Henry said his parents died when he was young and that he was raised by a man named Jackie James who was very mean to him. This was somewhere in the Cane Creek are of Bollinger County Missouri. The 1870 Moultie County Illinois Census lists William Caby as a farm hand:
1870 Moultrie Co Census - Jonathan Creek Township 74/73 - BRACKNEY, Marmaduke .......... CABY, William - 20 - m - w - farm hand - IL - can't write.
He listed his birthplace as Arkansas in the 1880 Pulaski County Missouri Population Census.