Sketch of the Life of Dr. Charles K. Henderson (As read at his funeral service on Thursday, January 21, 1937 by William G. England)
Charles Kennon Henderson, son of John Carter Henderson and Rhoda Elizabeth Kennon, was born on June 18, 1846. His mother died at his birth, and an aunt, Mrs. Eliza Read cared for him for six weeks at which time his grandmother, Elizabeth Hall Turner Kennon, came for him and carried him to her home at Waverly Hall, Harris County, Georgia, where he made his home until her death in April 1868, while he was a student at Mercer University.
At seven years of age he entered school at Mt. Vernon, about six miles west of Talbotton, Georgia, his first teacher being Appleton Williamson. He next attended school at Mt. Airy Academy, three miles south of Waverly Hall, Ga., where William Strickland and George M. Dews were his instructors. His next school was at Rutledge, where he was taught by John E. Fuller and Captain Neil. He continued in the common schools until he entered college in 1866. Early in January, 1866, he (in company with G. W. Epps, a Baptist minister from Virginia, and the second husband of Mr. Henderson’s maternal grandmother) left for Penfield, Green County, Georgia, where he entered Mercer University. While at Penfield he boarded in the home of his father’s niece, Matilda Cogburn, who married Augustus Sharpe.
In June 1868 Mr. Henderson graduated with an A.B. degree from Mercer and afterwards obtained his A.M degree from that institution. His was the first graduating class after the war between the states and he is now the oldest living graduate of Mercer University. His education was further pursued in Theological Seminaries.
Dr. Henderson is the most learned man the writer has ever known. I have heard him preach many able sermons; but two particularly stand out in my memory as gems of oratory and food for thought. Both were necessarily delivered without preparation. One was a commencement sermon at Cedartown. The congregation had assembled in the City Hall auditorium; the graduates were seated on stage and the out of town preacher had failed to arrive. Professor Purks, the Superintendent of Public Schools, asked me to go get Mr. Henderson. When I explained the dilemma to Mr. Henderson he readily agreed to “help them out,” and without a moment’s preparation, he walked to City Hall, opened the Bible, selected a text, and preached a magnificent sermon.
The other occasion was when the Georgia Baptism Association met in Athens, Georgia, in 1902 or 1903. Dr. Henderson had been invited by Dr. Hopkins, pastor of the First Methodist Church of Athens, to fill his pulpit on Sunday. Because of painful illness, Dr. Henderson was unable and made no effort to prepare a sermon; but he was unwilling to disappoint his host, and, though sick, filled his appointment. The church was crowded to capacity and people were standing in the back. Inspired by the opportunity for service, Dr. Henderson preached a wonderful sermon and thrilled his audience; and this sermon was discussed by the people of Athens for months afterward. Only with one great store of general knowledge from which to draw, could have preached such sermons as these without specific preparation.
Dr. Henderson can read and speak fluently Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German, French and Spanish. He is the author of The Countryman, Commentary on Romans, and various articles on religious history. In his young manhood, he taught school at Warrior Stand, Alabama, Aberfoil, Alabama, Farriorville, Alabama, and in the public schools at Cedartown, Georgia.
Mr. Henderson was a valiant soldier in the Confederate army. He modestly refrains from discussing the deeds which would reflect glory upon himself, and in his own language gives the military history as follows:
“In my teens (sixteen to be exact) I volunteered for the war between the states, and enlisted in the army–3rd Georgia Regiment, Company F, Captain Cronwell and Colonel Moore. We were mustered in at Camp Oglethorpe, Macon, Georgia. For some months we helped to guard the Andersonville prison, near Americus, Georgia. Thence we were transferred to General Hardee’s Corps. This regiment was in seven engagements fighting Sherman. I do not claim all these battles. My regiment was sent into South Carolina, and in April 1865, the regiment was brought from South Carolina following Sherman to Columbus, Ga. There, on the Alabama side of the Chattahoochee river, we were in battleline all day Sunday, April 16, 1865, seven days after General Lee had surrendered at Appomattox. This, in conjunction with one at Ft. Tyler, West Point, Georgia, was the last battle of the Civil War. I was captured by Federals after the battle and my gray mare, worth $600, was taken from me, and I was given a mule. Upon this mule I rode late at night through General Wilson’s army, encamped at Waverly Hall, Harris County, Georgia, and went to bed at Uncle John Kennon’s. I am now commander of Camp 159 United Veterans of Fulton County.”
