Union Captain marries Rebel Captain's daughter

Isaac Newton Hemry was born July 23, 1828 in Carroll County, Ohio. His father,
Abraham Hemry, was a farmer in Pennsylvania. Abraham's father was Henry Hemry.
Isaac was a schoolteacher until coming to Caldwell County, Missouri, with his 
brothers, Haman and John, in 1855. Here Isaac taught school one or two years, 
and then farmed until the outbreak of the Civil War. Isaac first served under 
Captain Moses James of the 13th Missouri infantry, in Home Guard service. 
Lieutenant Isaac Hemry was part of the calvary in the Battle of Blue Mills 
Landing, Liberty, Missouri. In 1864 Isaac was Captain of the 44th Missouri 
infantry, Company F, which saw action at Sping Hill, Franklin, Nashville, and 
Spanish Fort, Alabama.

"My father, Captain David Thompson, was a Confederate soldier (he always called 
it Rebel) he, and a very dear friend Newt Parker were taken prisoners. When the 
family found out, our sister, Sallie, felt impressed to appeal to Captain Isaac 
Hemry of the Union Army for his release (I believe she was 15), and as she 
always said, "believe it or not, love overcomes politics", and they were married 
that year, October 28, 1863. Father was opposed, but he always said "I know when 
I'm whipped", so in the family, politics were forgotten". 
-from a letter written by Flora Belle (Thompson) Dudley.

At the close of the war, Isaac, along with his father-in-law, purchased a hotel 
in Macon City, for $14,000, but it burned shortly after, and with little 
insurence, it was a heavy loss. Isaac went back to farming, and as a general 
merchant. Finally he was employed to take charge of property known as the Kinney 
farm, until "he was most cowardly and atrociously murdered by being shot." 
(Caldwell Co. history book)

