" How do you know who you are? Look back, as far as you can, into the lives of the Mothers and Fathers who made you" – This is the Story of John And Martha Henderson (Early Texas Settlers) John A. Henderson was born on the Henderson family farm situated on the banks of Crooked Creek, five miles east of Maryville, Tennessee. The year was 1835. His Father, Thomas Henderson, speculated in land and had other business dealings that ranged from lawyering to horse-trading. In 1839, John's father died leaving his mother, six children, the family farm of 62 acres and seven slaves. Just three years later in 1842, John's mother, Christiana Currier Henderson, died leaving young John and his brothers and sisters without parents or living grandparents. Were it not for the kindness of a neighbor family, the Henderson children might have fallen into dire circumstances. As it turned out, the two teenage Henderson daughters were attracted to two brothers from the Tipton family who lived nearby and as was common in those days, brothers married sisters and the boys' widower father, James Tipton, Sr., became the family patriarch of an enlarged family that included his new daughters-in-law and the other Henderson children. Sometime around 1845 the James Tipton family, along with the Henderson children, left Tennessee moving west, first to Washington County, Illinois and then on to rich farmland in Benton County, Missouri. There, John grew up under the care of Father Tipton and his new wife and the watchful eyes of his older sisters, Mary Jane and Nancy Elan. John was the youngest of the Henderson children so he saw his sisters and their husbands move to their own farms, as did his oldest brother Samuel Anderson Henderson and his next older brother, William Henry Henderson. At the age of nineteen years, John starting keeping company with seventeen-year old Martha Linson Scoggins, a Tennessee girl who came to Benton County at a young age with her parents. In October 1854, John and Martha married. Customarily, couples married at the bride's home, but in the case of John and Martha, they married on the farm of John's brother, Samuel. Samuel, a self-taught fiddle player, provided music. James Tipton, Jr., a Baptist minister, performed the marriage ceremony. It was a happy day when the three families - Henderson, Tipton, and Scoggins - joined together, when unrelated became related, when Martha became a real sister to the women in her new family, and John started the next phase of his most interesting life. LAND IN TEXAS A few short years after they married and just before the start of the Civil War, John and Martha moved to Texas with their young sons, David and James William, looking for new land and opportunity. They acquired some farmland in Tarrant County near Cedar Hill, a dusty, outpost town southeast of Fort Worth. While not directly affected by politics of the day, John and Martha must have heard talk about the grievances southern states had with the federal government. Talk of emancipating the slaves and the antics of the abolitionists were all over the newspapers, even in Dallas and Fort Worth. John and Martha had letters from family in Missouri who were nervous about the government's problems. In a letter written to Martha in the spring of 1861, Samuel's wife, Mary Ann Henderson, spoke of "these troubles". (September 1860) Brother and Sister, Times are dull and the people are very much cast down about the division of the union, but I hope that God will smile upon us and save us from all these troubles. I want you to write to me, and I hope and pray that God may bless you and give you grace to go on your way rejoicing. I want you to remember me when it goes well with you for I feel determined by the grace of God to live devoted to him. Well give my respects to all the family. Samuel Henderson Mary Ann Henderson To: John & Marthy Henderson A few months later, John received a letter from his brother, William Henry. Pomecatarre, Missouri May 5, 1861 Dear Brother & Sister I again take my seat to write you a few lines to let you know that we are all well and doing very well. I hope that when these lines come to hand that they will find you all enjoying the same good blessings of God. Times here are hard and political excitement very great. I do not know that Missouri. has seceded yet. It is reported that it will, but I hope not. The credit system is about to stop on account of the great trouble. We have as good a prospect for an abundant harvest as we could wish. We have as fine a prospect for fruit as we could ask. It looks like if it was not for the trouble in our Government that Heaven would smile on us yet. I hope that though our country is in a state of convulsion that it will work together for