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Henry Connelly
was born in 1800 in Nelson County, the son of John Donaldson and Frances Connelly. His ancestors in America were heroes of the Revolution, fighting in the patriot armies of Washington, Greene, Morgan, Gates, Lincoln, and Pinckney.

Connelly was married in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1838 to a Mexican woman, who mothered three sons. Following the death of his first wife, he married a widow, Delores Perea, from Peralta, New Mexico in the late 1840's with whom he had three children.

Henry Connelly was educated in the county schools of Kentucky. Connelly attended Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky where he received a medical degree in 1828.

He was one of the first to graduate from that institution. He practiced medicine for a few months in Liberty, Clay County, Missouri. Later, he became a clerk in a store, buying out the owner. Connelly moved in the late 1840's to Peralta, New Mexico where he operated an extremely successful trading business. He was elected in 1851 from Bernalillo County to the Upper House, The Territorial Council, and held that office through most of the decade.

President Abraham Lincoln appointed Connelly Governor of New Mexico on September 4, 1861. Connelly was a strong Unionist. In December 1861, he demanded and achieved the repeal of the Slave Act of 1859 which protected slavery in the territory.

With the support of Governor Connelly, the Union forces defeated Confederate troops at Peralta in April of 1862. At the end of the Confederate threat, Connelly turned his attention to the Indians. Connelly offered them the choice of life on the reservation or death.

Governor Connelly was ill during a good part of his governorship, and from the fall of 1862 until May of 1863, he left the territory to recuperate. He was an intensely loyal man during the Civil War, and it was largely through his influence that the leading citizens of New Mexico refused to ally themselves with the invading Confederates under General Sibley.

Socially, he was a man of great refinement and intelligence. Connelly finally retired as Chief Executive on July 16, 1866.

He died on August 12, 1866 in Santa Fe of an opium overdose, and was buried at the Rosario Cemetery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.