The Henning family arrived in Calcasieu Parish about 1875 after the Civil War, coming from Alabama by way of British Honduras and East Texas, and began a long role in the community, business, and industry of Southwest Louisiana. Reverend John Henning organized Methodist societies at Rose Bluff, Dutch Cove, and Toomey and served as a circuit rider at the Sulphur Mines, Westlake, and Sulphur. His son, John Thomas Henning, homesteaded land along the Calcasieu River, farmed there, and moved to Sulphur in 1885, where he owned a boarding house and transfer company that hauled the first sulfur from the Union Sulfur Company to the railroad, and he also served as postmaster and ticket agent. He helped build three Methodist churches in Sulphur in the late 1800s and early 1900s, culminating in Henning Memorial Methodist Church on Huntington Street, and he owned Sulphur's largest mercantile store there; later his son W.T. Henning also owned a general mercantile store on Huntington Street. The Henning store stood among businesses of other early Sulphur leaders including J.J. Koonce, George Service, W.T. Burton, Dr. Richard Vincent, and Dr. Samuel Lyons. Around 1911 John T. built the Henning House, where the family lived until about 1923. William T. Henning, son of John T., became a leading businessman, served on Sulphur's first City Council, and was president of the School Board. In 1928 he created what became known as Cameron Telephone Company, which crossed rivers, marshes, and streams to bring the first phone service to Hackberry and Cameron Parish. His sons, John T. and William L. Henning, continued and expanded the company, adding some first-time communication services for the offshore oil and gas industry, and the family later introduced cellular wire service to Southwest Louisiana while continuing its community and business leadership in Sulphur and the region.