Henderson Family History
By Diana Cronhardt November 2011
Pearl Lucille Henderson is my grandmother. She was born in Greeley, Colorado on 27
November1876.( That was the year Colorado was admitted as a state.) She died on 28 December
1969 in Newhall, Los Angeles County, California, age 93. (That was my mother’s birthday). My
grandmother was married to William Ernest Williams on the 31st of January 1900 in Kirksville,
Adair County, Missouri. That was the day she graduated from the Osteopathic Medical College
in Kirksville as Doctor Pearl Henderson.
Pearl Lucille Henderson Greeley, Colorado
Pearl in Greeley, Colorado
Pearl is the daughter of William Lee Henderson and Rosalind Virginia Clark.
Pearl’s parents were divorced when she was 10 years old. (11 Jan
1787). Her father and her
Uncle Milton Park Henderson were operating a cattle ranch in Sterling, Colorado. Her mother
Rosalind had returned to Wapello, Iowa with her father Dr.William Clark on the 13th of
Nov.1778. Pearl’s brother John Lee Henderson was born in Wapello, Iowa on 13 August
1879.
In the 1880 Weld County, Colorado Census
35 | | 138 143 | Henderson W L | w m 29 | | x | Stock Raiser | | | Pennsylvania PA PA/ | H536
36 | | 138 143 | Henderson Rose | w f 24 | Wife | x | Keeping House | | | Iowa Iowa Iowa | H536
37 | | 138 143 | Henderson Pearl | w f 3 | Daughter | x | | | | Colorado Pennsylvania Iowa | H536
38 | | 138 143 | Henderson John | w m 10/12 | Aug Son | x | | | | Iowa Pennsylvania Iowa | H536
W. Lee Henderson and Rose were divorced on 11 January 1887. She and her brother John
were sent to Vinton, Iowa to live with a governess Ethel. Pearl and John were baptized in
Vinton.
Baptism Certificate: This certifies that Pearl L Henderson received Christian Baptism at my
hands on June 10 th 1888.
M.H. Smith
Vinton, Ia.
Pastor of M.E. Church
Early fall of 1883, the Iowa Conference appointed Rev. M.H. Smith (1883-1886) as the Pastor of
the Waverly First Methodist Episcopal Church in Vinton, Iowa. During his ministry, a fund was
started to build a parsonage.
.
Pearl, William Lee, and John Lee Henderson, Vinton, Iowa. 20 Sep 1887
On 31 August 1890 Pearl’s father, Lee married Emma Diffendorfer Brown. After that Pearl
and John returned to Sterling Colorado.. Emma had four daughters when Lee and Emma were
married; Arba, Ella, Pet, and Jessie.
On 7 Dec 1887 Pearl’s mother married Kossuth Buchannan in Wapallo, Iowa. Kossuth was a
rancher in Sterling, Colorado.
Newspaper:Platte Valley Record Supplement, 15 Dec 1887,"Wedding Bells -Henderson - Buchanan wed 7 Dec [1887] were married at Wapallo, Iowa.
Mrs Rose C. Henderson, formerly of this place and Mr K. Buchanan of
Cedar Creek. These young people are too well known to need
introduction to Sterling Society. Their acquaintance and courtship
have covered a period of nine years. At times many clouds hovered
over their pathways, and it was only about a year ago that the skies
finally cleared and certain embarrassing obstacles were removed. We
extend to the happy young couple the congratulations customary at
such times."
Denver, Co. Colorado State Historical Society.
Lizzie
Gordon Buchanan Interview. C.W.A., Volume 341.(second wife of Kossuth Buchanan)
Kossuth Buchanan Interview. C.W.A., Volume 341.(Husband of Rosalind Clark Henderson)
Cal Cheairs Interview. C. W. A., Volume 341.
Sallie J. Cheairs Interview. C.W.A., Volume 341.
John M. Henderson Interview. C. W. A., Volume 341. (W.L. Henderson’s half brother)
W. L. Henderson Interview. C. W. A., Volume 341.( Great Grandfather)
Smith Canal and Ditch Company Collection.
When Grandma was young her mother, Rosalind, would hide the two of them in the rushes on
the Plat River, when she thought the Indians were coming.
Old
Ned was the buggy horse, he took the children to school in Sterling. Then he would go back to
the ranch, after school Old Ned was sent back to school for the children. Sterling was on the
North West side of the Platt River and the ranch was on the South East side of the Platt.
A big day on the ranch was the 4th of July, all the girls would get their horses bathed and
groomed, plating their manes and tails with ribbons for the parade in Sterling.
