JOHN S. HENDERSON

(From the History of Callaway County Missouri, 1884, page 867)
Transcribed by Kris Breid, 18 December 2004

JOHN S. HENDERSON, section 2, township 48, range 9, was born in Augusta county, Virginia, January 7, 1810, his parents, Daniel and Martha (Steele) Henderson, being natives of the same section of Virginia. They came to Missouri in 1823, landing in Callaway county November 24, and settling on section 11, township 49, range 8.

After one winter spent on the farm, he bought land of Charles Younger, grandfather of the Younger boys. In the spring of 1824, he settled on that place, where he lived until his death in 1828, at the age of sixty-two. His wife remained there until 1855, when she died at the advanced age of eighty years, during the last ten or twelve years of which she had been blind. He was the only member of his family in Missouri.

His family consisted of six children, viz.: Alexander, James, Fulton, John S., Jane, the wife of Colonel Tate, and Sallie S., who died in childhood. Alexander died in 1863. Mr. Henderson was married April 20, 1841, to Miss Mary Snell, daughter of Major W. W. Snell. She died June 21, 1858, aged forty.

March 15, 1860, he married Miss Elizabeth Pratt, sister of Thomas J. Pratt, and born in Callaway county, near Portland, on Coates’ Prairie, January 17, 1820. She is now the oldest person living who was born in the county. One sister, Mrs. Lavina Hamilton, is still living. Their father, William Pratt, came from Tennessee to Callaway county in October, 1817, and died February 19, 1859. His wife, Jerusha Ann Burchett, died about 1821. They had four children, viz., John, who died in his youth, of cholera, in October, 1833; Thomas J., who died in 1875; Viny, wife of James Hamilton; Elizabeth, wife of Mr. Henderson.

Mr. H. settled upon the old farm when he married. He had previously been engaged with his brother James, for ten years, in clerking at his store in Fulton. He built on his present location in 1861. His farm consists of 800 acres, most of which was entered by his father. It is devoted principally to stock raising, and includes 200 acres of blue grass. The family of Mr. and Mrs. H. are as follows: William, accidentally shot and killed at Brown Spring, while in camp, at the age of twenty-one; Martha, who married Doctor John Potts, now of San Jose, California, and who died January 2, 1865; and James, who occupies a part of the farm, and who married Lida, daughter of Doctor Frank Dillard; Daniel Willis, who died in infancy; Mary Susan, afterwards Mrs. Peter Walther, of Fulton, died January 13, 1881; John, who still lives on the farm, and married Lida, daughter of Thomas Harrison, by whom were two children. Mr. Henderson and wife have been members of Auxvasse Presbyterian church for twenty years. He is also a member of the I. O.O. F., of Auxvasse.

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