Gen 1: Mary Jane Beal - Federal Land for James Henry

What are the origins of Johann Nicholas Biehl?

We continued our Biehl research project with the end goal of identifying the German origins of Johann Nicholas Biehl. I continued research on the first generation, which is Mary Jane Beal. You can find that post here.

 

Federal Land

 

Continuing our research on James Henry, a search for James Henry in the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) database for James Henry in Arkansas returned two pages of results.[1] Knowing that my James Henry lived in both Benton and Washington counties, I extracted those results. The database contains links to the patent images, which I reviewed to get an idea if these patents are for one individual or several.

Accession	Names	Date	Doc #	State	Meridian	Twp-Rng	Aliquots	Sec #	County	Comments
MW-1116-167	Gunter, Calden Henry, John Henry, James	5/1/1855	79026	AR	5th PM	017N-033W	NW1/4	5	Benton	Note 1
AR0950.055	Henry, James	11/15/1854	5126	AR	5th PM	013N-029W	NW1/4SW1/4	6	Washington	Note 2
AR0950.061	Henry, James	9/15/1854	5132	AR	5th PM	014N-030W	SE1/4SE1/4	36	Washington	Note 3
AR0980.221	Henry, James	11/15/1854	6941	AR	5th PM	018N-030W	N1/2NW1/4	25	Washington	Note 3
AR0990.472	Henry, James	12/15/1856	7798	AR	5th PM	017N-031W 017N-031W	SE1/4NE1/4 NW1/4NW1/4	34 35	Washington Washington	Note 3
AR2480.088	Henry, James	12/15/1882	3079	AR	5th PM	017N-030W	SE1/4NE1/4	12	Washington	Note 3
MW-1110-110	Mashburn, George W L Henry, James	11/1/1853	44294	AR	5th PM	016N-031W	SE1/4	32	Washington	Note 4

 

Note 1: The patent indicates “John Henry Father and heir at law of James Henry deceased late a Private in Captain Hammonds Company First Regiment Missouri Volunteers. Not our James Henry.

Note 2: This is our James Henry as he sold this piece of land on 16 October 1854 to William Covington.[2]

Note 3: The patents for these tracts of land just indicate a patent to James Henry of Washington County, Arkansas, or just James Henry. Additional research will be needed to determine if it is my James Henry or a same name individual.

Note 4: My James Henry’s tombstone indicated military service in the Mexican War. This is a patent for military bounty land granted to “James Henry, Private Captain Enyart’s Company Arkansas Cavaly [sic].” James Henry assigned it to George W. L. Mashburn.

 

In addition to the research noted below, these results open up research in Federal land and then its subsequent disposal as well as military records. 

 

A great resource for this research is Family Maps of Washington County, Arkansas by Gregory A. Boyd. I’ll be using this to see where the land is located and identify the neighbors.

 

Future Research

 

Future research will include:

 

·      Search for additional marriage records for James Henry. He married Alphurnia Peerson in 1894.

·      Continue search for all real estate, both local and Federal, that James Henry owned in Washington County, Arkansas. He owned $300 in 1850 and $1,000 in 1870. Start a table showing the land transactions, both in and out, to ensure all transactions are captured.

·      Determine if there are records for Friendship Baptist Church in Springdale, Arkansas. Determine if there are extant records for First Baptist Church of Springdale.

·      Locate the extant applicable agricultural censuses for Arkansas.

·      Identify all of James Henry’s ten children.

·      James Henry served in the Mexican War and his widow, Alphurnia, received a pension. He may have had a pension too since he was feeble and helpless prior to his death. His tombstone notes his service from 1847–1848 in the Ark. Mounted Inf. Vol.

·      Who were the parents of Harvey Webb, nephew, in 1880?

·      Was Luke Henry in 1900 the stepson of James Henry?

 

Next up: Continuing the research on Mary Jane Henry and her husband, James, as noted in “Future Research” above.

 

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[1] Search for James Henry, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records (https://glorecords.blm.gov/results/default.aspx?searchCriteria=type=patent|st=AR|cty=|ln=henry|fn=james|sp=true|sw=true|sadv=false#resultsTabIndex=0&page=1&sortField=11&sortDir=0: accessed 25 January 2026).

[2] Washington County, Arkansas, Deeds, Liber I: 521, deed, James Henry et ux to William Covington, 15 January 1855; digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 2025), image 289 of 635, DGS no. 8,197,821, item 1; FamilySearch Library, Salt Lake City.