Henry County was created in 1821 and named for Revolutionary War statesman, Patrick Henry. Paris, west Tennessee’s oldest incorporated municipality, has been its county seat since its creation.
Henry County is bounded on the north by Graves and Calloway Counties in Kentucky, on the east by Stewart and Benton Counties in Tennessee, on the south by Carroll and Benton Counties and on the west by Weakley County.
Henry County produced three (3) Tennessee governors: Isham Green Harris, Tennessee’s only Confederate Governor, elected in 1859; James Davis Porter, elected in 1874 (served two terms); and Thomas Clarke Rye, elected 1915. In addition, John Wesley Crockett, Davy’s eldest son, was elected to Congress in 1837, filling his father’s former seat.
Sulphur Well was the county’s first tourist attraction. Many people came to drink the waters believing it had curative powers including relief during the 1837 Yellow Fever epidemic. The well was struck by accident in 1821 while searching for a large salt bed on a former Chickasaw reservation. The well was covered by TVA’s Kentucky Lake in 1944.
(This posting created from the online Tennessee Encyclopedia and the Jackson Purchase Historical Society Sesquicentennial Publication, 1969)
