Biography

1859 -

Born to a prominent Southern family in Morgan County, Georgia, October 3, 1859, he was the son of William Wallace and Emily S. (Mann) Chisholm, who moved to DeKalb, Mississippi.  Henry’s father was a distinguished Republican politician during Reconstruction, and he and two of his children paid for the unique distinction with their lives: killed by the Ku Klux Klan in April 1877.   Henry received an early education in DeKalb, Mississippi, and was a student at Vanderbilt University at the time of his father’s death.  Forced to leave school and return to his family, he was awarded a job in the Surgeon General’s Office, Washington DC, for seven months in 1878, resigning to enter the Williamsport (Pa.) commercial college, from which he graduated.  In 1883 he served as a clerk in Governor Hoyt’s office; moved to Idaho briefly before returning to enter Columbia College, Washington, DC.  He enrolled at Hahnemann Medical College in 1885, later (1888) graduating with a medical degree, relocating in Huntingdon, Pa., where he established a practice (1889) and remained.   He married Lillian Gross of Harrisburg in 1883.