Grandma told me in winter on the ranch they would have taffy pulls, the weather had to be just
right to pull taffy. Grandma's Christmas treat for us was her candy. She dipped chocolate with
cream centers and cherries. The cherries had to be made several weeks ahead so the cream turned
to liquid. She made all kinds of dipped chocolate. I have her candy cookbook.
Grandma loved horses. She and her father Lee had to go on horseback in a blizzard to break up
the group of sheep, that had bunched up in the corners of the fence, to keep them from
smothering each other. In the summer when the work was finished on the ranch the family would
pack up their things in the buckboard and go to Rocky National Park for the rest of the summer.
A family story, “Grandma was angry at her father, so she saddled up her horse and took off
across the sandhills for Cheyenne, Wyoming. She was going to join Buffalo Bill’s Wild West
Show.”
The Sterling News, Sterling, Colorado, June 12, 1896
Commencement Orations
The graduating exercises last Friday night [5 June 1896], at the town hall---- consisted of
Misses Etta Shannon, May Perkins and Pearl Henderson, and Messrs John McClure and
John Henderson.
Sterling High School Graduation Class 1896
Pearl Henderson left front, John Lee Henderson right back
HAPPY HOMES AND THE HEARTS THAT MAKE THEM
by Pearl Henderson [19 years old]
Some natures are so happily constituted that they can find good in everything. There is no
calamity but they can educe comfort and consolation from it, no sky so black but they can
discover a gleam of sunshine, issuing through it from some quarter or other. And if the sun be
not visible to their eyes, they at least comfort themselves with the thought, veiled from them, for
some good and wise purpose.
Such natures are to be envied. When they have burdens to bear, they bear them, cheerfully, not
repining nor fretting nor wasting their energies in useless lamentations, but struggling nobly
onward, gathering the flowers that grow along their path. Cheerfulness is also an excellent
wearing quality. It enables nature to recruit its strength. While cheerfulness of disposition is a
source of great enjoyment in life, it is also a great safeguard of character. A noted writer, in
answer to the question, "How are we to overcome temptation? "Says, "Cheerfulness is the first
thing, cheerfulness is the second, and cheerfulness is the third." Self-control is at the root of all
virtue. Let a man give the reins to his passions and impulses, and from that moment, he yields up
his moral freedom. To be morally free, man must be able to resist instinct and impulse. This can
only be done by the exercise of self-control.
The first seminary of moral discipline, and the best, is the home. The best regulated home is that
in which the discipline is the most perfect, and yet where it is the least felt. Those subject to it,
yield themselves to it unconsciously, and though it shapes and forms the whole character until
the life becomes crystallized in habit, the influence thus exercised is for the most part unseen,
and almost unfelt. Life will always be, to a great extent, what we make of it. We usually find our
own temperaments reflected in the dispositions of those about us. A person returning from an
evening party, not long ago, complained to a policeman, that an ill-looking fellow was following
him. It turned out to be his own shadow. How often we anticipate dangers, refusing because we
see them, to go on. But our fears are only to be disappointed and our faith proved victorious by
confronting the perils that lie in our path.
The courage of self-control exhibits itself in many ways, but in none more clearly than in that of
honest living. The honorable man is frugal with his means and pays his way honestly. As that
man is not poor whose means are small, but whose wants are under control, so that man is rich
whose means are more than sufficient for his wants. When Socrates saw a great quantity of
riches, jewels and furniture of great value, carried through the streets of Athens, he said, "Now
do I see how many things I do not want." A contented mind can be well illustrated by
comparing discontented corn stalks to a flower garden. They were only separated by a garden
fence. They were like human people. If they had allowed common sense to prevail, it would have
prevented a great deal of unhappiness. One large cornstalk said, "Look over at that flower
garden and see the beautiful blossoms, and inhale their sweet breath. Here we are doing nothing
but growing and having nothing to cheer us. Every day, I see ladies and children gathering
bouquets for their homes. I ask you now," and he actually shook with emotion.