The Murder of Captain Isaac Newton Hemry
 

On Sunday morning August 30, 1885, Captain Isaac Henry was assassinated on the
Kenney farm, about one and a half miles west of Kidder. At the time of his death 
Capt. Hemry was in charge of the farm as the agent of a banking firm in Gallatin. 
The farm, a large and valuable one consisting of several hundred acres, had 
formally been in possession and ownership of Hon. P.S. Kenney but after a long 
process of litigation, had been sold by a decree of court to the bank. The 
judgement creditor of Mr. Kenney ( It is propoer to say that Judge Kenney and 
his wife yet claimed the property or a considerable portion of it and that the 
matter is in process of legal adjudication. (this report was published in 1886). 
Upon obtaining the farm, the bank dispossessed Kenney and placed Capt. Hemry in 
charge. In March 1885, a body composed of two brothers, Judge Kenney,his wife, 
and some other persons made a descent on the fine residence, almost baronial in 
appearance which Judge Kenney had built on the farm and where Hemry was living at
the time, forcibly ejecting him and his family and removed their effects away. 
Soon after, however, the authorities again placed Hemry in possesion. On the 
morning of the assasssination, Capt. Hemry rose at about 6 oclock, and mounting 
a horse rode to the back of the farm a half mile west to salt some cattle which 
he was pasturing. His son Grant Hemry, a lad 16 years of age was engaged near the 
house in attending to some cows. His wife was about her domestic duties. 
Suddenly Grant Hemry and his mother heard a gunshot, apparently made near the 
place where they knew Capt. Henry had gone. In a few seconds another report was 
heard. Suspicioning what had happened, young Hemry mounted a horse and galloped 
rapidly to the spot. Arriving at the pasture, the first object that attracted his 
attention was a man walking in the direction of the timber nearby, carrying a gun, 
leading his father’s horse. Riding nearer the man turned and stopped presenting 
his gun in a threatening manner. The lad halted, dismounted, placed the horse 
between himself and the assassin and renained a few seconds. The man walked to the 
edge of the timber, fastened the horse and disappeared into the woods. 	
Young Hemry then retraced his route to look for his father and after a little 
search found him. He was yet alive but died in a few moments. The boy raised the 
head of his dying father and asked him "O father! Will you die?” The father 
answered feebly “Yes”. “Who shot you ?" asked the boy. Capt. Hemry made a motion 
with his hand in the direction which the assassin had gone and almost immediately 
afterward, expired. The boy then mounted his horse and rode rapidly to Kidder and 
gave the alarm. In a few hours, scores of men were at the scene and there was 
great excitement. The coroner’s inquest held that had before it a large number of 
persons all living nearby but found only that the assassin had fired from behind 
a hedgefence; that he had evidently used a double barrell shotgun loaded heavily 
with buckshot; that he had fired both barrels; that nine shots had struck the 
body, one above the left temple; that Captain Hemry was unaware of his murderers 
presence until after the first shot; and further upon the testimony of young 
Hemry that the assassin was closely masked and was a stout heavily built man. The 
body was buried the following day in the Hamilton cemetery by the GAR of which 
organization the deceased had been a member. Captain Hemry was in the 44th 
Missouri infantry.   At the time of his death Hemry was about 54 yrs of age, he 
was a native of Ohio but came to this county some years before. He entered the 
federal army in the early summer of 1861 as a lieutenenant in the James Company 
of Home Guards, and was connected with the Union service in one capacity or the 
other till the close of the war. A portion of the time he was an officer in the 
militiia and while serving in that capacity was somewhat noted for his 
uncompromising hostility toward the rebels and his harsh treatment of them at 
times. While operating in Ray Co. at one time he caused two of his prisoners to 
be shot, and the present sheriff of Ray Co. barely escaped execution at his hands. 
During the war, however, many Confederate sympathies allege that they received 
numerous favors at the hands of Capt. Hemry; He married a daughter of Captain 
David Thompson who had led the Caldwell Co. Confederate Company. After the war 
Capt. Hemry settled in Grant township near the County line while here he recieved 
anonymous letters warning him to leave the country or he would be killed in 
retaliation of certain injuries he had inflicted during his military experience. 
He soon removed to Oregon but here he was confronted by enemies who held to old 
grudges and warned to leave that state. After a time he located in California 
where he resided several years and then returned to Caldwell. It is said by one 
who says his information came from the Captian himself, that while in California, 
the Confederate avengers were on his track, and that he was warned to leave that 
state. Within a few weeks after the murder, self constituted "detectives", who 
had been in the county for some time, stimulated by an offer of a $1,200 reward, 
caused the arrest of young Grant Hemry, son of the murdered man on the dreadful 
charge of having assassinated his father. After a long and very elaborate 
investigation before Judge James Mcmillan of Kingston, a justice of the peace, 
the boy was discharged. The preliminary examination took the widest possible 
range lasting more than a week and scores of witnesses living near the scene or 
having or being suposed to have any knowledge of the circumstances were 
thoroughly examined., but not one jot or title of inculpating evidence was given 
against the boy, who at the conclusion of the examination was at once discharged. 
No one claimed that anything damaging to the young boy had been developed, 
indeed after the investigation had progressed two or three days, it was claimed 
by the detectives that his arrest was a sham, and that the investigation was only
for the purpose of bringing out the facts, so that the real guilty party might be 
discovered. Pending the examination, a Mr. D.K. Ross swore out a warrant for the 
arrest of Edmund Kenney charging him with the murder. He is a brother of P.S. 
Kenney and resides about a mile west of where Hemry was killed. The case against 
him was dismissed, however, and not the least particle of evidence was even 
offered to be produced that would in any manner connect him with the crime. On 
young Hemry's examination, Mr. Kenneys wife, who was on the witness stand for the 
first time in her life, was subjected to a severe cross examination and became 
somewhat embarrassed and confused. This circumstance was the principle cause of 
her husbands arrest.

from "History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties," published 1886, page 237

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