" When we die, we become stories in the minds of those who care about us."  –

This is the Story of Thomas & Christiana Henderson
(Early Tennessee Pioneers)

His likeness was never rendered by artist or photographer, but we know he was made of 
Scots Irish material.  If his descendents offer a clue, we can conjure up a face, angular 
and weathered to the point of looking stern.  His pale blue eyes are narrow and piercing.  
His hair is rusty auburn with awkward curls kept closely cut.  His physical build is much 
like other men of his time and occupation, medium in height with a lean muscular frame.  
His nature is congenial among friends but to outsiders, he seems cold, the product of a 
keen intellect and a bold, self-centered personality.  

His name is Thomas Henderson, and in the year 1805, we find him in the frontier town of 
Maryville, Tennessee, the county seat of Blount County.  Knoxville is about 15 miles to 
the north.  North Carolina lies southeast of the town, just over the rise known as the Great 
Smoky Mountains.

When Thomas first came to Maryville in 1805, it was a prosperous community of about 
500 people with good inns and taverns to entertain travelers.  The first stage lines in the 
state intersected here, one from the Carolinas to Nashville, and the other from Georgia 
northward to Knoxville.  The stage passed through Maryville twice and often three times 
weekly.  Blount County's population included 5,587 whites and 345 slaves.  

Maryville and its surrounding territory would become the jumping off place for 
thousands of restless, land hungry settlers moving west to Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, 
Alabama, Mississippi and Texas.  It also was a place where some recognizable names in 
American history spent their early years.  Sam Houston grew up in Maryville and became 
a schoolteacher before enlisting in the army at the Blount County courthouse.  Thomas 
Henderson knew Sam Houston as they served together once on a county court jury.  In 
1808, a little known Ulsterman, Andrew Jackson, lived just sixteen miles away near 
Knoxville, having been promoted that year to Major General in the Tennessee militia.  In 
1809, Thomas Henderson from Blount County was commissioned a Captain in the 
Tennessee militia.

Genealogy research suggests that Thomas came to Maryville from Virginia by way of the 
Wilderness Trail that snaked its way south down the Shenandoah Valley; and probably it 
was family in Virginia or Pennsylvania who took him in when he first arrived from the 
Ulster counties of Northern Ireland.  Regardless of his port of origin or where he was first 
received in America, it was here in Maryville, Tennessee in the very early 1800's where 
Thomas decided to live and seek his fortune.





An Educated, Professional Man

Thomas Henderson was an educated, professional man, not typical of the 
frontiersmen who moved into east Tennessee in the early 19th century.  One might call 
him a gentleman though there's no evidence he had family wealth.  In fact, there is no 
evidence he had any blood kin in Blount County before he arrived around 1805.  During 
the years 1808 to 1836, Thomas practiced law in the county as a self-taught lawyer, 
worked business deals involving the buying and selling of land, and he owned several 
city lots in the original plat map of Maryville.  His business transactions appear 
prominently in county court records.  He also stood on the docket as an advocate in estate 
settlements and in litigation over debts.
 
It is calculated that Thomas Henderson died sometime between 1836 and 1839, but the 
circumstances of his death are a mystery.  Public records show him active in the town up 
to July 1826, then absent for a period of two years from 1826 to the summer of 1828, 
then he disappears a second time, only to return about 1833; a third disappearance occurs 
in 1836 and Thomas is never to be heard from again.  He is declared deceased by the 
Blount County circuit court in 1839, the date his wife, Christiana, appeared before the 
court to request that she be declared the executrix of his estate.  

The mystery of Thomas' death is convoluted further by a March 1828 entry in the Blount 
County Book of Deeds by James Currier, Thomas' father-in-law, who appeared at the 
courthouse to declare the following:

"James CURRIER to Christian HENDERSON: 22 Mar 1828, in consideration of 
service to me and my wife, during her lifetime, and the care attention and support 
given us in our old age by Thomas HENDERSON, in his lifetime, and wife Christian 
HENDERSON and for consideration of work and labour done for myself and wife, 
whilst she lived, and for me since her death by the said Thomas HENDERSON, during 
his lifetime, and by the said Christian HENDERSON the wife of the said Thomas, since 
his death, and for the purpose of indemnification the said Christian HENDERSON for 
time, labour and money  by her laid out and expanded for my use and benefit, I...set 
over to her a negro girl ROADDY about 5 years old."     

