Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Henderson, Hon Hugh ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com November 10, 2007, 11:41 am Author: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County HON. HUGH HENDERSON. On the 22d of October, 1854, there was genuine grief in the state of Illinois, but its intensity and depth were most keenly felt in Joliet and Will County, where Judge Henderson's death, at that period, was in reality a public calamity. He was an ornament to the bar and the judiciary and elevated to a higher eminence every position he occupied. His selection to revise the laws and statutes of the state, at Springfield, a duty to which he devoted three months of active energy and an intelligent mind, trained in the legal lore of the past, and its application to the existing condition of the time, was an evidence of eminent qualifications to fill the highest office within the gift of the people. That they appreciated his merits and well-won honors was made evident by records that are now historical facts, that he was at that period the contemplated candidate for governor on the Democratic ticket, with a certainty of election to the gubernatorial chair. In those days Illinois was a magnet of attraction for the youth, genius, intellect and manhood of other states, until it became the nursery of the builders of the nation, on the lines marked out by Washington, Jefferson and Jackson. If Kentucky furnished a Lincoln, New York contributed a Henderson, another of Nature's noblemen, called away when his services to country and friends wrere most needed, and before his brilliant talents and faithful discharge of public- duty had time to receive the recognition that was so certain of fulfillment. Hugh Henderson was born on a farm in Norway, Herkimer County, N. Y., June 9, 1809. At an early age he aided his industrious parents, especially in spring and summer, when and wherever his services were available. In winter he attended the country school and laid the basis of an education that was achieved by a determination, characteristic of his spirit, to succeed in whatever duty he undertook. At the age of eighteen he taught school. This occupation he followed until he had saved sufficient to enter Fairfield College, New York. There, by close application, he forced his way to the foremost rank and graduated with high honors. Entering the law office of George Feeter, of Little Falls, N. Y., he never halted in his exertions to acquire a knowledge of all it was necessary he should know, in a profession he was destined to honor, and in which he was to become an authority on matters of jurisprudence. In the spring of 1835 he anticipated Horace Greeley's advice and came west, showing his good judgment by locating in Joliet, where he opened an office on the east side of Chicago street, north of Cass street. His letters to parents and friends at this period were prophetic, read in the light of to-day, and he contributed more than his share, with the progressive pioneers of that time, to prepare the way for the prosperous conditions of the present, which makes a great future inevitable. December 23, 1837, he married Helen Myers, who was born in Herkimer, N. Y., December 30, 1814, and who came to Joliet in 1835. Her father, Michael Myers, was an officer during the war of 1812, and her grandfather was Gen. Michael Myers, of Revolutionary fame. Her maternal grandfather was Army Surgeon Griswold, who afterward was elected governor of Connecticut. That the judge was happily married and received co- operation in his lofty, patriotic and political aspirations, was well understood, but how could it be otherwise in the off-spring of such an ancestry. Mrs. Henderson is alive to-day, at the age of eighty-five, in her forty-fifth year of widowhood; loyal and faithful to her husband's memory, with a mind clear and intelligent, showing in affliction the courage of her race, and with that depth of love for home and kindred for which they were noted. The old homestead, built in 1838 under the judge's supervision, and her every wish consulted in its erection, bears its old-time appearance and serves as an historic landmark. Its appearance demonstrates the mother's desire to retain in its entirety the home to which her husband was so attached, commemorative of struggles and triumphs. Progressive as the family are in everything else, the mother's feelings are too well understood and felt to have any change suggested that would rob the home of any recollection of its happiest hours. The family consisted of four children. Margaret S., who resides at Lyons, Mich., is the widow of John A. Kelly, captain of Company K, One Hundreth Illinois Infantry, during the Civil war. Daniel C, who married Rose W. Woodruff, of New York, was for many years editor of the Joliet Daily and Weekly Record and died in 1898, highly esteemed by all who knew him. James E., publisher of the Joliet Signal, the oldest paper in the state, married Kate A. Alpine, who is at present public librarian. John D. is represented in the following sketch. Honest and upright in all their dealings, liberal and generous as the case demands, unassuming at all times, it need not be wondered at that the Henderson family are so highly esteemed in the community. The old files of the Record and Signal, as well as the court records, bear ample testimony to Judge Henderson's success as a lawyer prior to his election as judge of the circuit court, to succeed Hon. Theophilus W. Smith. The seventh judicial circuit in those days embraced the counties of Will, Dupage and Iroquois. His acknowledged ability, illustrated in his able decisions, his impartiality in all cases and at all times, were no more conspicuous than his upright character, which won for him the respect of the bar and the confidence and esteem of the community. No wonder then that his name and fame should spread to other districts and that he should be selected as the banner bearer of the Democratic party which had determined that his name should head the state ticket for governor of Illinois. However, Fate willed it otherwise. That parental affection characteristic of the family prompted him to pay a visit to the scenes of his boyhood days and to the old folks at home who cherished his memory. He left his family and Joliet October 1, 1854; he was in good health and spirits, and little dreamed it was the last parting from his dear ones. On the journey he caught a severe cold which developed into pneumonia, and he died on the 22d of the same month. No opposition was raised to the wishes of his relatives to have him laid to rest near his birthplace, and Norway cemetery contains all that is mortal of Judge Henderson, whose name will be perpetuated in the annals of his adopted city and state and whose memory is still green in the hearts of those who held him dear. At the December term of court, Mr. Osgood, by request of the bar, presented resolutions of respect which were adopted and spread on the records. Joliet is proud of preserving the names of the pioneers worthy of honor and to her everlasting credit will it be placed that the judge's memory has been perpetuated by naming after him a school and a leading thoroughfare—the Henderson school and Henderson avenue. Additional Comments: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/henderso1134gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/ File size: 7.9 Kb