Mr. Henderson relates the following interesting experience in connection with his military career: One night when it was extremely dark, an officer appeared with orders to “fire to the right and left,” and a General gave the command to, “obey your orders, boys.” Mr. Henderson said he recognized his duty as a soldier to obey orders, but he also recognized the disastrousness of executing such an order and did not do so. It developed later that the orders were given by Federal officers, who could not be discerned in the darkness and that a Federal regiment was marching across not more than 15 or 20 feet in front of them.
The following article in reference to Mr. Henderson appears in the Magazine Section of the Atlanta Journal of January 17, 1937, “When the big battle painting in Grant Park was being made three dimensional, with plaster figures of soldiers, horses and wagons being added to the foreground of the painting, there was one Confederate veteran who simply haunted the place, watching every detail of the restoration with keen interest. He was a hale, erect old man, who had served throughout the conflict and who had later entered the ministry. He kept bemoaning the fact that while he had fought in most of the major battles of the war, he had not been present at the Battle of Atlanta. One day the sculptor, seeing the old veteran watching him eagerly, asked him to come over and pose. Today the old gentleman’s face, made more youthful but still recognizable as his, can be seen in several places in the Battle of Atlanta. The largest of his effigies stands, holding a long musket, just behind a barricade of cotton bales in front of the brick house painted on the great canvas. The face, while younger than that of the original, is still recognizable, strong, and clean shaven, with high cheek bones. The Confederate veteran still comes to the Cyclorama and delightfully shows his friends how he finally got into the Battle of Atlanta seventy-two years after it was fought.” The Confederate veteran referred to is Reverend C. K. Henderson, the subject of this article, and his picture appears in the magazine section of the Journal of the date above mentioned.
Of all the things in the long career of Dr. Henderson, he is proudest of the fact that he is minister of the gospel of Christ. He says, “I have had a blessed time in ministry, and I thank and praise God for all His goodness to me.” Though he was christened at eight days of age by the Reverend Dave Perry, a Methodist minister of the Alabama conference, and in boyhood attended a Methodist church of which his grandmother was a member, and his grandfather, Dr. John Kennon, was a member of the North Georgia conference, Dr. Henderson spent most of his life a Baptist minister. It was through the influence of his grandmother’s second husband, Reverend G. W. Epps, a Baptist minister, that Mr. Henderson was sent to Mercer University, and it was in the Chapel of Mercer that he joined the Baptist church and was baptized by the pastor, Reverend Dan A. Bell. He was ordained a Baptist minister at Goodhope church, located at Uchee, Alabama, in December 1871. Congressman Marshall Wellborn, Major Gordon, brother of General Gordon, and Dr. Brown comprised the presbytery. Immediately thereafter in December 1871, he was called to the pastorate of four churches in Russell county, Alabama: Goodhope at Uchee, Friendship, near Hotchechobee, Providence at Ft. Mitchell and the First church at Hurtsboro, Alabama.
He served these churches (except Providence which was later dissolved) until 1875, when he accepted a call to Cedartown, and also Friendship and Lake Creek churches of Polk County, and New Prospect Church of Floyd County. He held these pastorates until October 11, 1879, when he left for Rochester, New York to attend the Colgate Rochester Divinity School from which he graduated in May 1882.
After graduation he preached at Royalton, New York, and Pike, New York until 1885 when he entered the Baptist Theological Seminary at Louisville, Ky, for a special course. When he completed his course at Louisville, he preached at Princeton, Kentucky, until he accepted a call to Gadsden, Alabama, where he remained until 1888.
In 1888 he was called to the First Baptist Church at Cedartown, and served the church until 1910, thus completing twenty-one years of faithful and highly efficient service for this church. Because he served them long and well, and because of his loving ministrations to them in times of sorrow and under all the circumstance attendant to human life, he is greatly beloved by the people of Cedartown whom he served and by their descendants.