According to this declaration, Thomas Henderson is considered dead as early as March  
1828 having been absent from public record since July 1826.   However, in February 
1829, court records show that Thomas Henderson of Blount County is given a series of 
security notes by Daniel D. FOUTE in a land transaction and, according to court records 
on June 8, 1832, "said notes are assigned by Thomas HENDERSON to Joseph R. 
HENDERSON."  As the records show, Thomas returned to his business in Maryville as 
early as 1829 after a long absence.  In August 1832, he assigned his unpaid notes to 
Joseph Henderson, who apparently was a business associate but no relation to Thomas.  
These transactions show that Thomas is very much alive from 1829 to 1836, and for 
whatever reason, he is selling off his property and accounts receivables.  



Thomas' comings and goings may be explained by a common practice of the Scots Irish 
in those days, returning home to Ireland.  The societies of Ulster and the Americas were 
closely connected and when emigrants left Ireland, they did not consider it a final 
farewell. There continued an active relationship as letters between families traveled back 
and forth across the Atlantic. Likewise, it appears many young men, very much like 
Thomas, returned home to Ulster to visit family and entice new immigrants across the 
water to new homes in Tennessee.  This may have been the reason for Thomas' extended 
absences from his family and his business in Maryville.  It may have been from one of 
these trips that he failed to return, as there is no record of his death or burial in 
Tennessee.



Born in Ireland

          	To understand the character of Thomas Henderson, one must go back to his 
beginnings in Ireland and work forward to the date he is declared dead in Blount County.   
In the early 18th century and prior to the Revolutionary War, approximately 200,000 
Ulster citizens migrated to the American colonies from Ireland.  Following the war and 
up to the great potato famine of 1840, more than 250,000 new Irish immigrants arrived.  
These immigrants though called Irish were predominantly Presbyterian Scots from the 
Province of Ulster in Northern Ireland.  In America, they were called the Scots Irish as 
they came originally from Scotland in the 17th century and during their plantation in 
Ireland maintained their Scottish heritage and customs.  Philadelphia was the primary 
port of entry for these Scots Irish, and they settled all along the eastern seaboard from 
Nova Scotia to Georgia.  

According to the death certificate of Thomas' oldest son, Samuel Anderson Henderson, 
and census records of his other sons, William H. and John A. Henderson, and daughter, 
Mary Jane Henderson, their father was born in Ireland.  This would make Thomas a 
latecomer to America in the closing days of the 18th century, part of a group of pioneers 
who settled the southern regions of the great Appalachians, specifically Tennessee and 
Kentucky.  None of Thomas' family, his parents, brothers or sisters, have been found in 
genealogy records.  He may have been a single man or a minor traveling with other 
extended family when he made the difficult Atlantic crossing.  

Future research will document Thomas' actual birthplace, exact birth date, and details of 
the first 21 years of his life, but for now, we must begin with the first documented public 
record of his existence, sometime between the ages of 21 and 28.  The record is dated 
1806, a court proceeding in Blount County, Tennessee where our Thomas appeared as the 
Plaintiff in a civil case against John Cooper for debt.  "Defendant found guilty with 
damages to plaintiff of $17.04 plus costs."    Several other court records during the period 
show Thomas to be active in cases where he is either owed money, or he owes money to 
someone, or where he is bidding at a sheriff's sale for land confiscated for back taxes.  It 
seems that Thomas is a clever businessman and land speculator, and he is not above 
profiting from the misfortunes of others.  


