Sarepta Myrenda Irish Henry (November 4, 1839 – January 16, 1900) was an American evangelist, temperance reformer, poet and author.

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.

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.

[2] 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.

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.

[4] Her school life was spent at Mount Morris, Illinois, where began an acquaintance with many choice men and women who helped her future.

He enlisted again in October, 1864, in the 185th New York Volunteer Infantry, Company E. Her oldest son, Alfred, was born April 4, 1865.

The husband came home an invalid in July, 1865, having been in every battle and on every long march of the closing campaign conducted by the 5th Corps.

He lived over four years, bravely battling disease, but died in 1871,[3] and was laid to rest in the cemetery of his native valley.

She began teaching in Rockford, Illinois, under Professor Barbour, in the public school, and was trying to get her children settled in a home where she could have them with her, when good fortune came her way.

As a result, she moved into the home she sought where she began writing the "After Truth" series, for which she was paid a fair price.

She was very conservative and always looked to the time when she would return to literary work; but as the years passed, it becomes more and more evident that it was a lifework to which she was then called.

[8] Henry was one of the WCTU's most effective speakers at the Illinois State Capitol when they presented the great "Home Protection Petition."

She made the memorable plea from the point of view of a widow with fatherless children, and asked the same power to protect them from the dram shops which their father would have possessed had he not died.

Pledge and Cross had the largest sale of any book of its kind, and conveyed the essence of the Gospel Temperance Crusade.