DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, if you ever find yourself rolling through Kaufman County and you start to wonder who kept the wheels turning back when this part of Texas was figuring out what the twentieth century was going to look like — well, pull over a minute. Because this is the story of Reeves Henry, and it deserves to be told right.
Reeves Henry was born in Gregg County in 1859, the son of William and Mariah Henry, farmers and laborers both. He came up in a world that didn't hand men like him much of anything, and yet somewhere along the way he picked up machinist training — the real kind, the kind that lets you look at a broken locomotive and know exactly what it's telling you. In 1880, he married Carrie Echols, born in 1864, and together they built a family that filled a house with nine children: Felix, Josephine, Arthur Lee, Maria, Ada, Devonia, Dave, Daisy, and Zaing.
Nine names worth saying out loud. Sometime in the 1890s, the Henrys packed up and moved from Gregg County to Kaufman County, and Reeves Henry got to work. He established a blacksmith shop — but calling him just a blacksmith is a little like calling a river just water.
He repaired automobiles, wagons, carriages, accessories. And when the right part didn't exist? He made do.
He looked at a pile of what other people had thrown away as junk and he saw the solution. A Forney native named Hubert Feagin remembered Reeves Henry as a mechanical genius — and that word, genius, he earned it with ingenuity and inventiveness and problem-solving that made people stop and stare. In 1907, Henry filed a patent for a cotton chopping machine.
Then in 1921, he filed another one. Two patents. A man working metal in a blacksmith shop in Kaufman County, sending his ideas to be recorded by the wider world.
Business boomed. Sometime before 1914, Henry opened a new shop at the corner of Center Street and Pacific Street in Forney, and his reputation for excellence — in mechanical skill and in customer service both — brought people through that door steady. Even as Jim Crow laws made life harder and harder for African Americans across the South, Henry seemed to be well respected by all.
About that same time, he built a home four blocks to the southeast, at Broad and Pine. And that house — that home where nine children had names and a father who could fix anything — was the first Black-owned house in Forney to have a telephone. He was, by the accounts of the time, possibly the wealthiest Black man in Forney.
Now here's where the story turns quiet on you. In 1925, the Henry Blacksmith Shop was demolished to make way for the construction of the B.A. Badgett Gin.
The shop where he'd worked his ingenuity into metal and motion — gone. Reeves Henry died on November 4, 1930, and was buried in Prairie View Cemetery. His grave is unmarked.
Unmarked. That's the word that ought to sit with you. A man who filed patents, who built the first telephone-equipped Black-owned home in Forney, who looked at junk and made it useful, who earned the word genius from people who watched him work — and the ground above him carries no name.
That's exactly why the marker exists. And that's exactly why his name is worth saying out loud, one more time, out here on the road: Reeves Henry.
What the marker says
Born in Gregg County in 1859 to farmers and laborers William and Mariah Henry, Reeves Henry was a prominent local African American businessman in Kaufman County. In 1880, he married Carrie Echols (b. 1864). The couple would have nine children: Felix, Josephine, Arthur Lee, Maria, Ada, Devonia, Dave, Daisy and Zaing. The Henrys moved from Gregg County to Kaufman County sometime in the 1890s. Henry had received machinist training and sometimes repaired locomotives. In Kaufman County, he established a blacksmith shop. He also repaired automobiles, wagons, carriages and accessories. Many times, this meant "making do" or crafting repairs out of items deemed to be junk. Forney native Hubert Feagin remembered Reeves Henry as a mechanical "genius" due to his ingenuity, inventiveness and problem-solving skills. In 1907 and 1921, Henry filed patents for cotton chopping machines. Success continued as Henry earned a reputation for excellence in both his mechanical skill and customer service. Even though the rise of Jim Crow laws made life difficult for African Americans, Henry seemed to be well respected by all. Henry opened a new shop at the corner of Center Street and Pacific Street sometime before 1914 and business boomed. About that time, he built a home four blocks to the southeast at Broad and Pine. The Henry home was the first black-owned house in Forney to have a telephone. He was possibly the wealthiest black man in Forney at that time. In 1925, the Henry Blacksmith Shop was demolished to make way for construction of the B.A. Badgett Gin. Henry died on November 4, 1930, and was buried in Prairie View Cemetery. His grave is unmarked. Reeves Henry's ingenuity and skill during a time when Forney was adopting the new conveniences that would shape twentieth century life makes him an important early citizen worthy to be remembered. (2021)