HENRY COUNTY

County Seat: Paris
Do you know what a barrage balloon is? During World War II, people in cities like London hung cables in the air meant to protect them from planes that might fly overhead and drop bombs. We didn’t end up using barrage balloons much in this country, but the U. S. Army built an entire barrage balloon training center in Henry County, Tennessee. It was called Camp Tyson, and the base was built from scratch in only a matter of months by as many as 8,000 construction workers.

 

After the war Camp Tyson was shut down. A business called the H. C. Spinks Clay Co. bought most of the base, and it has mined clay there since. Clay dug out of the ground on the old site of Camp Tyson is used for ceramics, rubber, sealant, and many other things.

 

For more information, click here.

Paris, in Henry County, was also the birthplace of Mordecai Johnson, the first African-American president of a university in the United States. Johnson served as the president of Howard University in Washington D.C. from 1926 until 1960.

Here's a picture of the Henry County Courthouse, one of the most handsome in the state.