"Who among you can consider our situation with a contented mind?" As these sentiments made
their way through the corn field, one by one they hid their ears, wrapping them close in their
husks. The beautiful summer days were past, the beauty of the flowers was gone. Loaded wagons
rolled along the roads heaped with golden corn, the product of the discontented cornfield. The
happy house-wife praised the cornmeal, and the children declared "there never was anything so
delicious as mother's Indian pudding." Thus was the discontent of these cornstalks found to be as
foolish as that of some people, whose fault-finding views of life are entirely wrong. We will again
illustrate by contrasting the characters of two noted men. Edgar Allen Poe was naturally gifted,
and should have made a wonderful success of life, but step by step through life he failed. First in
school and again as a West Point cadet he was expelled for dissipation. He wasted his money in
riotous living until again and again he was compelled to ask assistance of his friends. Three
years before his death the dark clouds appeared to lift and his life seemed to grow brighter. Just
as he was about to be married to a wealthy lady, he was attacked by delirium and taken to a
public hospital, where he died among strangers. What a sad ending for a life which promised
such a bright future. Abraham Lincoln is a character just the reverse of Poe's. He aimed to avoid
all evil and to do good by making others happy. This trait is illustrated by his wonderful ability
of telling stories. He was poor in this world's goods and, at the age of twenty-one, had only a
common school education. But energy and ambition lead him to step upward, holding trusted
positions in county, state and afterward the highest gift people can bestow, the President of the
U.S., and while in this position, he met his violent death at the hand of an assassin, closing a life
well worthy the emulation of all of us. Now, my dear classmates, we have spent many profitable
years together and, taking all in all, very happy ones. Let us continue to make the best of our
environments, and whatever our lots may be, remember that a happy heart and a contented mind
is BETTER THAN GOLD
"They talk of the Golden City, and sing of the Golden Shore, When this brief life is o'er
But the lanes of a country meadow, And the shade of a waving tree, Are better than all the
splendor Of Golden streets, for me.
A vision of quiet valleys, Comes into my dreamy hours, the ripple of running waters,
The wonderful bloom of flowers, the circling hills above them, the far blue rim of the sea, Ah!
these are dearer than cities With Golden streets, for me!"
After graduation grandma taught school in Sterling, Colorado before going to Kirksville,
Missouri and enrolling in the American School of Osteopathy, in Feb. 1898.
Pearl Henderson left and her classmates
Wedding photographs Pearl l .Henderson &
William Ernest Williams
31 January 1900, Kirksville, Missouri
See the Williams Family
My grandfather, William Ernest Williams, was
six foot tall and always very slender. When I was
born he had lost that lovely dark hair and had only
a tuft around his ears which was gray. Grandma
was barely five foot tall weighing less than 100
pounds and wore a size 3 shoe. She had beautiful
legs and feet. She never wore grandmother shoes.
After my grandparents were married they were in
Grants Pass, Oregon in 1906.
Grandma was bring home dinner. In 1906 while living on Steamboat Mountain in Oregon, she
saddled her horse and rode to the Oregon Caves.
In 1907, Joaquin Miller, the "Poet of the Sierra," and Chandler B. Watson, author of Prehistoric
Siskiyou Island and the Marble Halls of Oregon, visited the cave. They were highly impressed
and promoted the cave as the "Marble Halls of Oregon." Public attention was aroused and the
cave was established as Oregon Caves National Monument on July 12,
1909.
My grandmother was a very good seamstress. Her governess taught her the fine art of hand
sewing, tatting, and knitting. Grandmother made Carol’s first baby coat and bonnet and
upholstered a toy box for her.
After my grandfather died she lived with my mother. Grandma lived with Bob and me for a
short time after Carol was born. We were living at China Lake, California and two days, before
Carol was born on the 22nd of December 1950, Grandma and I were in Los Angeles, Christmas
shopping. She always had lots of energy; we ran all over town, I was 24 and grandma 74. Bob
and I took a fishing trip to Banff, Alberta, Canada when Carol was about eight months old.
Grandma went with us; she took care of Carol during the day while Bob and fished. We then
went to Puyallup, Washington to visit grandma’s brother John Henderson and Edna.
Grandma always kept in touch with her classmates from Sterling, Colorado. They held a picnic
in Long Beach, California every summer. On the 24th of July 1952 Grandma married a
classmate, Ned Fish, from Sterling. Ned’s wife had been a good friend of Grandmas. They were
both lonesome. Ned had a feed-lot in the southern part of Los Angeles. Ned died on the 12th of
December 1957. Before Ned died, he and Grandma took a trip back to Sterling to see their
friends. Grandma always said, “I never want to go back to Sterling, life was too hard and the
wind always blew, especially in the winter.”
Grandma was considered blind, by the Blind Institute, and would receive records. Her favorites
were western stories. She also liked to listen to the baseball games and knew all the ball players.
Our children always called her, “Grandma with the white kitty.”
Dr. Pearl Lucille Henderson Williams Fish
Grandma’s brother John Lee Henderson lived in Emporia, Kansas in 1940 and worked for the
Santa Fe railroad.
.
John Lee Henderson
Was born 13 August 1879 in Wapello, Lousis County, Iowa.
