The North Mountain Historical Society

Meeting: June 2001

MONDAY, JUNE 18,2001

The History Buffs met at the Brass Pelican on Monday, June 18 with 52 people present. Zane Hartman offered thanks before breakfast was served. Jim Vance chaired the meeting and asked each one to introduce themselves. There were people present from Nordmont, Berwick, and Benton as well as local people. There were four descendents of the McHenry Family present.

The minutes of the last meeting were read. Following breakfast, Jim introduced Mrs. Vinidee McHenry Hippenstiel who spoke to us on the origin of the McHenry Family from this area. The McHenry Family originated in Antrim County, Ireland where they were important in the political and social life of the county. Mrs. Hippenstiel has visited Ireland and traced family roots to there.

The family left Dublin on a small sailing vessel in 1729. They were supposed to land in Philadelphia but after a very rough trip, the ship landed on Cape Cod. 90
persons had died enroute including the McHenry parents. The two surviving children, John and Suzanna were taken in by the Clinton family and settled in New York State. Descendents of this Clinton family were later very active in New York state politics.

Mrs. Hippenstiel traced the McHenry family from New York to the McHenry Family who settled in what was then Northumberland County - now the Benton Area of Columbia County. She mentioned touring the well kept up McHenry House in Stillwater and the ruins of the McHenry house along Route 487. She also told us of a McHenry cemetery near Rohrsburg where members of early McHenry families are buried. Mention was also made of McHenry family members being buried in St. Gabriels cemetery.

Daniel McHenry was mentioned as the founder of the McHenry Distillery that was located on Distillery Hill near Benton. The famous Fort McHenry of "The Star
Spangled Banner" fame was named for a member of this same McHenry family. Mrs. Hippenstiel has done much research on the McHenry family history in
helping people obtain membership in the "Daughters of the American Revolution" To close her talk she opened the meeting to questions and several people in the audience had questions or interesting comments on the history of the McHenry Family.

Mrs. Hippenstiel agreed to come back in October and continue her talk on the McHenry Family History. Our thanks to her for a most interesting presentation.
The next meeting will be Monday, July 16 and will be a talk by Professor George Turner on the Revival of the Fishing Creek Confederacy at Knob Mountain.