Civil War years Henry had many convictions that she ought to enter the foreign missionary field. She married James W. Henry of
East Homer, New York, March 1, 1861. Her husband was a scholar and poet, as well as a teacher by profession. They lived briefly in northwestern
Iowa. Both James and S.M.I. Henry had
abolitionist sympathies. James enlisted to the
Union Army at the start of the
American Civil War, in 1864. He was not, however, mustered in at first, because he was a bit under regulation height, so husband and wife went East, to his home, and settled down on a farm. Here was born, in June, their daughter Mary. It was during the first year of Mary's life, that Henry's first book,
Victoria, was written. That poem was not published until Mr. Henry was a soldier. He enlisted again in October, 1864, in the
185th New York Volunteer Infantry, Company E. Her oldest son, Alfred, was born April 4, 1865. The husband came home an invalid in July, 1865, having been in every battle and on every long march of the closing campaign conducted by the 5th Corps. He lived over four years, bravely battling disease, but died in 1871, and was laid to rest in the cemetery of his native valley. Arthur, the youngest son, was nearly three years old when his father died. Henry taught for the next three years; for the first two and a half in the village where she had lived, but later on returned to her
Illinois home. She began teaching in
Rockford, Illinois, under Professor Barbour, in the public school, and was trying to get her children settled in a home where she could have them with her, when good fortune came her way. As a result, she moved into the home she sought where she began writing the "After Truth" series, for which she was paid a fair price.
Temperance She became involved with the Women's Crusade in 1873–74. Being a timid woman, no one expected her to do anything in public, but under the pressure of her convictions, she made the call for Christian women to come together, and became the mouthpiece of the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) on March 27, 1873. She made her first public address in the State Street Baptist Church, Rockford, during the Crusade, to an audience that overflowed into the street. She was very conservative and always looked to the time when she would return to literary work; but as the years passed, it becomes more and more evident that it was a lifework to which she was then called. A Reform Club was organized the year after she began her work.
Pledge and Cross told the story of its redemption. She gave five full years to active
temperance work in Rockford, one year of Gospel work in
Michigan, and three years in the field in
Illinois. In July 1879, Henry removed to
Evanston, Illinois, to educate her children at
Northwestern University. Henry was one of the WCTU's speakers at the
Illinois State Capitol when they presented the "Home Protection Petition." She made the plea from the point of view of a widow with fatherless children, and asked the same power to protect them from the
dram shops which their father would have possessed had he not died. Her lecture on "What is the Boy Worth?" was a presentation of the question of the hour, and was given with telling effect in scores of towns and cities. The book,
Roy, or The Voice of his Home, was one of Henry's best. Its sequel was, ''Mabel's Work
. Pledge and Cross'' had the largest sale of any book of its kind, and conveyed the essence of the Gospel Temperance Crusade. All were published by John Newton Stearns, New York. The Temperance Training Institute was founded by Henry, by which normal
Sunday School methods were applied to the understanding of
temperance work, the spiritual side being strongly emphasized. Dr. Vincent invited Henry to prepare a series of Biblical Temperance Lessons for the
Sunday-School Teacher. Henry was also superintendent of the WCTU's National Training School for Temperance Workers. ==Later life and death==