After 1910 he preached at LaFayette, Rome and other places unknown to the writer, and in 1918 he accepted the presidency of Bowden College, which he held for two years, resigning the latter part of 1919 because of ill health, and moving to Atlanta where he now resides at 290 Ormond Street, SE.
Dr. Henderson speaks of many different experiences during his early preaching career. He says that in those days the circuit rider received a salary and paid for his meals and lodging just as any one else did; but that the salary was small and was supplemented by gifts, usually in the form of produce. One proud bride-groom gave him a hive of bees as a marriage fee.
On February 4, 1874, Dr. Henderson was married to Miss Gertha Long, of Hurtsboro, Alabama, who passed away in Cedartown on April 28, 1889. Five children blessed this union, two of whom died in infancy. Charles, Gertha and Edgar lived to maturity. Charles passed away in February 1931, and Edgar in November 1935. The surviving child, Mrs. Gertha H. Hollis, is a resident of Richburg, South Carolina.
In December 1891, Dr. Henderson was married to Miss Grace Letcher Pittman, of Polk County, whose loving companionship he now enjoys. To them was born one son who died in infancy.
As these lines are written, Dr. Henderson , in his ninety-first year, peacefully and confidently awaits the summons. The end is not far–a few days, and possibly only a few hours. He has fought a good fight, and soon will receive the commendation from on high, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joys of thy Lord.” I shall not attempt to extol the many virtues of this good man. By his works he has erected a monument for himself that will stand through eternity. Thousands who have come within his beneficent influence will reflect his glory. The most expressive term that could be applied to him is that he is a “Christian Gentleman” with all that this broad term embodies.
He has served his fellow man and his God. “A fragrance in the path he trod.”
Dr. Charles Kennon Henderson (1846-1937), prominent Baptist clergyman and veteran of the War Between the States, was the oldest living graduate of Mercer University, which he entered after service with the third Georgia regiment, and from which he was graduated in 1868. He was commander of Camp 159, United Confederate Veterans, and his likeness was chosen for one of three plaster figures on the walls of the Cyclorama in Grant park. Dr. Henderson served many pastorates in Georgia and other southern states. He was the author of several books, and a frequent contributor to the Christian Index and other religious journals. He had served as president of Bowden College, Bowden, GA. Following his graduation from Colgate Divinity school, he held several pastorates in New York State. [obituary via Find a Grave]
Many of the places and names mentioned here can be found on the 1910 Hudgins map, which can be downloaded here.
Fore Word written by Grace P. Henderson
Polk County Persons and Things began in the nineties, serial stories in the Cedartown Standard, edited by Russell and Coleman. With some delay published weekly for a number of years. Illness and leaving the State interrupted the writings.
In the beginning I think, it was Mr. Henderson’s purpose to write only of those “who had had their little day, their chance at toil, their fling at play,” but the inclination to write was strong and friends kept coming with more history to record.
Unfortunately the clippings were not kept in order and it proved a tremendous task to assemble them together, but for the aid of generous friends who kept scrapbooks, I should never have been able to do it. A few chapters are missing.
Naturally the older settlements on the old Indian Trails, Rome, Cave Spring, Rockmart and Cartersville roads had the oldest settlers and had most attention.
As the history unfolded, he had hoped to get every part of the county. He spoke of this several times but it was never finished.
I have preserved much of the history of the Lime Branch community, in deeds, church, and family records, which is added. Have tried to recall some of those early pioneers whom I think have not been mentioned in the series of articles.
The U.D.C. of Cedartown kindly let me copy their Muster Roll of Veterans which I think important to preserve where it will be accessible. Not a correct list however.
An old lime kiln near the present church gives the name “Lime Kiln Branch” to some old papers.
For preservation I am having this bound and it is done in memory of CHARLES KENNON HENDERSON.
May 27, 1897
The Cedartown Standard
Number One
It is the aim of this paper, and of others that are to follow, to print in part the history of Polk County; to give some accounts of the principal actors in her making, and of the chief events in her developments.
