Henry “Hurricane Hank” Armstrong (1912 - 1988)

Professional Boxer. Featherweight, Lightweight, and Welterweight Champion of the World. One of the greatest fighters in history, “Hurricane Hank” is the only fighter to hold 3 world Championships simultaneously. His first title came in 1937 when he wrested the Featherweight Championship from Petey Sarron via 6th round ko. His second title came on May 31, […]

Henry Ainley (1879 - 1945)

Actor. Born to Richard and Ada Ainley in Morley, West Yorkshire, England. He made his professional stage debut for F.R. Benson’s company of actors and later joined Herbert Beerbohm Tree’s company. His first stage role was as a messenger in “Macbeth”. He also appeared as Glo’ster in “Henry V” at the Lyceum in London and […]

Henry Alden Sherwin (1842 - 1916)

Business Magnate. Founder of Sherwin-Williams paint company.  Family links:  Parents:  Alden Wheelock Sherwin (1816 – 1889)  Rachel Batchelder Sherwin (1818 – 1895)  Spouse:  Frances Mary Smith Sherwin (1843 – 1920)*  Children:  Belle Sherwin (1868 – 1955)*  Katherine Sherwin (1870 – 1873)*  William Alden Sherwin (1872 – 1897)*  Prudence Sherwin (1874 – 1938)* *Calculated relationship

Henry Andrew “Heck” Thomas (1850 - 1912)

Deputy US Marshal and Folk Figure. He was the youngest of 12 children born to Lovick Pierce and Martha Ann Fullwood Bedell Thomas. When he was only 12 years old he joined his father and his uncle and went off to the Civil War. They were officers in the 35th Georgia Infantry and Heck was […]

Henry Armetta (1888 - 1945)

Actor. At the age of 14, he stowed away on a boat to America, performed menial tasks to get by and eventually got a part in a chorus for a New York City stage show. In 1920, he moved to Hollywood and easily found work performing as stereotypical Italian in silent films. He went on […]

Henry Armstrong (1912 - 1988)

Henry Armstrong Born Henry Jackson, Jr., on December 12, 1912, in Columbus, Mississippi, Armstrong was the eleventh of the family’s 15 children. His father, Henry Jackson, Sr., was a sharecropper and a butcher. His mother, America Jackson was an Iroquois Indian. When Armstrong was four years old, his father moved the family to St. Louis, […]

Henry Austin (1804 - 1891)

Henry Austin (December 4, 1804 – December 17, 1891) was a prominent and prolific American architect based in New Haven, Connecticut. He practiced for more than fifty years and designed many public buildings and homes primarily in the New Haven area. His most significant years of production seem to be the 1840s and 1850s.  The […]

Henry Bacon (1866 - 1924)

Architect. Raised in and around Wilmington, North Carolina, where his father was a civil engineer, Henry spent a year at the University of Illinois. Beginning in 1885 as a draftsman, briefly in Boston, and then in the office of McKim, Mead and White in New York City. After four years, a fellowship enabled him to […]

Henry Bacon (1866 - 1924)

Architect. Raised in and around Wilmington, North Carolina, where his father was a civil engineer, Henry spent a year at the University of Illinois. Beginning in 1885 as a draftsman, briefly in Boston, and then in the office of McKim, Mead and White in New York City. After four years, a fellowship enabled him to […]

Henry Baldwin (1780 - 1844)

Descended from an aristocratic British family dating back to the seventeenth century, Baldwin was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Michael Baldwin and Theodora Walcott. He is the half-brother of Abraham Baldwin. He attended Hopkins School, and received a B.A at age 17 from Yale College in 1797, he attended Litchfield Law School […]

Henry Baldwin Hyde (1834 - 1899)

Business Magnate. Founded Equitable Life Insurance Co. in 1859, and built it into one of the country’s largest. (bio by: Ginny M)  Family links:  Spouse:  Annie Truesdell Hyde (1845 – 1922)*  Children:  James Hazen Hyde (1876 – 1959)* *Calculated relationship

Henry Bergman (1868 - 1946)

Actor. American film figure who had a long career spanning from the 1910s to the 1940s. He had roles in many of Charlie Chaplin’s films. (bio by: A.J. Marik)

Henry Bessemer (1813 - 1898)

The invention from which Henry Bessemer made his first fortune was a series of six steam-powered machines for making bronze powder, used in the manufacture of gold paint. As he relates in his autobiography, he examined the bronze powder made in Nuremberg which was the only place where it was made at the time. He […]

Henry Billings Brown (1836 - 1913)

Brown was born in South Lee, Massachusetts, and grew up in Massachusetts and Connecticut. His was a New England merchant family. Brown entered Yale College at 16, where he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree there in 1856. Among his undergraduate classmates were Chauncey Depew, later […]

Henry Blight “Toby” Halicki (1940 - 1989)

Movie Producer. He was killed in 1989 in a stunt accident during the re-making of the film “Gone In 60 Seconds” (released in 2000). He and his wife, wrote, produced and directed the film.