He married Edna 2 March 1919 in Newton, Kansas, Edna was born 5 Oct 1888. Their address
was 911 Main Ave West Puyallup, Washington. He died in Puyallup.
William Lee Henderson
William Lee Henderson is my great grandfather he was born on 18 June 1850 in Oil Creek
Twp, Crawford County, Pennsylvania. He died 17th April 1940 in West Orange, Orange County,
California. He was the third son of William Mitchell Henderson and Mary Jane Brawley. First
Milton Park Henderson born 25 Sept
1846, second Samuel Franklin Henderson born 27
Sept 1828, died 20 February 1853, then William Lee Henderson. Lee married Rosalind
Virginia Clark 26 January 1876 in Wapello, Louisa
County, Iowa.
History of Oil Creek
From Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, Drake Well Museum Collection, Titusville, PA
The Phillips well, on the right, and the Woodford well, on the left. Located in the middle of Oil
Creek Valley (note the river at the right of the photograph), these two wells showed the early
promise of the Oil Regions. The Phillips well was the most productive ever drilled to date,
flowing initially at 4,000 barrels per day in October 1861. The Woodford well came in at 1,500
barrels per day in July 1862. Note the wooden tank collecting the oil in the foreground, as well
as the many different sized barrels in the background. At this time, barrel size was not yet
standardized, which made terms like "Oil is selling at $5 per barrel" very confusing.
The truth was, Edwin Drake was not a "Colonel" of anything. He and his financiers simply
invented the title to impress the locals, many of whom laughed at what was, for a time, known as
"Drake's Folly". With the financial backing of the newly formed Pennsylvania Rock Oil
Company (soon to be renamed Seneca Oil Company), Drake set off to Titusville, Pennsylvania in
1857 to survey the situation. Drilling began in the summer of 1859. There were many problems
with this well, and progress was slow and financially costly. The initial money the investors had
fronted Drake ran out, and he had to borrow more to keep drilling.
"The Yankee's Struck Oil!"
On August 27, 1859, Drake and Smith drilled to a depth of 21.18 m (69 1/2 feet). It was not until
the next morning, on August 28, when the driller, "Uncle Billy" Smith, noticed oil floating in the
hole they had pulled the drilling tools from the night before. By today's standards, it was a pretty
unremarkable hole, probably producing 20 barrels or less of oil per day.
... And just in time
the timing could not have been better. Most of the financial backers had given up on the project,
and James Townsend, after having financed the operation out of his own pocket, had sent Drake
the order to pay the remaining bills and close up shop. Drake received this order on the very day
that he struck oil.
The oil boom
Almost overnight, the quiet farming region changed in much the same manner as the gold rush
towns of the Wild West. The flats in the narrow valley of Oil Creek, averaging only around 330
m (~1000 feet) wide were quickly leased, and hastily constructed derricks erected. Towns sprang
up out of nowhere with people coming from all over looking to make their fortunes. This once
quiet area suddenly became louder than anyone could have imagined, with steam engines and
other types of machinery necessary to run the hundreds of wells that sprang up in the valley in
the first couple of years. And the mud was fast becoming legendary. Horses were the main means
of transporting machines and oil in these early days. As soon as a trail became too muddy to
travel, the trail was simply widened. Soon, the width of the trails stretched from the stream to the
foot of the hills, with the entire area having been transformed into mud. Horses, which were
worked to beyond exhaustion, would often sink up to their bellies in the stuff.
Triumph Hill, 1871
Titusville's history is almost all about oil. The name was derived from Jonathan Titus who was
the first settler, coming to this lush valley in Crawford County, PA Crawford County in 1796.
Within 14 years others bought and improved the land near him. A village grew that he named
Edinburgh (h), although local usage referred to the little hamlet as Titusville. The village was
incorporated as a borough in 1847.
Titusville was a slow-growing and peaceful community, lying along the banks of Oil Creek until
the 1850s. Lumber was the principal industry with at least 17 sawmills in the area.
Oil was known to exist here, but there was no practical way to extract it. Generally, its main use
to that time had been as a medicine for both animals and humans. In the late 1850s Seneca Oil
Company (formerly the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company) sent Col. Edwin L. Drake, to start
drilling on a piece of leased land just south of Titusville near what is now Oil Creek State Park.
Drake hired a salt well driller, William A. Smith, in the summer of 1859. They had many
difficulties, but on August 27 at the site of an oil spring just south of Titusville, they finally
drilled a well that could be commercially successful. It truly was an event that changed the
world, beginning with all the surrounding vicinity.
