BIO: James Linn HENDERSON, M. D., Clearfield County, PA
 
Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja & Sally

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/

NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/1picts/swoope/swoope.htm
_____________________________________________________________

From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania,
and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr.,
Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, pages 457 & 458.
_____________________________________________________________ 

  J. L. HENDERSON, M. D., who has been engaged in the practice of medicine at 
Osceola Mills, Pa., for more than two decades and is known professionally over 
a wide territory, is also one of the progressive and representative citizens of 
the town.  He was born at Lewistown, Mifflin county, Pa., February 20, 1853, 
and is a son of Dr. Joseph and Margaret (Isenberg) Henderson.
  Dr. Joseph Henderson was born at Carlisle, Pa., in 1792, a son of Matthew 
Henderson, and a grandson of Daniel Henderson, both of whom were born in 
Pennsylvania, of Scotch ancestry.  Daniel Henderson spent his life in Chester 
county.  Matthew Henderson, who was the grandfather of Dr. J. L. Henderson, of 
Osceola Mills, was a civil engineer and surveyor and appears to have been a man 
of excellent parts.  He was a collector of excise for the Penn family, prior to 
the Revolutionary War and was a deputy surveyor in the laying out of Franklin 
and Cumberland counties.  He was married in 1796 to Margaret Kearsley, who was 
living at Valley Forge at the time Washington's army wintered there, and it was 
her brother Captain Samuel Kearsley and his wife, who gave liberally of their 
means to provide for the comfort of the starving and freezing soldiers during 
that terrible winter, and in appreciation of this generosity, General 
Washington, in the presence of the assembled soldiers, later presented his own 
sword to Captain Kearsley.  Margaret Kearsley was a daughter of Jonathan and 
Jane Kearsley, the former of whom was born in Scotland in 1718, and the latter 
in 1720.  Dr. Joseph Henderson located in Mifflin county, Pa., in 1832, where 
he continued the practice of medicine until his death, in 1863.  He traced his 
American ancestry back to 1715.  He married Margaret Isenberg and they were 
parents to three sons, two of whom are physicians, William B. and James Linn, 
the former of whom is engaged in practice at Philipsburg, Pa.
  James Linn Henderson was ten years old when his father died.  When aged about 
sixteen years he went west and spent ten years in Kansas and Illinois.  When he 
returned to the east he located at Lima, O., where he engaged in medical study 
under one of the well known old practitioners of that city, and subsequently 
entered the Ohio Medical College, at Cincinnati, where he was graduated in 
1881, receiving his diploma.  He returned to near Lima and continued to 
practice among his former friends until failing health caused him to seek an 
other location.  For three years he was in practice at Karthaus, Pa., and then 
came to Osceola Mills, where he has continued ever since, building up a fine 
practice here as the result of professional capacity, and at the same time 
winning the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens through personal 
worth.  For more than ten years Dr. Henderson has been a member of the Board of 
Health and for fifteen years has served on the school board.  For ten years he 
has been also president of the Osceola Mills Building and Loan Association.
  Dr. Henderson was married first to Miss Frances Hughes, of Indiana, who died 
in 1897, leaving three children:  William Hughes, who is assistant chief 
engineer for a steel company at Youngstown, O.; Joseph Linn, who is in the U. 
S. Government employ, in the Forestry service, in Arizona; and Matthew Francis, 
who resides at home.  Dr. Henderson was married second to Miss Annie Allen, of 
Lewistown, Pa.  Since its organization, Dr. Henderson has been a member of the 
West Branch Medical Society and belongs also to Clearfield County, Pennsylvania 
State and the American Medical Associations.  For twenty years he has been 
identified with the order of United Workmen.