432
DELAWARE AND BUCHANAN COUNTIES.
JAMES HENDERSON, a wealthy farmer of
Delaware county, Iowa, was born
in St. Ramie Parish, Canada, March 4, 1840, and is a son of William and Alice (Bursell) Henderson. William Henderson was born in Scotland and his wife in England, but were
married in Canada. He is a self-made man, having,
through industry and thrift, acquired compentency. He came to Iowa in 1854 with about $1,000,
and this sum he increased and multiplied, and at one time was owner of nearly
two thousand acres of land, gained through his foresight and his keenness of
observation as to the prospective, his vocation of of
farming not preventing him from studying the possibilities of the future that
was then before him. After his arrival in Iowa he was recognized as one who would make a useful
citizen, and also as one who would be of avail in the management of the affairs
of Linn county, where he had cast his lot, and for that reason the
voters of his township elected
him as supervisor, the duty of which
office he filled to the great satisfaction of bis
fellow-townsmen. He is now
eighty-three years of age and still holds the respect of all who know and have known him, not only
for his venerableness, but for the moral life he has
led. For thirty years he has been a deacon in the Congregational church, of
which his wife was also a member until her death, which occurred about 1875, at
the age of sixty-three. The children
born to this couple were six in number, and of these, William, a gallant soldier
and a member of Company A, Sixth Iowa volunteer infantry, died while in the
service at St. Louis, Mo.; the
second child is James, the subject of
this sketch ; the third is Peter G., in the creamery business at Central City,
Iowa; the fourth, Robert, is a farmer in Linn county; the fifth is Henry, who still clings to the
old home; the sixth is Hannah J., the wife of Peter T. Henderson, a farmer in
Linn county.
James
Henderson, whose name stands at the head of this sketch, came from Canada, at the
age of fourteen, in company with his parents, and assisted his father on the
home farm until he was twenty-five years of age, when he came to Delaware
county, Iowa, and bought a farm in 1865 but did not settle on it till
1867. In the meantime, from 1862 until
1867, he was in the milling
business at Coggon, Linn county. In 1882
Mr. Henderson established a creamery on his farm,
and, being a gentleman of thorough business habits and of genuine enterprise,
has made more than a success of it. His annual output of butter now amounts to
ninety thousand pounds, and in addition to his dairy business he superintends
his farming interests, carries on a trade in lumber and is a raiser and heavy
dealer in live stock. In 1887 the Iowa Central railroad was built through, and Ehlers
Station was established at his place and this fact has been of great aid to him in the
prosecution of his business and has greatly enhanced the value of his real
estate. He now owns a total of four
hundred and fifty acres of land, to-wit: three hundred and twenty acres in
sections 26 and 27 in Adams township, on section 26, on which he makes his
residence; ninety acres in section 4 and
10, in Jackson township, Linn
county, forty acres in Wheeler township, Sac county, Iowa. With the exception of one hundred and
sixty acres reserved for his homestead, he rents out his land for a very fair
return. All this estate and all
these business interests have
accrued to Mr. Henderson through his own excellent management, he having received but
little assistance from his
father at his starting in life.
Mr.
Henderson was married August 28, 1863, to Miss Mary Sheldon, a daughter
of William Sheldon, and born in Linn county, Iowa, about the year 1844. Their
household has been made happy by the birth of three children—William, Albert J.
and Ella M., all of whom are still single and reside with their parents, and
have received first-class educations in neighboring educational institutions
and at Mount Vernon, Iowa.
Mr. Henderson
is not a member of any religious denomination, but he freely gives of his means
in their aid and maintenance, as he fully recognizes their great moral
influence in the community. In politics he is a republican.
REV. DANIEL RUSSELL, D. D. In the strife and turmoil of this
life where present success is the end sought for without regard to the means employed
to attain it, much of the fine gold of human character is often lost, frequently
through the domination of the finer by the coarser qualities, and frequently
through a total neglect of the cultivation of the better feelings and purposes
by which men should be actuated. It is only now and then that we meet men who have
unselfishly devoted the labors of their lives to the good of their fellow-men ; and fewer still do we meet who in doing this have not
become a public charge upon the community where they reside. The subject of this
sketch is one whose life has been crowned with good deeds—one who has labored
from early manhood to ameliorate the condition of
Back
to Biographies
Back to Main Page
Back to Iowa AHGP
Back to AHGP