Sarepta Myrenda Irish Henry (November 4, 1839 – January 16, 1900) was an American evangelist, temperance reformer, poet and author. She also wrote under the pen name Dina Linwood.
Henry was among the first to join the Women's Crusade. From the beginning of the organization of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), she was associated with the national body as superintendent of evangelical work and as evangelist. For seven years, she was associated with gospel temperance in Rockford, Illinois. In 1888, she served as the chairperson of the National WCTU's Evangelistic Bureau. A partial record of this work is found in her book Pledge and Cross. Henry occupied pulpits among all denominations throughout the United States. Through her evangelistic work, saloons were closed, churches built and hundreds converted. Her published fourteen books of which two, Victoria and Marble Cross, were poetry collections. The prose works were After the Truth, in four volumes, Pledge and Cross, Voice of the Home and its Legend, Mabel's Work, One More Chance, Beforehand, Afterward, Unanswered Prayer, and Frances Raymond's Investment.
Early life and education
Sarepta Myrenda Irish was born in Albion, Pennsylvania, November 4, 1839. She was of New England ancestry.
Her father, Rev. Horatio Nelson Irish, was an architect before he became a Methodist clergyman. He was preaching in Albion at the time of the daughter's birth. In 1841, he was sent to Illinois as a missionary, where he did pioneer work. Her mother was Mary Allis Clark Irish. Her great grandfather, on the mother's side, was a surgeon in the American Revolutionary War; her grandfather, a captain of militia in the war of 1812. Her father's family were Quakers.
She learned to read from her Bible that her grandmother gave her when a very little child. Her father taught her himself until she was nineteen. She had hardly ever attended school until, in 1859, Henry entered the Rock River Seminary, in Mount Morris, Illinois, under the reign of President Harlow, when she had for her pastor Rev. John H. Vincent, then just coming into his life work. Recognition had been given to her literary ability, and during her school days, she won many honors in composition. Very early in life, she showed considerable power in composing; in fact, her mind was expressing her thoughts in verse before she had a knowledge of meter and rhyme. The first production of her pen to appear in print was a poem published during the year 1855, in the Northwestern Christian Advocate. From that time on, she became a steady contributor to various religious magazines, writing more often, however, for The Ladies' Repository, assuming the name of "Dina Linwood", until sometime in the year 1859, when she yielded to her father's suggestion to drop the pen name. During the first term at school, she was called home to see her father die. He had been an invalid for eight years, and she was his constant companion, reading and writing for him. She even used to do her thinking aloud to him.
Henry was fond of literary pursuits from childhood, and her mother humored all her poetic fancies with no responsibility. Her school life was spent at Mount Morris, Illinois, where began an acquaintance with many choice men and women who helped her future. Rev. Dr. John H. Vincent was her pastor and friend, and with his wife took her under their care, and made it possible for her to rally and go on after her bereavement. Her boarding-place was in the home of Rev. B. H. Cartwright. A portion of every day was spent with him and his wife in their study, and a tie was formed then that has but strengthened in future years.
Career
Civil War years
Henry had many convictions that she ought to enter the foreign missionary field.