A Man of Means and Status

    Based on the type and number of business transactions in county records, we can 
assume that Thomas Henderson was an aggressive businessman in the town of Maryville.  
In fairness, he also had other interests, more altruistic, that included the formation of 
schools and academies.  In 1817 the Tennessee Legislature, under the Act establishing 
county academies, declared the following appointments:

"…appointed Joseph B. LAPSLEY and Andrew KENNEDY trustees for Porter 
Academy in Blount County, to whom were afterward added James GILLESPIE, JR., 
John LOWRY (attorney), James HOUSTON, Sr., and Thomas HENDERSON." 

Later, a provision was made for a female department that would become the Maryville 
Female Academy with a separate board of trustees that included Thomas Henderson.   He 
also was appointed trustee of the first Maryville Bank, which was a branch of a bank in 
Knoxville.  We will never know if Thomas sought these positions for political and 
financial gain or if he was led by a benevolent nature toward education and public 
service.

Interesting to note in the 1817 Legislative Act that Thomas Henderson is not given the 
title, "Attorney", as follows the name of John Lowry.  Nor is Thomas listed among the 
names of attorneys in the county history books.  These clues tell us that Thomas 
Henderson did not attend law school and did not have a law degree but rather was a self-
educated, self-proclaimed attorney.  This was not unusual for the times as a Blount 
County court letter of the period states …

"A court can issue a certificate to any citizen to practice law if the individual is above 
the age of 21 year and during their residence in the county have demanded themselves 
as men of good moral character, attached to the principals of the constitution of the 
United States and the state of Tennessee and well disposed toward the good order and 
happiness of the same."


The Genealogist's Tools – Inferred Knowledge

    Within this seemingly unrelated piece of information about Thomas' profession comes 
a clue to his birth date.  Based on the age requirement to practice law, Thomas had to be 
born no later than 1785 as he first appeared in court in 1806.  In fact he probably was 
born earlier since, by the court's own rule, the man should be a resident of the county for 
some time.  Another clue to Thomas' age comes from a record stating he received a 
commission as Captain of the 12th Regiment of Tennessee militia in Blount County on 
April 3, 1809.  This military grade would not have been granted a youth of 21 years.  
Inferred knowledge suggests that Thomas was born about 1779-1780 or thereabouts.



Life Style, Character, Personal Life

        By the age of 39, based on his estimated birth date, Thomas Henderson had been a 
legal counselor, school trustee, bank trustee, and businessman in the town of Maryville 
for approximately twelve years.  It was at this juncture in his life that he began to think 
perhaps there were things more important than business, social prominence and making 
money.  He started to think about his legacy, or perhaps he was just lonely.  He had no 
wife, no children, and apparently no blood relatives in the county.   He probably had 
female friends in the town but no romantic relationships, or perhaps better said, no 
respectable romantic relationships, which conjures up more questions about the 
mysterious Thomas Henderson.  In a time when marriage at a young age was the norm, 
why was Thomas not pursued by the marriageable females of Maryville or snared by 
their mothers?  He was a successful businessman, and he was single.   On the frontier of 
east Tennessee, that was a strange combination.

In the years approximate to 1818, Thomas became attracted to a girl of about 18 years 
who was the daughter of one of the more notorious characters in the county.  Her name 
was Christiana Currier, and her father had a land grant that looks to be from the 
government of North Carolina before the state of Tennessee was formed.  On this land 
James and Mary Currier had a farm with numerous slaves, and two sons in addition to 
their daughter, Christiana.   The farm was located just a few miles east of Maryville.  

On March 24, 1818 Thomas Henderson, age 39, married the much younger Christiana 
Currier.   In the best light of romantic hindsight, Thomas fell hopelessly in love with this 
young woman and she too loved him, if not for his youth and good looks then for his 
maturity, his solid reputation, and his financial security.  Under the worst light of 
cynicism, it's possible this marriage was one of convenience arranged between Thomas 
Henderson and James Currier following the custom of the day when a father passed his 
daughter to a suitable male for her continued care, protection, and procreation.  In such 
marriages, the bride was assured that love would come later.  We have no way of 
knowing if this was true for Thomas and Christy.  They were separated for many years of 
their marriage by Thomas' absences from the county.  There is no record in Blount 
County to show that Thomas was previously married so Christy was his first and only 
wife.  