good. Mother and FatherTipton are getting along very well and Brother Huite and the boys are doing very well. Now, Jack I would be glad to see you, but the prospects of seeing you soon, if ever, is gloomy. I just hope that we may all try to live so that if we never meet in this world that we will meet again (in the next) when parting will be no more. Write to some of us as often as you can. Nothing more at this time but remain your Brother until death. Farewell to all, William and Sary Henderson. To John and Marthy Henderson JOHN - CAUGHT UP IN THE WAR OF REBELLION When the civil war broke out, John along with other men in Tarrant and Dallas Counties joined Griffin's Battalion of the Texas Infantry, a battalion of six companies that recruited in the early summer of 1862 throughout northeast Texas. Company "C" of that battalion recruited men in the Dallas / Tarrant County areas. John Henderson from Tarrant County was assigned to Company "C". Ironically, in that same year, his brothers, Sam and William, joined the Missouri Home Guard to fight for the Union. Griffin's Texas Infantry was famous for its participation in the Battle of Sabine Pass in 1863, but John didn't get into that fight. When Comanche Indians began looting the homes of soldiers west of Fort Worth in 1863, the battalion threatened to desert en mass unless something was done to subdue the Indians. The Regimental commander sent five companies of Griffin's Battalion back to the frontier country west of Fort Worth just days before the Battle of Sabine Pass occurred. Only one company, Company "F, was on hand to pitch into the fight that turned back the assault of Union gunboats and troops that tried to come ashore on the Texas coast. After the Battle of Sabine Pass, John's unit continued to serve in Jefferson County as his letters to Martha will attest. Indian troubles are still a problem as this letter of 1863 mentions. Sabine Past, Jefferson County, Texas December 13, 1863. Dear Wife, I received (your letter) this morning. I am truly glad to hear from you once more, though I am sorry to hear that you have been in such bad health. I would have been glad to have been there to wait on you through your illness, but it was out of my power to be there. My desire and prayer to God is that this war would end so the many thousands of men that are away from their wives and children might return to see their needy wives and little ones. All appearances, it will seem long yet before I can come to see you for I have no idea of getting to come home before the war ends. From the fact the Yanks are pressing us on all sides, so far as I can hear. We would not be surprised any time to have a fight at this place, although so far as I am concerned, I would be willing never to be in any. (We have heard about the Indian troubles.) If the Indians come too close to you, you must try to move away from them for I can't come to your assistance without deserting, and I will want that to be the last chance, but if they get too wrought up there, I don't know what I might do. Now my dear companion I shall have to bring my letter to a close hoping when these few lines reach you that you and the children and all of our people and your neighbors will be well and doing well. May the God of all watch over you and guide you all in paths of truth and holiness and save us all in Heaven. Yours very truly John Henderson To Marthy L. Henderson Martha's fear about Indians in the area is borne out by the following newspaper articles of 1863 found in the Dallas Herald: DALLAS HERALD, March 18, 1863, p. 2, c. 1 We learn that the Indians are committing depredations constantly on our North Western frontier, in some instances killing as they go. A good many families are moving in from the frontier counties. A letter to the editor from Weatherford says "The Indians are doing more murdering and stealing on the frontier at this time than they have done in twelve months." DALLAS HERALD, April 15, 1863, p. 2, c. 1 A letter from Fort Mason, dated March 17th, says a party of 16 Indians came to a house just above here, where they found one man and his wife. They had a white flag, and asked for something to eat. While they were eating the man and woman tried to escape, but the woman was overtaken, tied and whipped with a lariat, after which she was scalped and turned loose. The man made his escape. The woman died shortly after. NEW FIGHTING ON THE TEXAS COAST On March 7, 1864, there came news of sporadic fighting a few miles from Sabine Pass on the Calcasieu River in a placed called Tussan's Cove. On April 24, a Union Gunboat moved up river and fired a number of shells into Confederate positions on the shore. When John's battalion commander, Col. H. W. Griffin, heard of the