Teamsters were needed immediately to transport the oil to markets. Transporting methods
improved and in 1862 the Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad was built between Titusville and
Corry, Pennsylvania. Corry where it was transferred to other, larger, east-west lines. In 1865
pipelines were laid directly to the rail line and the demand for teamsters practically ended. The
next year the railroad line was extended south to Petroleum Center and Oil City. The Union City
& Titusville Railroad was built in 1865, which became part of the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad
in 1871. That fall President U. S. Grant visited Titusville to view this important region.
Other oil-related businesses quickly exploded on the scene. Eight refineries were built between
1862 and 1868. Drilling tools were needed and several iron works were built. Titusville grew
from 250 residents to 10,000 almost overnight and in 1866 it incorporated as a city. In 1881 the
first oil exchange in the United States was established here.
The first oil millionaire, a resident of Titusville, was Jonathan Watson who owned the land
where Drake's well was drilled. He had been a partner in a lumber business prior to the success
of the Drake well. At one time it was said that Titusville had more millionaires per 1,000
population than anywhere else in the world.
One resident of note was Franklin S. Tarbell whose large Italianate home still stands. He first
moved a few miles south in Venango County and established a wooden stock tank business.
About 10 miles southeast of Titusville was another oil boom city, Pithole. Oil was discovered in a
rolling meadow there in January
1865 and by September
1865 the population
was 15,000. But the oil soon ran dry and within four years the city was nearly deserted. Tarbell
moved to Titusville in 1870. His daughter, Ida M. Tarbell, Ida Minerva Tarbell, grew up amidst
the sounds and smells of the oil industry. She became an accomplished writer and wrote a series
of articles about the business practices of the Standard Oil Company and its president, John D.
Rockefeller, which sparked legislative action in Congress concerning monopolies. (My great
grandfather William Lee Henderson went to school with Ida Tarbell and John D. Archibold
former president of Standard Oil Company)
Fire was always a fearful concern around oil and one of the worst was on June 11,
1880.
It came to be known as "Black Friday," when almost 300,000 barrels of oil burned after an oil
tank was hit by lightning. The fire raged for three days until it finally was brought under control.
Although the oil was valued at $2 million, there was no loss of life. Another fire occurred on
June
5, 1892, when Oil Creek flooded and a tank of benzine overturned. The benzine
ignited and in the ensuing explosions 60 men, women and children died. Another lightning strike
in 1894 resulted in 27,000 barrels lost in a fire.
Oil production in Pennsylvania peaked in 1891 which was when other industries arose in
Titusville. The iron and steel industries dominated the town in the early twentieth century with
lumber eventually returning as its major industry. Oil is still a force, however. Charter Plastics
Company is now located in a building that once manufactured pressure vessels, stationery
engines and boilers for the oil industry. Today's product is made from oil. By the end of the
decade, 1869, Titusville emerged as the commercial and financial capital of the oil region.
William Lee Henderson - 1857 seven years old. Titusville, PA
William Lee Henderson, Sterling, Colorado about 1876 age 26
Milton Park Henderson, Lees brother, and his cousin Martin H. Smith, went to Greeley,
Colorado in 1870 with the Union Colony. Lee wanted to go with them but his father insisted he
go to Eastman Business College in Poughkeepsie, NY for 2 years. Rather than merely being a
theoretical school, students gained practical experience in the business arts of the time by
actually performing the tasks that would be expected of them in their working careers. This
approach was novel at the time, and Eastman Business College might be considered an early
example of a laboratory school.
After graduating he arrived in Greeley in July 1872 by train.
1870 A.D. Denver and Pacific Railroad is constructed to connect Denver with Union Pacific at
Cheyenne, Wyoming; the Kansas Pacific enters Colorado from Missouri River. Union Colony is
established by Horace Greeley and Nathan C. Meeker at Greeley, and first irrigation canal
surveyed there. The Greeley Tribune established. Population of Colorado territory 39,864.
The following are letters written by William Lee Henderson to his family in Titusville,
Pennsylvania.
:
"Greeley, Sept. 30, 1872. (Monday)
Dear Mother,
As you told me to write you a letter every month, I thought I had better be getting at it pretty
soon as I have been absent from home six weeks tomorrow and have not written directly to you
yet. We are done haying and I am awful glad of it as I found it as hard work to hay here as it was
in Oil Creek. Mit(Milt) has gone to herding this week for that man Brush (Jarid L. Brush) that
he has his cattle with. Mit has a 'good thing' as the saying is.Mart (cousin Martin Smith) and I
came up to Greeley last night. Mart is going up to Collins to see a man on some business this
afternoon and I am going to see the