Husband Samuel Stewart Henderson 1 2
Born: 8 Mar 1855 - Brookville, Jefferson Co, PA 3
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Father: Hon. Joseph Washington Henderson (1814-1896) 1 4
Mother: Nancy Wilson (1819-1917) 1 4
Marriage: 2 Dec 1880 5
Other Spouse: Anna Hjelm Craig ( - ) 5 - 23 Oct 1895 - Brookville, Jefferson Co, PA 5
Wife Annie Litch 5
Born:
Christened:
Died: 15 Jan 1893 5
Buried:
Father: Thomas K. Litch (1808-1882) 5 6
Mother: Rebecca M. Eaton ( - ) 7
Children
1 F Cora Litch Henderson 5
Born: 10 Oct 1881 5
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: Lawrence V. Deemer ( - ) 5
Marr: 15 Apr 1909 - Brookville, Jefferson Co, PA 5
2 F Nellie Litch Henderson 5
Born: 24 Feb 1884 5
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: Fredrick W. Edmondson ( - ) 5
Marr: 12 Oct 1909 5
General Notes: Husband - Samuel Stewart Henderson
He was born in Brookville, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, and acquired his education there in the public schools. In December, 1872, he commenced work as an employe in the drug store of Hunt & Blood, where he continued for a period of six years. On Jan. 1, 1878, he started in the same line on his own account, having organized the firm of Henderson Brothers, and for several years this was his principal interest. But other possibilities presented themselves to him, and he soon branched out, taking advantage of every opportunity in the direction of his tastes. For a number of years he had large investments in stock, having in 1884 bought a farm of 120 acres in Rose township, Jefferson County, which he stocked with registered Shorthorn cattle and registered Percherons, as well as highly bred trotting horses. He operated this place until 1893, when he sold the land and disposed of his stock. For a number of years past he has been particularly well known in his connection with extensive lumbering operations. His first operations along this line were carried on in 1899, in which year he entered into an agreement with H. F. Manges, of Philadelphia, for the purpose of purchasing the white pine lumber and shingles manufactured by H. Truman & Co., at Brookville. It was about this time also that he organized the firm of Henderson, Schofield & Co., wholesale lumber dealers, whose main office was maintained at Brookville, and this firm, in association with Mr. Manges, sold the Truman white pine lumber and shingles during the years 1900, 1901 and 1902, also purchasing the pine and hemlock output of Verstine, Kline & Co., of Brookville. Meantime, in June, 1900, Mr. Henderson organized the Mill Creek Lumber Company and bought what was known as the Howe timber, one of the last original white pine tracts in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, located about two miles north of Corsica, where the company put up a band sawmill. The output of this mill also was handled by Henderson, Schofield & Co., until all the timber had been sawed, in the latter part of 1902, when the lumber company was dissolved, and Henderson, Schofield & Co. dissolved in the spring of 1903.
In 1902 Mr. Henderson acquired lumber interests in West Virginia. That year he bought fifteen hundred acres of timber in Pocahontas County, and in the spring of 1903 organized the Pocahontas Lumber Company of Brookville, his partners in the enterprise being J. B. Henderson, also of Brookville, and Dr. T. R. Williams, of Punxsutawney, who formed a copartnership. In the interest of this concern Mr. Henderson bought a tract of 9,071 acres, which with his first purchase gave the company over ten thousand acres, and to this later was added 2,500 acres. The company erected a mill at Burner, Pocahontas County, West Virginia, Mr. Henderson superintending the building, and as he was the only one of the partners familiar with the practical end of the lumbering business all the executive responsibility was intrusted to him from the beginning. As manager he looked after the construction of the mills and railroad and all the details of the operation. The manufacture of band sawed lumber of all kinds was carried on extensively, a specialty being made of West Virginia spruce. The plant at Burner had a modernly equipped planing mill as well as the sawmill, which latter had a daily capacity of seventy-five thousand feet. The logs used were handled over the company's own railroad, which connected at Burner with the Coal & Iron railroad, a branch of the Western Maryland. Mr. Henderson, besides owning a one-third interest in the Pocahontas Lumber Company, was a stockholder in the firm of Currie & Campbell, one of the most prosperous wholesale lumber firms in Philadelphia, with headquarters in the Commonwealth building. It was sponsored by the Pocahontas Lumber Company, who found this connection most desirable for disposing of that portion of its products which went to the Eastern markets. Mr. Henderson was a member of the board of governors of the Spruce Manufacturers' Association.
Mr. Henderson in later years became heavily interested in the coal business. In 1913 he and Dr. T. R. Williams purchased twelve hundred acres of valuable coal lands at Dilltown, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, and established the Dilltown Smokeless Coal Company, of which Mr. Henderson was vice president and treasurer. They mined and shipped the Miller Vein coal, the workings being at Dilltown, and about two hundred men were employed, the tonnage being about eight hundred daily, the capacity of the picking tables fifteen hundred tons daily. The hauling and cutting were done by electricity, the shortwall coal cutting machine being used, and everything about the mines was modern in construction and arrangement. The company built a town of sixty-eight houses, equipped with running water and electric light, and many other conveniences for the employees were installed, the settlement being a model one in every respect. The investment amounted to $265,000.
Mr. Henderson was one of the organizers of the Pocahontas Company of Dilltown, Pennsylvania, dealing in general merchandise, groceries, flour, provisions, dry goods, clothing and shoes. Mr. Henderson was also a stockholder in two Brookville banks, the National Bank of Brookville and the Jefferson County National Bank, and formerly served as director in both of these institutions, but resigned owing to the pressure of his other affairs. Under the heading of "Care Well Directed" the American Lumberman of Oct. 12, 1912, had a full-page article concerning Mr. Henderson and his work, as one of the "lumbermen who have set high standards in Eastern business." From it we quote the following:
"The manager content to develop, and intent upon developing, the natural possibilities of a compact enterprise has a big advantage, with corresponding outcome, over him who weakens his efforts by giving to scattered interests attention inevitably too attenuated to serve adequately any one detail of them. An exemplification of the converse of such unwisdom, a man who has concentrated all his attention and his activities upon comparatively modest interests with compact environment, and who always has controlled them, is a well known lumberman of Pennsylvania, S. S. Henderson, of Brookville. S. S. Henderson has so managed his affairs as always to have direct personal control of all their details. These interests, gratifyingly prosperous and of sound character, he has developed to their highest possibilities. While their number has been larger than usually falls to the managerial care of one man, each has been so fostered that its intricacies and its relations to the others are as familiar to Mr. Henderson as presumably is his single enterprise to the average keeper of a small store. His personal success as a business man has outstripped his environment, a result largely of his concentration of effort, his determination to 'make good' in comparatively few directions and his purpose to avoid a multiplicity and consequent probable conflict of interests."
But however devoted to business, Mr. Henderson never lost public-spirited concern for the general well-being of his home community. He was a member and trustee of the Presbyterian Church. Politically he was a Republican, and was proud to be able to say that his father was one of the delegates who helped to nominate Abraham Lincoln. He enjoyed baseball and motoring, and other outdoor sports as opportunity allowed. [HJC 1917 II, 57]