incursion he wired headquarters in Houston for instructions, fearing that Union plans were much more sinister than they actually were. He envisioned the gunboats as the vanguard of a full- scale attempt to outflank Sabine Pass and to take Beaumont and Houston via Lake Charles, Louisiana. The reply from General J. B. Magruder's Houston headquarters came back quickly and precisely, "Attack the small force at Calcasieu at once, and disperse, defeat, or capture the expedition!" Griffin's Battalion of infantry was attached to Maj. Felix McReynolds of the Davis Guards who crossed the Sabine Pass channel on the afternoon of May 4 and began the 38-mile trek to Calcasieu. At 1:30 a.m. on May 6, Col. Griffin and his troops reached the Pass and there awaited the daylight needed to begin the attack. The battle kicked off with three artillery guns covering the infantry advance. The fighting raged on for most of the morning after which two Union gunboats and their detachment of infantry surrendered to Major McReynolds. The exact total of the battle's casualties is unknown. Griffin's second dispatch reported eight Confederates killed and 13 wounded, some of whom later died. Following the skirmish at Calcasieu Pass, John was given 60-day furlough as documented by his muster cards for June and July 1864 with notes indicating he had returned to Tarrant County. In August 1864 John returned to his company but became seriously ill and was sent to a field hospital near Houston for approximately 90 days. At the end of the war, John's unit was released or perhaps just dissolved away as so many of the Confederate regiments and battalions did after General Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House. RETURN TO MISSOURI In the late fall of 1865, John returned to Martha and the boys at their Cedar Hill farm where Martha had tried to work the fields. In truth, she had barely survived the harsh elements and the ever-present Comanche Indians who killed a number of families in the area during 1863-1864, stealing livestock from the farms where the men were not present. But Martha was lucky compared to other women whose husbands never came home or else returned disabled with a missing arm or leg. In 1866, John and Martha took stock of their situation and decided they had little to show for their investment of six years in Texas dirt. Calculating their loss, they decided to move back north, to Missouri, where John farmed for near ten years with his brothers, Samuel and William. Not surprising, John was not satisfied in Missouri. He loved his brothers and their families but must have felt that something was missing. Some better opportunity was out there somewhere waiting for him to find it. TEXAS – AGAIN ! Around 1874, John caught Texas fever for the second time. He collected Martha and the children, and again they all went south by wagon and horseback traveling with several other families who had combined resources to make the trip together. They followed the Sedalia cattle trail, crossing the Red River near Denison, passing Waxahachie and coming close to Waco before leaving the trail to go east into the wild territory of Hamilton County. They endured simmering heat during the day and fierce lightening and thunderstorms that dotted the Texas nights. They ate wild fruit and prairie chickens, rattlesnakes and even an antelope now and then if John could get off a good shot. They bought flour and fresh eggs whenever they came close to a civilized community. Their oldest son, David, being a grown man, remained in Missouri where he continued to farm with his uncles and in-laws near the town of Warsaw, just a few miles south of Sedalia. These Missouri pioneers first settled in Cranfill Gap between Meriden and Hamilton, Texas. That was rough country in those days, populated by isolated Indian groups. Shortly after arriving in the Meriden/Hamilton area, John and Martha moved the family to a place near Pottsville and Indian Gap, to a community known as Pleasant Grove. The Pleasant Grove community is located in a beautiful grove of live oaks with rolling hills on all sides, bounded by Sims Creek on the south. The serenity of the setting looked pleasant to the early settlers - hence the name of "Pleasant Grove." However, John and Martha found life not so pleasant in Pleasant Grove as there was an outlaw mob that ruled in the area when they arrived. THE MOB IN HAMILTON COUNTY Now, you have to remember that the area around Mills County during and after the close of the Civil War was infested with desperate criminals: cattle rustlers, horse thieves, murderers, and deserters from the army, a few carpetbaggers and jay hawkers. In the absence of civil law, the citizens of Hamilton County formed a vigilante committee