Other notable early settlers included: George Waller,[7] Captain George Hairston and Major John Redd,[8] all of whom were present at the surrender of General Cornwallis at Yorktown; Col. Abram Penn, a native of Amherst County, Virginia, who led his Henry County militia troops with the intention of joining General Nathanael Greene at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse during the Revolutionary War;[9] and Brigadier General Joseph Martin, for whom Martinsville is named.

[10] Also prominent were Mordecai Hord, a native of Louisa County and explorer, who lived on his plantation called Hordsville;[11] and Col. John Dillard, born in Amherst County, Virginia in 1751, wounded at the Battle of Princeton during the Revolution, and later a member of the Committee of Safety.

Captain Robert Hairston, a noted politician in the Colony of Virginia, owned Marrowbone plantation, commanded a militia company and served as Henry County's first high sheriff.

Private Alexander Hunter Bassett would later work large tobacco plantations in the county, and Wyatt Jarrett.

"[12] During the American Civil War, the 42nd Virginia Infantry was formed in part from Henry County volunteers.

Its state senator, Christopher Y. Thomas, owned Henry's former Leatherwood plantation and would later briefly serve in the U.S. House of Representatives after the war.

He was succeeded by George Cabell, a Confederate army veteran (38th Virginia Infantry) born in nearby Danville and from a family long prominent in the area.

[13] In 1902, the Henry County Historical Society was incorporated at Martinsville with its first officers being John W. Carter, J. Harrison Spencer and C. B.

[17] The county's six districts are as follows, in alphabetical order: Axton, Bassett, Collinsville, Horsepasture, Reed Creek, and Ridgeway.

Robert Hairston was appointed the first "High sheriff" by Governor Thomas Nelson Jr. when Henry County was formed in 1777.

In 2006, a federal Grand Jury charged 20 defendants for their roles in a racketeering conspiracy that included the distribution of illegal drugs, theft of drugs and firearms under the custody of the Henry County Sheriff's Office, money laundering, and obstruction of justice.