Christiana's Family – The Curriers From North Carolina

        A quick digression is needed to tell about the life and family of Christiana Currier.  
Christiana, or Christy or Christian as various sources name her, must have been an 
independent woman as she is one of only a handful of women in Blount County listed in 
the 1830 U.S. Census as the head of her household.  Keep in mind, it was during this time 
that Thomas' whereabouts were in question.  He certainly was not present when the 1830 
census taker came to call.  Interesting to note that the census taker did acknowledged a 
man living in Christy's house whose age was between 60 and 70 years but he was not 
considered head of family.  This probably was Christy's widower father who came to live 
with her after the death of Christy's mother in 1828.  

The name Currier is English rather than Scots or Irish, so a common ethnic background 
was not the attraction between Thomas and Christiana.  It appears Christy's family came 
from North Carolina to Blount County when Tennessee was a territory, when land grants 
were being handed out to soldiers of the American Revolution.  Christy's father was 
James Currier, Sr. and 1788 tax records show a James Currier living in Caswell County 
in North Carolina.  Caswell today is a border county just over the mountain from 
Tennessee so it's conceivable that this was the same James Currier.  This does not mean 
that Christy's father had been a revolutionary soldier.  He may have bought a land grant 
from a soldier who needed the money.  This was common practice with intent to sell the 
land at a higher price.  In the case of James Currier, he did not sell his land but instead 
moved with his family to Blount County to farm.

The first time James Currier and Thomas Henderson met is not known, however by 1816, 
Thomas was a familiar figure around the Blount County court house and by this time also 
he was either courting or at least noting the comings and goings of a young woman 
named Christiana Currier.  The first and most probable connection between James and 
Thomas came in the events of July 1816 when James Currier was charged by the county 
with tax evasion.  James Currier does not appear in court the first time his case is tired so 
the hearing is rescheduled.  When James finally appears in court, he pleads "Not Guilty" 
and the case goes to jury.  Whether Thomas was advising James is not clear as Thomas 
Henderson's name does not appear in the records.  The outcome of the trial as 
documented below must have been shocking to the town and certainly to James Currier:

"Came James Currier on a bill of indictment against him says he is not guilty whereupon came a 
jury to judge the case.   The jury do say that the defendant is guilty in manner and form as 
charged.  Therefore it is considered by the court that the defendant, James Currier be taken to 
the whipping post of the County of Blount and there on his bare back receive twenty five lashes 
well laid on and that he pay the costs of this prosecution from which judgment was rendered."  

Thomas may have advised James to request an appeal to the Circuit Court of Blount 
County, which he did with a new hearing to be held the "first Monday of August next".  
Unfortunately, no record of the appellate court has been found so there is no proof that 
the flogging sentence was abated or that it was carried out.  In all court records of the 
period, this form of punishment stands out as severe and unusual, which may mean it was 
intended as a message to other landowners who failed to pay their taxes or it could have 
been a subtle dagger thrown directly at James Currier for failing to appear and cooperate 
with the court.  Safe to say that James Currier was not a favorite of the sheriff or the 
courts of Blount County in 1816.   His conviction further eroded his negative reputation 
in the county being rife with debate over slavery.  James Currier was not only the owner 
of several slaves but also is documented in the sale of slaves to various men in the 
county.




Thomas Returns to His Church Roots

       The Scots Irish, predominately Presbyterian by tradition, were taught the importance 
of religious education in the lives of their children.  In his bachelor years, Thomas did not 
belong to the Presbyterian Church in Maryville.  In fact, records show that Thomas and 
Christy were married not in the church but by a Justice of the Peace, whose name was 
Joseph Black, probably at the courthouse.  Justice Joseph Black was one of the founding 
fathers of Maryville and a regular at the county court house.  Thomas' backsliding ending 
on September 24, 1820, just two years after his marriage, as membership records from 
the New Providence Presbyterian Church show both Thomas and Christiana Henderson 
and one of their slave girls, name of Rhoda (girl of colour), applied for church 
membership by examination.  Thomas, due his background and upbringing, likely knew 
basic scripture but the Currier family came from Massachusetts through North Carolina 
to Blount County so their religious affiliation is unknown.  We do know that Christiana's 
father, James Currier, owns and deals in the buying and selling of slaves in the county.  
We also know that the pastor of the New Providence Presbyterian Church, Rev Isaac 
Anderson, was an ardent abolitionist.  

