Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/222

 HENDERSON

HENDERSON

1800. He then practised law and also conducted a successful and celebrated law scliool, 1808-33. He was judge of the superior court of North Carolina, 1808-18, an associate justice of the supreme court. 1818-29, and chief justice, 1829-33. He died near Williamsbon), N.C., Aug. 13, 1833.

HENDERSON, Mary Foote, reformer, was born in New York city, July 21, 1846; daughter of Judge Elisha and Eunice (Newton) Foote. Her fatlier (born 1809, died 1883) was judge of the court of common pleas of Seneca countj', N.Y., and U.S. commissioner of patents. She removed with her parents to "Wasliington, D.C., in 18G4, where in 1868 she was married to John Brooks Henderson, U.S. senator from Missouri, and re- sided in St. Louis in her early married life. She was elected president of the Missouri State Suf- frage association in 1876; organized the St. Louis, School of Design in that year, and founded "The Woman's Exchange " in that city in 18T9. She studied art in "Washington university, St. Louis and removed to Washington, D.C., in 1889. She advocated a new executive mansion to take the place of the White House at Washington, and with Mr. Paul J. Pelz, the architect of the new Library of Congress, she formulated plans for a magnificent residence. She is the author of Practical Cooking and Dinner Giving (1876), and Diet of the Sick (1885), and contributions to periodicals.

HENDERSON, Peter, horticulturist, was born at Pathhead, near Edinburgh, Scotland, June 25, 1823. He was apprenticed to a gardener in 1839 and in 1843 removed to the United States, set- tling in Jersey City, N.J., as a florist and seeds- man and establishing an extensive business house in New York city. He published Gardening for Profit (1866), nearly 250,000 copies of which had been sold at the time of his death; Practical Floricidtnre (1868); Gardening for Pleasure (1875); Handbook of Plants (1881); Garden and Farm Topics (1884); and Hoio the Farm Pays (written in collaboration, 1884). He died in Jersey City, N.J., Jan. 17, 1890.

HENDERSON, Richard, pioneer, was born in Hanover county, Va., April 20, 1735; son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Williams) Henderson. His paternal grandparents came from Scotland and liis maternal grandparents from Wales. His father was born in Hanover county, Va., March 17, 1700. Richard removed with his father to North Carolina about 1745 and acquired his edu- cation without instructors, after lie had reached manhood. He was constable and under-sheriff in Granville county, N.C., his father being high- sheriff of the same county. He was admitted to the bar, and in 1769 was appointed associate judge of the superior court Ijy Governor Tryon. His persistence in enforcing the law caused the

displeasure of the opponents to the tax laws and on one occasion, in September, 1770, the Regu- lators drove liim from the bench. When a state government was organized in 1776 he was re- elected, but declined to serve, being interested in the Transylvania Land company. He made the Treaty of Watauga with the Cherokee Indians in 1775, twelve hundred savages being present, by which the company became proprie- tors of 18,000 acres of territory for £10,000 worth of goods, an extent of territory comprising over half the area of the present state of Kentucky and the adjacent part of Tennessee. A government was organized at Boonesborough and Henderson was made president of the proposed state of Tran- sylvania. T!ie first legislature assembled under an elm tree near the walls of the fort in Febru- ary, 1775, and of the members, the names of Daniel and Squire Boone, Richard Calloway, Azariah Davis, Isaac Hite, William Coke, Samuel Henderson, John Todd, Richard Moore, John Lythe, James Douglass, Nathan Hammond, Alexander Dandridge, Samuel Wood, IVIatthew Jewit, Valentine Harmon, Thomas Slayter, John Floyd and James Harrod appeared. A liberal government was instituted, but the purchase made by Henderson was annulled by the state legislature of Virginia and as a compensation the state granted to the company a tract of land twelve miles square on the Ohio below the mouth of the Green river. Judge Henderson was a boundary line commissioner in 1779. He removed to Nashville, Tenn., the same year and practised law there one year. Afterward he settled on his large plantation near Williamsborough, N.C., where he engaged in farming. The town, village and county of Henderson, N.C., were named in his honor. He was married to Elizabeth Keeling. He died in Hillsborough, N.C., Jan. 30, 1785.

HENDERSON, Thomas, statesman, was born in Freehold, N.J., in 1743; a son of Jolm Hender- son, who was clerk of the Old Scotch Presby- terian church in 1730, elder of the Freehold Pres- byterian church as early as 1744, and died Jan. 1, 1771; grandson of Michael, who died at Marlboro, N.J., Aug. 23, 1722; and probably a descendant of John Henderson, a Scotchman, who came to America in the Henry and Francis in 1685. Thomas Henderson was graduated from the Col- lege of New Jersey, A.B., 1761, A.M., 1764, and studied medicine under Dr. Nathaniel Scudder of Freehold, beginning practice in Monmouth county about 1765. He was elected a member of the New Jersey Medical society in 1766. On Dec. 10, 1774, he was appointed to the Froeliold " com- mittee of observation " for the preservation and support of American freedom, and his name ap- pears in the records as an energetic member. His military service in the American Revolution com-