James Henderson of Jedburgh, Scotland was my third great-grandpa. He was born on September 25, 1822 and died at the age of 82 on November 9, 1904 in Lake Odessa, Michigan. James’ obituary heading in the Lake Odessa Wave read “Odessa Pioneer Has Gone”. He and his wife Jeannette or Janet (Hood) Henderson are considered a pioneer family which was any person or family living in the Ionia County before 1881. There is an official certification involving paperwork- someday, maybe, it’s on my to-do list.
Lake Odessa in 1888.
Much is still unknown about James’ early life in Scotland however I can tell you that when his brother, Archie who was already living in Michigan, wrote him in 1857 with a job opportunity James was married with three daughters. Lacking a marriage record for James and his wife it would be reasonable to estimate before November 25, 1851, the birth of their first child and my second great-grandma Isabelle. Agnes arrived in May, 1853 and Mary Jane in September, 1856. Off they went to America and by June 1858 their first American-born child arrived, John Clark Henderson. John’s birthdate is important in that it gives me an end-range when dating their arrival in the United States as I still have not found the family’s immigration/passenger record after years of searching. Additional children, Archie G. and Elizabeth Margerete also known as Bess were born in 1861 and 1864 in Lake Odessa.
Although portions are hard to read, James’ obituary offered up some good information. I already knew about Archie but this is how I found out his sisters were in Michigan as well. Once I visited Archie’s gravestone and found him in the same plot as a family named Renwick, I quickly found Jenette Henderson Renwick and soon after Margaret.
Below is an article from The Sebewa Recollector explaining the circumstances of how James found his was to Ionia County and some fun tidbits about his children and grandchildren:
“THE SEBEWA RECOLLECTOR, Bulletin Of The Sebewa Association; Volume 17, December 1981, Number 3. Submitted With Written Permission Of Grayden D. Slowins, Editor: December 1981
HENDERSONS
Among Ionia's first settlers in 1833 in the Dexter Colony from Herkimer, New York was Erastus Yeomans and family. Erastus prospered and acquired the title of Judge. He was in a position to hire help in his farming operations. In 1857 Archie Henderson was an immigrant from Scotland and became one of Judge Yeoman's employees. Mr. Yeomans was so well pleased with Archie Henderson's work that he said to him, "I wish I had another good man like you". Archie was quick to reply, "I'll write my brother, James, and he will come". James was living at Jedburgh, Scotland near the English border with his family. He accepted this opportunity for a chance to emigrate to the "New World" and came to Ionia in the employ of Mr. Yeomans.
The Yeomans family owned considerable land in the south part of the country as other speculators did. Eventually James Henderson bought a Yeomans' forty located on the northwest corner of Henderson Road and M 66. Later he bought other land nearby. James' daughter, Mary, and son, Archie, spent their long years at the family home just south of Henderson Road on M 66.
Son John married Kate Seybold, sister of John Seybold and they established their household in a log house a half mile west of M 66 on the south side of Henderson Road. Later he bought the farm just south of Archie's where Charles Steward had built the large Italianate house that has long been known as the Henderson home. The lumber for that house whose style was so popular in the late 1800's was white pine hauled from Ionia by horse.
Of John and Kate's six children Mildred Hall and Florence Eckhardt still live in that house and Marian of Lake Odessa and Olive of Battle Creek frequently visit them. The elder Hendersons saw to it that all six of their children completed high school at Lake Odessa at a time when going to high school was not yet considered a necessity for rural children.
At the Bippley rural school they walked with the Rogers girls, Eva Augst (Austin) and the Bippley children. There Florence Yeager, Helen Cheetham, Clyde Battdorf, Minnie Sindlinger, Lydia Sindlinger and Emily Brown were teachers. Lydia Sindlinger was very strict. Once the Bippley School baseball team went to Sebewa Center and played a game. The boys never wanted the girls to play ball so they got a ball club of their own and painted it red. Then they had a girls' team. Once they attended a fieldmeet sponsored by County Superintendent Harvey Lowery and Mr. Angell at Sebewa Center.
At high school Mildred had to stay in town during the week--first with a family by the name of Simmons. The oldest Simmons boy was home from work in a bank in Grand Rapids. Everybody knew that he had tuberculosis. Mrs. Henderson wisely knew that Mildren shouldn't be subject to that exposure and that was when she went to stay at the Frank Reiser home. When Florence was ready for high school James Henderson got the girls a driving horse and buggy and the children drove daily and stayed in town only when the weather was severe. George Downs was the Superintendent of Schools. LeRoy Steward was principal. A Mr. McCullough was a superintendent later and Clarence Mote was principal. This was before the high school building burned and was replaced by the 1923 building. There were twenty students in the 1915 graduating class.
The driving horse was named "Teddy". Sometimes he would get spooked by the sight of an automobile and turn right around in the road. They drove south to Bippley Road. The next mile south was swampy so they drove straight west to Odessa Center and then south into town. The horse was kept in a barn near the Reisers'. A few oats supplied Teddy at noon. The Rogers girls drove a horse named Bessie. Sometimes they would race to see who could make the trip first.
After high school the girls earned life certificates for teaching by spending two years at the Teachers College at Mt. Pleasant. Mildred taught at Carr, Johnson, Jennings, Clarksville and Halladay schools. Florence taught at Odessa Center, Limerick and Bippley. Olive taught at Lawton and Mason and Marian taught three years at Vicksburg.
Mildred remembers Em Martin driving the stage coach between Woodbury and Ionia. It was not what she thought it should be but rather just a buggy with three seats. Before Rural Free Delivery in 1900 the mail came to West Sebewa and residents around there would go there to pick up their own. John Henderson kept horses, cows, sheep, pigs and chickens. He never raised beef cattle. Eggs and butter brought the trading money for groceries at Jason Peacock's store in Lake Odessa in the location where the bank is now. When John Henderson was no longer able to work the farm, Mildred's husband, Irwin Hall, took over the farm work.
In 1977 Mildred, Florence, Marian and Olive made a trip to England. After seeing some of the British sights they took a bus across the border to Jedborough in Scotland. There they found the farm where their grandfather had lived and worked. No relatives were to be found.”
James’ naturalization certificate dated October 5, 1867 which means he probably applied when arriving in 1857. A ten year wait period was the standard.
According to the 1870 United States Agriculture Schedule, thirteen years after arriving in Michigan James Henderson had 60 acres of land; 8 improved, 45 woodland and 7 other unimproved. His farm cash value was $1300 with farm implements and machinery valued at $50. His farm consisted of 3 milk cows, 1 working oxen and 5 pigs valued at $140 and his winter wheat crop was 43 bushels. Also, in this same schedule I noticed that another household the line above James. Their last name was Hood, just like Jeannettes. And this is how I found Jeannettes siblings, William, Betsy, Ephraim and nephew John. By 1881, however, Betsy and Ephraim were back in Scotland. The search for the others and their parents continues……….
Rabbit Hole: a bizarre, confusing, or nonsensical situation or environment, typically one from which it is difficult to extricate oneself.