History of Early Pioneer Families of Hood River, Oregon. Compiled by Mrs. D.M. Coon

MRS. CATHERINE HENDERSON

     Mrs. Henderson was born in Boston in 1818. She began teaching at the age of fifteen and continued in the work for sixty years. She was an able linguist, not only in her native tongue but in French, Italian, Spanish and German. For many years she fitted students for Cornell University and was known as one of the best educators of the times.
     She married John Henderson Jr., and they made their home in Boston. In l858, on account of Mrs. Henderson's ill health, the family went to the home of Mr. Henderson's father, on Mississippi Sound, Louisiana. It was a beautiful home, containing every luxury. John Henderson Sr., was a member of the U. S. Senate, contemporaneous with Webster, Clay and Calhoun. He was a sympathizer with the Cubans in their struggle for freedom and was counted among the "Filibusters". Many pol-iticians frequented his home and one energetic young lawyer, known as Jefferson Davis, was assisted by Mr. Henderson Sr., in obtaining public notice.
     Mrs. Henderson's two boys, John, seven, and Louis, five, thoroughly enjoyed their stay at Grandfather's home and spent much of their time playing and swimming in the warm waters of the Sound. Mrs. Henderson's health did not improve and on the doctor's advice, they moved to the Ozark Country in Arkansas. It was a new and beautiful country, in which the growing sons found much to interest them, and a love of Nature secured a strong foothold in their lives. After a year's stay, they went to New Orleans, where Mr. Henderson established a law office.
     One hundred miles north of New Orleans there was a district known as the Pine Lands which was supposed to be beneficial to weak lungs. Mrs. Henderson, accompanied by her two sons, journeyed thither and purchased 80 acres of what was considered a very poor farm. There was a log house and other buildings but no farm equipment and as they expected to remain only a short time, they did not need any.
     Then the Civil War broke out, the district was over run with raids from the North, all communications were broken off with the surrounding country, and after the first few months, there was no word from the father until the close of the war.
     Mrs. Henderson's brother, a sailor, had brought her a silk dress pattern, gold and silver threads were interwoven with the silk in such a manner that it was very beautiful and would stand alone. The wife of a wealthy planter wanted the dress, and said, "Mrs. Henderson, if I am not offering you enough for that dress, just tell me so plainly and I will offer you more." "As your farm is very poorly equipped I will therefore offer you a cow and calf, a dozen good hogs, fifty chickens, a horse and buggy and a couple of loads of corns and I know you and your boys are reading folks and we have a pile of books, bought at auction, there must be two or three hundred of then, which I will throw in." This fortunate purchase proved a blessing in their long isolation. The books were valuable works, and under the mother's guidance, laid the foundation for a broad and thorough education of the sons.
     As the war progressed, hardship increased. When a raid from northern Cavalry men began, the Mother drove her stock to the swamp, a hiding place provided for the chickens and John and Louis would bundle the silver ware and other valuable articles into gunny sacks and secrete them in an abandoned well which was care-fully covered with leaves. When the danger was passed there would be resurrection of the lost articles. At last Mrs. Henderson gave up the farm and sought a home for herself and sons, in the family of a wealthy planter, teaching his children. She had been engaged in this manner about three months when word reached them that the war was ended.
     She started at once and reached New Orleans in the fall of 1865. Her husband John Henderson, Jr., was a well known lawyer and politician and an admirer of Abraham Lincoln. A state convention was called to discuss the status of the negro.
     The returned Confederate soldiers were very bitter and a mob stormed the building. Every one who attended the meeting was either killed or wounded. John Henderson Jr., lingered nearly three months, then succumbed to his injuries. Henderson immediately returned to Boston with her sons. She soon obtained a position in a Vermont Military School which her sons attended. Later they attended Cornell University at Ithica, New York, After the sons had graduated she came West, making a home or teaching near them. While her son Louis was teaching in Portland she came to Hood River and built a summer home. In this home young ladies came to receive instruction.
     Then the people of Hood River secured her to teach their public school. The building in which she taught was a diminutive affair, located on the south west corner of Wm. Jenkins claim, and was Hood River's first school house. Barrett district was organized and erected her first school building in 1878, and Mrs. Henderson was the first teacher.
     After she was seventy years of age she traveled in Europe three years. She died in 1908 at the age of ninety, a noble unselfish woman.

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