Arkansas County ArArchives Biographies.....Henderson, John Melby, Jr. 
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Robert Sanchez http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00027.html#0006574 July 15, 2009, 10:10 am

Author: S. J. Clarke (Publisher, 1922)

JOHN MELBY HENDERSON, JR.
    John Melby Henderson, Jr., county superintendent of schools of Arkansas
county and a valued resident of De Witt, was born on a farm ten miles east of
this city in 1880. his parents being J. M. and Mollie Henrietta (Dempsey)
Henderson. The family is of English lineage, the ancestry being traced back to
John Melby Henderson, who was a sailor in the British fleet under Admiral Peter
Parker. The ship on which he served was wrecked off the coast of North Carolina,
and Henderson and a companion made their way into the woods after being cast on
a shore by the way. Finding a hog wallow, Henderson lay in this and thus managed
to keep warm for a time while recovering from the exposure and the fatigue of
buffeting the waves. He continued in the new world, becoming the founder of the
family in America. The line of descent is traced down to John Melby Henderson
(11), who removed from North Carolina to Tennessee, and John Melby Henderson
(111), who left his home in Middle Tennessee, in 1847, to become a resident of
Arkansas. His wife was the daughter of James Rust, a descendant of the first
settlers of Virginia. He, in turn, was the father of John Melby Henderson, who
was born in Arkansas county and who married Mollie Henrietta Dempsey. The
paternal grandfather served as a Confederate soldier in the Civil war. He
established his home in Arkansas in 1847, and. therefore, went to the front from
this state. Mrs. Mollie H. Henderson was a daughter of Andrew Jackson Dempsey,
who was born at Lake Charles, Louisiana, whence he removed to Mississippi, while
later he came to Arkansas. The father, with his family, settled at St. Charles,
Arkansas, in 186S, the mother having previously departed this life. He, too, was
a Confederate veteran of the Civil war. His father had served with Andrew
Jackson at the battle of New Orleans, in the War of 1812. J. M. and Mollie H.
(Dempsey) Henderson are still living, making their home near St. Charles, and to
them has been born four children: John Melby, Jr., Nina, May and Maury W.

    After completing the work in the rural schools and high school at De Witt,
Professor J. M. Henderson, of this review, continued his education in the
Southern Normal, now the Western Kentucky State Normal, at Bowling Green,
Kentucky. He later took up the profession of teaching, which he followed in
Arkansas county and also in Louisiana. He studied law in the University of
Arkansas, completing his course by graduation in 1910, and then located for
practice in De Witt, where he remained an active member of the bar until 1918.
Two years prior to this time, or in 1916, he had been elected county
superintendent of schools and twice he has been reelected to this petition, so
that he is now serving for the third term. He has instituted many progressive
movements and measures beneficial to the school, has advanced the standards of
instruction and has been instrumental in raising the salaries of teachers from
sixty to one hundred dollars per month in the first grade. He likewise was
effective in his efforts to increase the school term in the rural white schools
from five and a half to eight months per year. He introduced club work in the
school and amplified the curriculum, introducing new matter and coordinating the
school work with the daily life of the child, or, in other words, extending the
home life of the child to the schoolroom. It is his ambition to secure an
agricultural high school for the community, thereby laying the basis of
agricultural training in the common schools. He is a believer in vocational
training. He had worked at the blacksmith and carpenter trades in early life,
learning much about these trades from his father, who operated a wagon shop in
the early days. He feels that there is much to be gained from this manual
training, as well as from the intellectual stimulus that comes from the perusal
of hooks. He has introduced many innovations in the school, imparting a fuller
knowledge to the pupil of the things which he encounters in his every-day life,
and among the subjects discussed in the schoolroom are: Infectious parasites,
stock and their habits, seed selection, horticulture, agriculture, home
economics, poultry, household arts, ventilation, hygiene, housing for animals,
housing for humans, botanical studies, rodents, drainage, sewage, good
citizenship, common sense, usefulness, ideals, the attitude of the youth toward
elders, and government in its district, county, city, state and national forms.
The free discussion of all these subjects in the schools has been a means of
stimulating the interest of the children in a number of the vital problems which
affect the physical and material welfare and which have to do with many of the
vocations into which the children are apt to enter.

    Professor Henderson, while doing splendid work in the educational field
through the past six years as county superintendent, has also rendered
assistance to the community in other ways through capable service as city
attorney and as special judge. He is a director of the First National Bank and
is the president of the De Witt Publishing Company, which publishes the
Enterprise. He' carries forward to successful completion everything that he
undertakes, and thoroughness, energy and diligence have characterized him in
every relation of life. During the World war he acted as food administrator in
his district. He has developed eight hundred acres of rice land in connection
with associates and he owns several small farms, using one of these as a
demonstration farm.

    Mr. Henderon was married to Miss Bertie E. Jones of De Witt, a daughter of
J. L. Jones. Mrs. Henderson's people were also among the early settlers of
Virginia. The children horn to Mr. and Mrs. Henderson are three in number: Mary
Louise, John Melby and Virginia E. Fraternally Mr. Henderson is a Mason, loyal
to the teachings and purposes of the craft, and his religious faith is that of
the Baptist church. His life has always been actuated by the highest ideals,
which he strives to reach by the most practical methods, and the results which
he has achieved have been indeed far retching and effective as contributing
factors to the material, intellectual and moral development of the community and
to the adoption of high standards of civic activity and of daily living.



Additional Comments:
Citation:
Centennial History of Arkansas
Volume II
Chicago-Little Rock: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
1922


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