The Henkel House

Built in 1802 by Dr. Solomon Henkel, one of the first physicians in New Market, the Henkel House included a rear building that first served as an apothecary shop and later became the first location of the German-language Henkel Press founded in New Market. In 1855, Solomon's son, Dr. Solon P.C. Henkel, added two upstairs rooms and the wooden facade seen today. Solon, his wife Anna Maria, and their many children lived there during the Civil War. In mid-June 1862, German soldiers in Union Gen. John C. Fremont's army broke into the house, ransacked it, and stole property but left the family unharmed. Union looters entered again on the morning of the Battle of New Market, and Dr. Henkel persuaded them to spare his surgical instruments by warning that he might need them before the day was over. Later that day, as Confederates swept through town, Confederate commander Gen. John C. Breckinridge climbed onto the roof to observe the Union position, but Federal gunfire quickly forced him down. After the battle, Dr. Henkel treated wounded men from both armies and later recalled assisting in the Federal Hospital for three months, operating frequently, amputating several limbs, treating two femoral artery cases, and furnishing medicine and other comforts to the sick and wounded. In June 1864, when Union soldiers returned, Maria Henkel threw boiling water on them from an upstairs window; the enraged men battered open the doors, ran their bayonets through family portraits, and ransacked the house, and the metal plate on the door covers damage done by the Federals.

New Market, Virginia · United States