Every people worthy of the name should preserve their history, and transmit it as a heritage to those who follow. The struggles and triumphs of the worthy ambition of a people are always helpful. History is philosophy teaching by examples. The history of Polk County is full of thrilling interest, and the men who made this history belong to a kingly race. Some record of their lives should be made in lasting form. If this is not done soon, it shall be too late, for those who know the facts are passing away, and with their going shall go the knowledge of the history of those men and events which have illustrated the life of Polk County.
As a result of the Cherokee purchase the Indians were removed from this section in 1838. Capt. John Witcher of the Clark County Volunteers gathered them. An Indian warrior had his wigwam where Mrs. Hand now lives. Around the Big Spring was a trading center, and Mrs. Walthall had a store there. It is said that the first time Mr. Bigelow was ever seen in Polk County he was sitting on a rock near the Big Spring. A ball ground of the Indians was located in West End, now occupied by many elegant residences. Another ball ground and a village of the Indians, named Charley Town, was located south of Juanita Place, along the banks of the Big Cedar. The site is now owned by Mr. Ake. Polk County was originally Paulding, but in 1850 a part of Paulding was made into Polk. The court house at that time was at Van Wert, but was afterwards moved to Cedartown. This removal excited much angry feeling and for a long time was a source of division. But time–who heals the sorest wound–has closed this wound and we are now one people.
The Pony Club, a famous organization, figured conspicuously in the early history of Polk County and very largely, if wholly, controlled the politics of the county. Van Wert was the headquarters of the club, while the hindquarters of the club were in the saddle.
About the time of the removal of the court house, Mr. Shipley was Sheriff, and Cols. Jack Jones and Thomas Sparks were elected to the legislature. At the time, Gov. Lumpkin, the father of our townsman Mr. John Lumpkin, visited Polk County, and was entertained by a leading Pony Clubman at old Van Wert. It was the finesse of Gov. Lumpkin that made his stay at Van Wert a success.
In the fifties there were living in Polk County many distinguished families; the Wests, the Priors, the Peeks, the Gibsons, the Sparks, the Whatleys, the Veazys, the Jones, and others, about all of whom I hope to have something to say. Also, I shall speak of the families that came to Polk later.
Number Two
The early settlers of Polk County found it a rich heritage–a land fertile, well watered and drained, and alternating in upland and meadow. The virgin soil of the meadow lands easily yielded 50 bushels of corn per acre, and could be made to do so now under proper tillage. The richest lands are found along the Euharlee and Big Cedar Creeks. These lands are thoroughly adapted to the finest growth of clover and blue grass, and can be made easily to produce a bale of cotton to acre. All the cereals are successfully grown in Polk. The forest once abounded in the richest timber, and wild peas grew everywhere. Great cane breaks, rank in growth, were seen along the streams, and the cattle kept fat with these all winter.
Great herds of deer roamed in the forest and fattened on the wild peas that grew so abundantly everywhere. There are now persons living in Cedartown (and they say they are not old now) who used to see near Cedartown as many as 25 deer at one time in one herd. Wild turkeys were strutting and gobbling on every hill. At night, the howl of the wolf was heard at every homestead. The dog-eater is a lineal descendant of Mr. Lupus, one of the aboriginal settlers of the paradise of Polk. His mournful undulations many now be heard around the Devil’s Darning Needles, and along the ridges that bound meandering streams of “Pumpkin Pile” and old Terrapin Creek in Alabama.
Big Cedar was once a wide, deep clear-flowing water, filled with the finest fishes. These were caught in abundance, and when struggling from the stream were cooked to fatten the dry jaws of every lover of them. It makes the disciples of Izaak Walton pine over these degenerate days of sucker-fishing when they think of the seven-pound trout and the great blue bream that used to [sic] Dick Poole and Charlie Smith. God made bountiful provision for man but he has sought out many inventions.
