HENDERSON HAD IMPORTANT ROLE in EARLY DAYS

HENDERSON, BAGLEY

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 11/18/2014 at 05:26:32

The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Monday, June 01, 1953
Mason City Centennial Edition, Section 3

HENDERSON HAD IMPORTANT ROLE in EARLY DAYS

[Section 3, Page 4] G. W. Henderson, uncle of Mrs. W. G. C. Bagley, who came to Mason city in 1855 from Illinois, is credited with having played a leading role in getting the Milwaukee Railroad built to this community in 1865.

Henderson recalled later that while he was on the last lap of his first journey to Mason city he had a horse race with another driver from Owens Grove. The town then had several small cabins and one frame building, that of I. W. Card on the present site of the First National Bank.

Henderson returned to Illinois the winter of 1856-57 and upon coming back to Mason City the following spring was elected delegate to the state Republican convention at Iowa City, then the capital of the state.

The struggle to get the first railroad built across North Iowa was one that required excellent leadership. Henderson was among those leaders.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, November of 2014