Guernsey-Belmont-Mercer County OhArchives Biographies.....Nancy Ann (Clendenning) Henderson 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Nina Miles gideonm@adelphia.net November 21, 2003, 9:03 am

Author: Alta Hazel Burnett, as per Mrs Moore and Mrs Carson

Some of the stories related by Mrs. Moore and Mrs. Carson have been told and 
retold by parents to children in this network of families so long that they 
have become legends. However, there may be somewhere some descendant so 
unfortunate as never to have heard them, so I will write them here.
A little story often related by Margaret Ann (Peggy Ann) Henderson Jarvis to 
her grandchildren concerns her mother, Nancy Ann Clendenning (Clendennon) 
Henderson. It also concerns the orchard previously mentioned which lies 
northwest of the house in which Nancy Ann lived with her husband, Major William 
Henderson, and their children. This story has come down through most of the 
lines of descent, and most of us descendants have heard it in our childhood. It 
taught us when we were very young that "It is more blessed to give than to 
receive." It also taught us that sometimes our very lives might depend upon our 
being kind to our enemies.
Major William Henderson was away from home, and Nancy Ann was at home alone 
with two small children. She was baking bread in the old-time oven when she 
heard Indians. Looking out, she saw a large number of Indians on the hill and 
in the orchard behind the house.
In those days, the Indians were not at all friendly to the white people who 
were moving westward and encroaching on their lands. Nancy Ann knew this, and 
she noticed that these particular Indians seemed to be very much excited They 
seemed to be in council. The seemed to be planning and plotting. What did they 
intend to do? Just what was their scheme?
Nancy Ann was not left to wonder long. Soon one large Indian left the others in 
the group and started down the hill toward the house. Nancy Ann was very much 
frightened; but she hurried to the oven, gathered the hot bread in her apron, 
went out to meet the large Indian, and smiled as she offered him the bread.
The Indian looked surprised; but he took the bread and said, "Good Squaw! Good 
Squaw!" He then turned and went back to his companions, taking the fragrant, 
warm bread with him. Nancy Ann could see the Indians dividing the bread among 
their number. Presently they started off in another direction and disappeared 
over the hill.
A few mornings after this incident, the same big Indian who had accepted Nancy 
Ann's fresh bread appeared again at the door of her home. On his shoulder, he 
carried a dressed deer which he offered to her as a gift. He told her that he 
and his companions had hunted unsuccessfully. They had been unable to find any 
food, and they had become so weak and famished that they were unable to endure 
it longer. Her bread had refreshed them and given them courage to try again. 
They had come to her home intending to rob and plunder; but, instead, they had 
eaten Nancy Ann's bread and renewed the hunt for food. They had been 
successful, and they wanted Nancy Ann and her children to share in their feast.
Nancy Ann knew that her gift of bread to the Indians had saved her life, too; 
and she was thankful, as she accepted the Indians' gift of venison, that she 
had been taught to be kind to her enemies and to do good to those who might do 
evil to her.


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