The church records show that Thomas and the slave girl, Rhoda, were accepted for 
membership that September day in 1820 based on examination.  Christiana, however, 
was examined but was "proved unworthy and dismissed without certificate" of 
membership.  This could have been the result of her attitude toward slavery, her lack of 
knowledge of the scriptures or the "sins of her father" as a slave owner.  We have no 
record that she ever applied for re-examination.

From the December 1836 issue of the Maryville newspaper, The Intelligencer, comes a 
clue to the importance of the religious examination that Thomas and Christiana 
underwent and Christiana failed to complete successfully.  

" Dec 1836 - On the first page of today's paper will be found the questions and answers 
in proof of the authenticity and genuiness of scriptures prepared by the Pastor of New 
Providence Church, the Reverend Isaac Anderson.  As these questions and answers are 
to be sufficiently studied by members of New Providence Church to enable them to 
bear an examination, we would suggest the propriety of preserving with great care the 
numbers of the papers in which they are contained."

It is notable that none of the Hendersons are buried in the New Providence church 
cemetery in Maryville.  However, Thomas' oldest daughter, Mary Jane, was married in 
the New Providence church by Reverend Isaac Anderson.


Thomas and Christiana's Children

      In the seventeen years that Thomas and Christy were married, they had six children: 
three daughters (Mary Jane, Nancy Elanor, and Elizabeth Ann) and three sons, (Samuel 
Anderson, William Henry, and John A.).  All of these children moved to Missouri around 
1845 after the death of their parents and all have been located in Benton and Hickory 
counties through census, cemetery, marriage and other records.   Their youngest son, 
John A. Henderson, was dissatisfied with Missouri so he moved on to Texas, first to 
Tarrant County in 1860, returning to Missouri in 1865 then back to Hamilton County, 
Texas in the 1870's where he is buried today beside his wife, Martha.  John's brothers 
and sisters were buried in various cemeteries in Benton and Hickory Counties, Missouri.

While not blood related, there existed in the Tennessee family a relationship with seven 
other human souls who worked and lived on the Henderson farm.  These included Ruth, a 
woman of color in her late twenties who was the property of James Currier for some 
years before being sold to Thomas.  Ruth had a little boy named Mathew who also was 
sold to Thomas.  Another woman in her mid forties is named Abigale, willed to Christy 
by her father at his death, along with Roaddy, a girl of about five years indicating she was 
the daughter or granddaughter of Abigale.   There is another older girl whose name is 
Rhoda, age unknown. This girl was allowed to join the New Providence Presbyterian 
Church in 1820 by examination indicating some education.   The 1830 shows two more 
in the household, both boys, under the age of ten years, probably the children of Ruth or 
Abigale or the older girl, Rhoda.


Family, Friends and Relationships

       t some point in their married lives, Thomas and Christiana became friends with a 
couple whose names were James and Sarah Sally (Walker) Tipton.  The Tipton farm was 
in the same tax district 8, known as the Montvale Mountain District, about five miles 
from the Henderson place.  The Henderson farm, 62 acres of bottom land that butted up 
to Crooked Creek, lay about three miles east of Maryville.  This was where Thomas 
returned at night after leaving his business in town.  Judging from what we know of 
Thomas, agriculture was not one of his interests and given the distance from town he 
probably did not make the trip home by horseback every night.  It fell therefore to Christy 
to run the place to include the daily routine of her six children and seven slaves.  No 
doubt she relied on her friends and family to help out.

