a child permanently bereaved of or abandoned by his or her parents. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents is called an orphan...
s, he was awarded the Legion of Honor medal in 1920.
He donated his art collection, which he formerly kept at his home and opened to the public for display, to the University of Washington in 1926 and donated the funds to build a new gallery to house the collection, which was to be the Henry Art Gallery
Henry Art Gallery
The Henry Art Gallery is the art museum of the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, USA. Located on the west edge of the university's campus along 15th Avenue N.E. in the University District, it was founded in 1927 and was the first public art museum in the state of Washington. The...
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Henry died in his sleep in his Seattle home on June 28, 1928 and is buried at Lake View Cemetery
Lake View Cemetery (Seattle)
Lake View Cemetery is a cemetery located on Seattle, Washington, Capitol Hill just north of Volunteer Park. It is named for its view of Lake Washington to the east. It was founded in 1873 as the Seattle Masonic Cemetery.-Notable interments:...
in Seattle.
After his life
In 1934, his sons donated land (including his original house) to the city for construction of a library. This was to become the Susan J. Henry branch of the Seattle Public LibrarySeattle Public Library
The Seattle Public Library is the public library system serving Seattle, Washington, USA. It was officially established by the city in 1890, though there had been efforts to start a Seattle library as early as 1868. There are 26 branches in the system, most of them named after the neighborhoods in...
, named for his wife. The branch was rebuilt and renamed in 2003 to the Capitol Hill Branch.
The Snoqualmie Pass route was converted to a Rail Trail
Rail trail
A rail trail is the conversion of a disused railway easement into a multi-use path, typically for walking, cycling and sometimes horse riding. The characteristics of former tracks—flat, long, frequently running through historical areas—are appealing for various development. The term sometimes also...
after Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul went bankrupt in 1980. See Iron Horse State Park
Iron Horse State Park
Iron Horse State Park, part of the Washington State Park System, is a state park located in the Cascade Mountains and Yakima River Valley, between Cedar Falls on the west and the Columbia River on the east....
.
Eagle Harbor was designated a superfund
Superfund
Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 , a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances...
site in 1987 due to pollution from the creosote plant. See Pacific Creosoting Company
Pacific Creosoting Company
Pacific Creosoting Company was a company on Bainbridge Island's Eagle Harbor. Its factory coated logs with creosote. It began operations as The Perfection Pile Preserving Company in 1904 and was taken over and renamed by Horace Chapin Henry in 1906 when he introduced the new Bethell Process.The...
.