Pioneers of Ellis County
James R. Henderson
Excerpts from: "Ellis County's Frontier Days are Colorful
History"
By Col. W. E. Cox
(Pub. In Waxahachie Enterprise - 1933)
Contributed by Jean Caddel
Ellis County, other than the fact that it was organized in 1850, furnished
three or four companies who fought under the Stars and Bars during the struggle
for the independence of Dixie Land; has, since August, 1850, increased from
a population of one family and one Negro slave to a little more than 53,000.
It has placed most of its arable area under cultivation, has enjoyed the
reputation of being the champion county of the world as a producer of cotton.
Yet it has very little of what would be considered as history of world interest.
However, it is these people who helped to shape the direction in which this
country would move.
Therefore, we of the present day, if we would become interested in its
activities, must be content to gather around the family fireside and tell
our children and grandchildren where our fathers settled and of their struggles
to conquer the frontier and to bring organization out of the chaotic conditions
which confronted them when, with stout hearts and determination, they undertook
to solve their many problems.
One of these determined and industrious characters was James R. Henderson
who was reared in North Carolina. In early manhood, he moved to the state
of Tennessee and in 1851, he brought most of his family to Texas. They settle
in Ellis County near the place now known as Hughes Graveyard. His daughter,
Mary, became the wife of Jerry Hughes and was the mother of Frank N. Hughes,
a Confederate veteran, a citizen of Italy, who has for more than a third
of a century been constable of Justice Precinct No. 8 and voluntarily retired
from said office a year or two since.
Elihu married a Miss Cobb, a niece of Gen. Tarrant. Daniel Boone Henderson
married Miss. Lucy Kellum and settled on the Howe Survey. One of his daughters,
Dan Ella, partly reared in the old home, later moved to Navarro County and
married W. J McDuiffie, whom she met while he was teaching a writing school
near the present site of Forreston. To this union were born several sons
and daughters. Sallie, a sister of Mrs. McDuffie, married John Maggard. James
Henderson Jr. married Mary Jane Taylor, but did not long survive. A son,
James Henderson, died in early childhood. Mrs. Henderson married Mr. Parker
and was the mother of Jesse Parker of Italy, a teacher of long experience
and, later, the mayor of Italy. Rev. Alex Henderson and son of James R. Henderson
Sr. Did not come to Texas with the other members of the family. He came later
and settled in the Rankin Community. He was the father of Mark Henderson
who lives in Waxahachie.
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