Joe Henry Collection

Biographical Sketch

    Joseph M. Henry, Sr. was born in 1902 on Melrose Plantation in rural Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, to John Hampton Henry and Cammie G. Henry. Henry attended the Hunt Chamberlain Academy in Huntsville, Alabama, where he graduated from in 1919. He then attended Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. Henry also attended Louisiana State University while working on a degree in electrical engineering. During his college years, he was a member of the Alpha Gamma Chapter of the Kappa Alpha fraternity. Henry was also a member of the Reserve Officers' Training Camp, and in 1923 began training at Camp McClellan, Alabama. Henry was employed as an engineer for a utility company.
    He lived in Natchitoches, Louisiana the last twenty years of his life, where he pursued his interest in the history of his family and the local area. Henry was killed in an automobile accident sometime in the period between the late 1970s and early 1980s. Few other details of Henry's life are available.

Scope and Content

    Materials reflecting Mr. Henry's interest in the history of Natchitoches Parish and the city of Natchitoches.  Specific to the collection are items related to the origins and more recent history of what is now Melrose Plantation.  This includes information on Marie Therese CoinCoin, as well as the Henry family, the last proprietors of Melrose.  Also included are Hertzog family charts, documents related to the Erwin and Lecomte families and a scrapbook covering publicity on the Louisiana Writers Project.  Additionally, the collection contains photographs and biographical materials on Lyle Saxon, Francois Mignon, Clementine Hunter and James. 

Inventory

Folder

1 Hertzog family items: 5 charts (copies), plat

2 Marie Therese CoinCoin: copied items, clippings

3 Copies of Erwin and Lecomte documents

4 Information about Lyle Saxon & Children of Strangers

5 Material about Henry family and Melrose plantation

6 Francois Mignon

7 Clementine Hunter

8 Courthouse documents and translations (copies)

9 James Register

10 Photographs and miscellaneous

2-B-4 Addition to the Joe Henry Collection:
Two scrapbooks covering publicity of The Louisiana Writers Project, and the original artwork for the WPA Guide to Louisiana
.