Henry Branch “Hank” Bell (1892 - 1950)

Actor. He is remembered by his trademark handlebar mustache, that drooped well below his chin. A veteran of silent and sound B-Western films, his career spanned three decades from 1920 to 1950, appearing in over 370 films, most of them uncredited, with actors like John Wayne, Gabby Hayes, Paul Fix, and Noah Beery. He performed […]

Henry Brandon (1912 - 1990)

Henry Brandon (June 8, 1912 – February 15, 1990) was a German-American character actor with an extensive career over 60 years involving more than one hundred films, with an ability at playing a wide diversity of ethnic roles, from European to American, Oriental to American Indians. Born Heinrich von Kleinbach in Berlin, Germany, his parents emigrated […]

Henry Brintell Bounetheau (1797 - 1877)

Painter. Became known as painter of miniature portraits. He painted subjects including Charles C. Pinckney, Nathanael Greene, William Ravenel, and Charles A. Pringle. (bio by: Laurie)

Henry Brooks Adams (1838 - 1918)

Author, Historian.  Born in Boston, Massachusetts  to one of America’s most prominent families, his father was American Diplomat and scholar  Charles Francis Adams, his grandfather was 6th United States President John Quincy Adams, and his great-grandfather was 2nd United States President John Adams. He graduated from Harvard University in 1858 and later attended lectures at […]

Henry Calvin (1918 - 1975)

Henry Calvin hosted a 1950 NBC radio show and appeared on Broadway (most notably in Kismet as the Wazir of Police). In 1952, he portrayed Big Ben on the children’s TV series Howdy Doody. and made his film debut in Crime Against Joe as Red Waller four years later. His character in Zorro, Sergeant Demetrio Lopez […]

Henry Cele (1949 - 2007)

Actor. Cele was widely known for his portrayal of the title role in SABC’s “Shaka Zulu” miniseries. Born in Durban, South Africa, Henry “Black Cat” Cele was a goalkeeper for several professional soccer clubs prior to acting. He then landed the role of Shaka Zulu after playing Shaka in a South African stage production. Cele […]

Henry Chadwick (1824 - 1908)

Henry Chadwick was one of the prime movers in the rise of baseball to its popularity at the turn of the 20th century. A keen amateur statistician and professional writer, he helped sculpt the public perception of the game, as well as providing the basis for the records of teams’ and players’ achievements in the […]

Henry Charles Carey (1793 - 1879)

Economist. One of the most prominent economists of the 19th century, he is best know for influential his work “The Harmony of Interest”, which compared and contrasted free trade capitalist systems and developmental capitalist systems. His earlier work, “Principles of Political Economy”, which detailed American economic thought, was a standard on the subject well into […]

Henry Charles Grawemeyer (1912 - 1993)

Businessman, Philanthropist. Best known for creating the Grawemeyer Awards – international awards in music composistion, world order, education, psychology and religion. The $200,000 each recipient recieves make these awards among the largest world wide. Winners have included former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlan Brundtland. (bio by: Mike Maloney)  Family links: […]

Henry Clay Caldwell (1832 - 1915)

Civil War Union Army Officer. Served during the Civil War as Colonel and commander of the 3rd Iowa Volunteer Cavalry. He led the cavalry forces that caotured Little Rock, Arkansas, on September 10, 1863. The next year, President Abraham Lincoln appointed the native Iowan to be a United States District Judge for the Eastern District […]

Henry Clay Frick (1849 - 1919)

Businessman. He made his fortune in the coke making business and was known as the “Coke King.” He merged his vast coke and railroad interests with those of Andrew Carnegie the “Steel King”  to form the Carnegie Corp which later became the United States Steel Corp.  Family links:  Parents:  John Wilson Frick (1822 – 1888) […]

Henry Clay Pierce (1970 - 1927)

Founder & President of Waters-Pierce Oil Company, Pierce was considered one of the four richest men in the country. Later the company became a subsidy of Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company. Pierce was found guilty of violating anti-trust laws through his relationship with Standard Oil & resulted in the state of Texas bringing its best-known suit […]

Henry Clews, Jr (1876 - 1937)

Noted Artist, Sculptor. Between the years 1903 and 1914, seven exhibitions of Clews paintings and sculptures were held in New York City. In 1918 he bought a medieval fortress located on a promontory overlooking the Cote D’Azur, just west of Cannes, in Southern France and devoted the next 18 years to restoring the castle and […]

Henry Coleman Baskerville (1905 - 1969)

Architect. The son of architect Henry Eugene Baskervill, he added an “e” to the family named after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and joining his father’s firm, which was reorganized as Baskervill and Son. His professional work was interrupted in World War II when he entered the United States Navy as a Lieutenant and […]

Henry Coleman Baskerville (1905 - 1969)

Architect. The son of architect Henry Eugene Baskervill, he added an “e” to the family named after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and joining his father’s firm, which was reorganized as Baskervill and Son. His professional work was interrupted in World War II when he entered the United States Navy as a Lieutenant and […]