THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
When the special census of 1834
was taken,
only one Henson family appeared, that of Joseph Henson, Senior, with
Joseph
himself and his wife in the household.
Proceeding to the next census in 1840,
three households of Hensons were in Union.
In the Charles Henson household were two male children, three
female
children, and Charles and his wife. In
the Joseph Henson household were eight male children, four female
children and
Joseph and his wife. In the Joseph
Henson, Sr. household, the same as noted from 1834, the residents had
increased
to five male children, eight female children, and the mother and father. With such an increase in Joseph, Sr.’s
household, we wonder how this accounting
could have come about in just six years.
Maybe the 1850 census will reveal some answers, or perhaps we
can find
other clues from family history stories that will add light to these
early
Henson settlers to the county.
By 1850, the first census with
children in households listed by names rather than just an age bracket,
we
discover Hensons in eight enumerated households, with the number of
persons by
that name totaling thirty-three, but Daniel Henson, age 19, seems to
have been
counted twice, first with his own family, and again in the household of
M. C.
Wilson and his wife, Mary Wilson and their three small children,
William,
Martha and Eliza Wilson. (Could Daniel and Mary Wilson have been
brother and
sister and he was visiting them—or working on M. C. Wilson’s farm—when
the
census-taker called?). A listing,
besides that of the Wilsons, in which Hensons were enumerated in 1850
was as
follows:
(#65)
Allen Henson, 56, and his wife,
Elizabeth, 56, with children Edy, 18, Elizabeth, 14, Daniel, 19, and
George,
21—all born in North Carolina. Allen
Henson’s occupation was listed as cooper—or barrel-maker.
(#466)
Archibald Henson, age 74, was born in Virginia.
Evidently his wife was not living in 1850. Listed
in his household are children Charity,
30 and Ages, 18, both born in North Carolina, and Edmund, age 10 (a
young child
for a 74-year old man; could he have been a grandchild?), born in
Tennessee.
(#471)
Charles Henson, age 65, his wife Sally, 64, and one child still at
home,
Charles. All three were born in South
Carolina.
(#475) Eli Henson, age 39, and his
wife, Elizabeth,
age 29, both born in North Carolina, and their three small children,
James 7,
Archibald, 5, and Jacob, 1, all born in Georgia. In
this household was Jacob Ledford, age
20. (Could he have been a brother to
Elizabeth Henson?)
(#548)
William Henson, age 26, born in Georgia, his wife, Mary Ann, age 26,
born in
South Carolina, and a young Joseph Henson, Jr., age 20, born in Georgia. (Could he have been a brother to William, and
a son of Joseph Henson, Sr., who was in the 1834 Union census?)
(#549)
Joseph Henson, Sr. age 44, born in South Carolina.
No wife is listed, but an elderly Rebecca
Henson, age 90, no doubt Joseph, Sr.’s mother, also born in SC was in
the
household, along with children Alsa (a female), 17, Rebecca, 15, John,
12, and
Jonathan, 10, all born in Georgia.
(#1047)
Henson, James, age 28, his wife, Catherine, age 24, both born in North
Carolina, and one child, William, age 1.
For more information about early
settlers with Henson surname, we turn to early marriage records and
find these
who were married in Union County from 1832 to 1850.
Some of these relate back to the additional
households of Hensons added between the 1840 and 1850 census:
Rebecca Henson married Preston
Starrett on
16 February 1839 (by Jesse Reid, JP)
Lovina Henson married Henry
Nichols on 24
December 1840 (by Daniel Mathis, JIF)
Henry Henson married Mariah
Woods on 25
July 1841 (by David Kenny, JP)
Joseph Henson married Sarah N.
Warlex on 12
May 1842 (by Rev. Elisha Hedden, MG)
Mary Henson married Thomas
Henson on 22
July 1845 (by John Patterson, JP)
Martha Henson married William
Daniel on 10
December 1845 (by Charles Crumley, JP)
James Henson married Catherine
Battbey (?
sp.) on 13 May 1847 (by W. A. Brown, JP)
T. P. Henson married S. Mahoney
on 8
October 1847 (by Benjamin Casteel, JP)
W. C. Henson married Polly Ann
Hood on 23
April 1848 (by Charles Crumley, JP)
Loyd Henson married Milly
Harkins on 13
March 1850 (by M. L. Burch, JP)
If you are a Henson, or a descendant
from a Henson of those listed as settlers in Union up to 1850, or
related to
those in the nine Henson couples married in Union by 1850, then you can
claim
your heritage back to these hardy pioneers.
A Henson cemetery was established in the Owltown District of
Union
County. At the time the Union County
Cemetery Book was compiled in 1990, eight graves were marked just by
field
stones with no discernible identification, while twenty-two of the
graves had
inscribed headstones. The earliest
marked grave was that of an infant of J. I. Henson who was born and
died
October 15, 1875. Probably some of the
field stones marked earlier graves prior to that one of 1875. The name gravestone identifying the one born
earliest to be buried in the Henson Cemetery is that of James M. Henson
(1822-1906). Joseph Henson, Sr., first
Henson settler in Union County, must have been buried with only an
unmarked
field stone at his grave. In my search
of all Henson burials listed in the cemetery book, I did not find his
name or a
date that would identify him.
An early Henson School once operated
in
Choestoe District. My Uncle Herschel
Dyer, and later his son, Otis Dyer, taught at that school.
c2010 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published Sept. 16, 2010 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville,
GA.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail [email protected];
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
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