In the course of time, there developed a closer relationship between the Hendersons and 
the Tiptons as the two oldest Tipton boys married the two oldest Henderson daughters.  
Shortly after the deaths of Thomas and Christiana, and the death of Sarah Sally Tipton, 
James Tipton, Sr. assumed responsibility for his new daughters-in-law plus the younger, 
orphaned Henderson children.  When James Tipton decided to leave Tennessee in 1843 
and move west, he packed up the entire Henderson household and children, less slaves, 
(the Tiptons had no slave property) and moved first to Washington County, Illinois and 
then to rich farmland in Benton County, Missouri.  Two of the children, Elizabeth Ann 
and John A. were still living in the Tipton home in 1850 according to the U.S. Census. 

Another family friendship in Tennessee developed with Ake Henry and his wife, Sarah.  
Ake and Sarah had property in Tax District 9, which is closer to Maryville but adjacent to 
Tax District 8 where the Henderson farm was located. Ake Henry was bi-vocational, a 
clerk of the court for many years as well as a farmer.  Through his dealings with Thomas 
in court and by close association of the two families on the farm, Ake and Sarah must 
have been close neighbors and friends.  When Thomas was declared deceased in 1839, a 
male guardian had to be appointed to represent the minor children in the settlement of 
their father's estate.  Ake Henry was named guardian by the county probate court of the 
Henderson children, perhaps at the request of Christiana.  Another clue to the close 
friendship between Ake and Thomas comes from the name given Thomas' second son, 
William.  The boy's full name was William Henry Henderson.  

When Christiana first went to court in 1839 asking the judge to declare Thomas deceased 
after a long absence, it was her friends, Ake Henry and James Tipton, who stood by her 
as her securities.  In the course of settling Thomas' estate, Ake Henry offered to buy 
some of the Henderson property including two slaves name xx and xx.  After the Tiptons 
and the Henderson children left the county, Ake and Sarah moved to Bradley county, 
Tennessee.

Another important family relationship was between Thomas and his pastor, the Reverend 
Isaac Anderson, a famous Presbyterian theologian of the times who pastored two 
churches simultaneously, one in Maryville and one in Knoxville.  Thomas and Isaac 
served together on the Board of Trustees for the Porter Academy and the Maryville 
Female Academy for a number of years.  As a member of the New Providence 
Presbyterian Church, Thomas probably had frequent interaction, on either a business or 
spiritual level, with Dr. Anderson.  In fact, it appears that Thomas' first son was named 
for their pastor.  The boy's name was Samuel Anderson Henderson.  This naming for the 
family pastor was a known Scots tradition especially among the Ulster-Scots.   
Christiana's relationship with Dr. Anderson on the other hand may not have been as 
cordial since she failed his examination for church membership in earlier years and it 
appears she never applied for re-examination.  Not being a member, she likely did not 
attend services or Sabbath School with Thomas.



Death of Thomas and Christiana

      emetery records in Blount County offer no clues to either Thomas or Christiana's 
death dates or where they are buried. We do know that Thomas died between 1836-1839.  
Just three years later, in 1842, Blount County probate court records document the 
settlement of estate of Christiana Henderson without any specific date of her death.  
There is a possible connection between Christiana's death at a relatively early age and an 
article that appeared in the Maryville Newspaper in 1845 describing a yellow fever 
epidemic that swept through the county with Maryville especially hard hit. The problem 
had been a recurring one, relieved according to the newspaper by tearing out a dam on 
Pistol Creek to drain stagnant water.

As for Thomas' death, we can only surmise.  As a man involved in numerous disputes 
over property in the county and who often acquired property through the court system, 
Thomas may have made some enemies.  Consider also that in the Tennessee backwoods, 
the strength of a man's arm or the size of his knife determined if he was right or wrong in 
any quarrel.   It was well known that law and justice were sparse.  Since there is no 
specific death date or evidence of his burial in Blount County and the fact that Christiana 
petitioned the courts to name her the administrator of his estate in 1839, there is a strong 
possibility that Thomas met a violent death and quick burial somewhere in the 
backwoods of Blount County.  By another account, he may have returned to Ireland as a 
land agent and succumbed to death on the journey or he may have died of natural causes 
considering his age of 57.  Until his tombstone is found, Thomas' death will remain a 
mystery.



James E. Henderson
Rocky Mount, NC

The Story of Thomas and Christiana Henderson
10