to accomplish without law what could not be accomplished through the process of law. In course of time the committee became a mob known as the "Honest Man's Club". The organization opposing the "Honest Man's Club" was called the "Trigger Mountain Mob." A violent hatred sprang up between the two factions. Both mobs became a menace to the peaceful settlers of Hamilton and Mills Counties during the 1870's and 80's. RETURN TO A NORMAL LIFE After the Texas Rangers quelled the mob rule in 1887, Pleasant Grove settled into the peaceful little community that John and Martha had hoped to find when they left Missouri. It had a school but the one-room building soon became too small. As population continued to grow, more rooms were needed and another room was added later making Pleasant Grove a three-teacher school with three rooms. There was also a Church that held services in the school until the Methodist built a little church building. Baptizings were held at a cattle tank near the school or at Blue Hole on Sims Creek. Everyone in Pleasant Grove knew about Blue Hole - It was a deep pool of water which bounds the Pleasant Grove Community on the south and probably has more history than any other pond of water in Mills County. It has never been known to go dry and springs on the branch above Sims Creek make its water a deep blue -thus the reason for the name. Blue Hole was a source of water for the community of Pleasant Grove and surrounding communities as well. People hauled water from it for home use. Martha and the children gathered around it with soap and rub boards and did their washing. People drove stock there to water, especially when the droughts were bad and the weather dry. A number of houses were built near by. People fished there. It was a place of play for young people on Sunday afternoons, a good place to picnic and swim. It was also a place of reverence when the baptizings took place. A NEW GENERATION OF EMIGRANTS John and Martha's kids grew up around Pleasant Grove and the Indian Gap community but most moved away to other communities and other counties after they were grown. Their oldest son David, who had made the first trip to Texas in 1860, was an adult when the family moved back to Texas, so he chose not to make that hard trip again. He continued farming with his Uncles Samuel and William and then on his own in Benton County Missouri. Another son, James William, who also made the first trip to Texas and returned on the second trip, married a Louisiana girl named Emma Jane Kirkland and ended up in Batson, Texas. Another of the boys, Samuel, who was named after his Uncle Samuel Anderson Henderson, was not well as a child. He never married. He died at age 28. Another son, Gould Bary, was a forceful aggressive young farmer and businessman who moved with his wife, Mary Annice Glover, to the Dallas area. The Glover family was well known in Hamilton and Mills County as a generous family with lots of land. An only daughter, Lucy, married Gus Jacobs who died in 1911. John Frank married Eva Lee Neal of the Neal family over at Mount Olive. He quickly became the Neal's favorite son-in-law by taking up residence at Mount Olive and joining the Mount Olive Primitive Baptist Church. Whether he was convicted by the Lord or just convinced by Eva, we will never know. He and Eva Lee lived there for a number of years before moving to Stephens County, Texas and then on to Dawson County in northwest Texas where he was a successful farmer and horse trader. A LEGACY FOR THEIR CHILDREN Today, John and Martha are at rest beneath a Live Oak tree on a cattle range at the back end of the Curtis Weisesape farm near Pottsville, Texas in Hamilton County. John's grave is marked by a simple inscription: "Loving Husband, Father Dear, A Faithful Friend Lies Buried Here." After John died, Martha went to live with her youngest son, John Franklin. She died in 1906 and was buried next to her husband, John. John and Martha traveled many miles from Tennessee to Missouri to Texas then back to Missouri and a final trip back to Texas. The memories of their travels and the events of American history they experienced would fill a novel. Some might say that their lives tell the true story of America's settlement of the frontier in the 19th century. John and Martha would probably say their lives were typical, nothing special. They were just ordinary people living their lives one day at a time. The legacy that John and Martha left for their children was one of hard work and family love in the face of danger and peril. They were pioneers of the American west and their pioneering spirits live on in their children, their grandchildren and their great grandchildren. John and Martha Henderson – Early Texas Settlers Page 8