Û Henderson
Another Golden Wedding
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Henderson Reach the Fiftieth Anniversary of
Their Married Life
Mr.
and Mrs. Robert Henderson very quietly and unostentatiously slipped
through the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage, last Friday, March
3. A number of relatives and old time friends who had the date in mind
called upon them, and tendered their congratulations. Letters were also
written them by their children and grand-children. On account of Mrs.
Henderson’s delicate health it was thought prudent not to attempt a
reception. When the warmer weather comes, however, the daughters will
see that the event is properly celebrated by the children and those
friends who have known them many years. If all their friends are to be
included the major part of the population of the town will be involved.
Mr.
and Mrs. Henderson have spent all of their married life in this county,
and during nearly all of that time Monticello was their home. Here, they
have led industrious, frugal, honest and serviceable lives. Here their
children were born, and here tow of them await the resurrection. Here
they expect to end their own days. It is therefore not strange that they
should have an affection for the town, nor that the people of the town
should have an affection for them. There is none with a disposition to
wish them other than a long life with its last days full of joy as they
contemplate the past, and bright with hope as they face the future.
Robert Henderson is a native of North Harpersfield, Delaware county,
New York, where he was born June 30, 1832. He removed to Ohio when 17
years of age, where he learned the trade of a carpenter and joiner. He
came to Iowa in the spring of 1855 and settled in Jackson county, but
after a short stay there he removed to Castle Grove township and worked
at his trade. It was while living there that he returned to Ohio and
married Polly L. Palmer at Bazetta, Trumbull county, March 3, 1861. Mr.
Henderson has been an extensive contractor and builder, and no doubt he
has erected more structures in the various townships of the county than
any other carpenter in the county.
Mrs. Henderson’s parents were
natives of Litchfield county, Connecticut. Her father was the son of B.
Palmer, a Revolutionary soldier, and her mother, the grand-daughter of
Timothy Johnson, also a Revolutionary soldier, whose ancestors were
Colonial soldiers and civil officers. John Johnson, the original
emigrant, came to America with the Winthrop fleet in 1629. He settled in
Roxbury, Massachusetts, and was ‘surveyor of all ye armies.’ He was also
an original member of The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Co., and a
representative to the general court for fourteen years. His son, Isaac,
of Mrs. Henderson’s ancestral line, served all his life in the Colonial
armies, and was the Captain Isaac Johnson, of the Ancient and Honorable
Artillery Co., who was killed at Fort Narragansett, in 1675, in one of
the battles of King Phillip’s war.
Mrs. Henderson has an
illustrious line of ancestry, that might well be the boast of a Colonial
Dame or a real daughter of the Revolution, but she is a modest woman and
never made a parade of the fact. In this connection it may be added that
Mr. Henderson’s father served in the war of 1812, and received a grant
of land for his services.
Mrs. Henderson (nee Palmer) was born at
Johnston, Trumbull county, Ohio, January 18, 1832. She was a teacher in
the public schools of Warren for several years previous to her marriage.
Mr. and Mrs. Henderson were the parents of five children, viz:
Charles P. Henderson, who died November 20, 1899; Jennie R., the wife of
J. F. Porter, of Davenport, the president of the Tri City Electric
Railway Co.; Jessie J., who died August 27, 1867; Ella L., the wife of
Charles L. Bartholomew, of Minneapolis, the well known cartoonist, whose
widely copied pictures bear the signature of “Bart;” Robert W.
Henderson, of Monticello, who has assumed his father’s business as a
builder. Mr. and Mrs. Henderson’s two daughters are graduates of the
State College at Ames.