There were not many people living in Cedartown in 1852. At that time the Court House was located on its present site and built. It was burned in 1864 by Kilpatrick’s cavalry, of Sherman’s army, and rebuilt in 1869. The present court house was built in 1891, and is proof of the advancing spirit of our people.
In 1852 Bigelow and Weaver were prominent men in Cedartown, and kept a store near the present site of the Methodist church. Brooks M. Willingham kept a tavern on the corner of Main and Rockmart streets. This was burned when the court house was. Housebug, the Indian was living then where Mrs. Hand now lives, yet not in the house now standing. Greenwood, another Indian, lived below the Judkins Mill, near the forks of the Little and Big Cedar creeks. Only a few old landmarks are left in Cedartown. The two-story white house beyond. Tanyard branch , on the left of the road to Lime Branch, was the first framed house built in Cedar Valley, and was the home of the first Mr. Whatley who came and resided in Polk County. This house was regarded as more than ordinary, and attracted much attention in the pioneer days. Judge William West built the home now occupied by Dr. Russell. Our ex-representative and citizen, Dr. George West, father of Mrs. Blanche [sic], taught school where Mrs. Brooks now lives. Once there was a church there, and a cemetery (now neglected) marks the resting place of many.
The home now lived in and owned by Mrs. Ware is another old landmark. Dr. Prior owned it and lived there. The site of the opera house was an Indian trading post, where much “Red Eye” was dispensed to the Red Man, and many a mighty orgy was the result of it.
Afterwards the Baptists founded a church there. Many of our best people were members of that church. And many of the bodies of the saints of that church now sleep within a few feet of where the pulpit once stood, awaiting the resurrection of the just. That place is yet hallowed ground. Its associations are still sacred and the memory of them blessed.
Number Three
In this paper I shall record some additional facts concerning the early history of Polk. In my next I shall have more to say about the old landmarks of Cedartown. I wish to give as full a history as I can of all the persons, places and prominent families of Polk County, together with some accounts of the most important events. To this end I invite all who interested in this undertaking to aid me in getting the facts. The history of the schools, churches, and public enterprises shall have due attention.
It has already been mentioned that Polk was a part of the Cherokee Purchase. Cherokee comes from Chera, a word which means fire. The prophets of the nation were called Cheralghye men of divine fire. Col. Armistead Richardson, to whom I am indebted for many facts touching Polk, thinks that the United States agreed to extinguish the Indian title to all lands in Georgia in consideration of the cession by Georgia to the general government, of the present territory of Alabama and Mississippi. This accounts for the removal of the Indians, which began in 1837 when most of them were deported. A company of United States troops camped west of Cedartown on Big Cedar during the winter of 1837-1838 to help gather up the remnant of the Indians which, refusing to go, had fled to the forest. Captain Wm Philpot, the father of Mr. Calvin and Mr. Dick Philpot, in charge of a company of soldiers assisted in the work. In the spring of 1838, the remaining Indians, 200 in number, were carried from Cedartown along the Rome Road to Gunter’s Landing, now Guntersville on the Tennessee River, and from thence were sent to the far west.
Greenwood, the Indian who lived below Judkin’s mill, was an important man in his tribe. He was tall, handsome and of commanding presence. He rode horseback when he went out dressed in a broad-cloth suit and “plug” hat, sometimes called a beaver, but more correctly silk. Below the old Buchanan ford, afterwards Battle ford, but now Ake’s Bridge, on the north side of the creek lived a bad Indian named Eko-ee. He was tall, stoop-shouldered and flat-nosed. His savage temper gave the whites some trouble.
In Charley Town south of Mr. Ake’s, once the homestead of Mr. Lazarus Battle, were 150 Indian huts built of pine poles and daubed inside and outside with mud. There was no floor and a fire was built in the center. Around this fire the Indians ate and slept in the winter. Charley Town was very irregularly built. It had no streets. A large house framed and built of boards was regularly used as a dance hall.
A burial ground was near the village. Around each grave was a rude enclosure of riven pine boards. Below Charley Town on the creek was a place for celebrating the “Green Corn Dance.”
But now the dance is over. The red man is gone. His war-whoop is heard no more. The sound of an advancing civilization is echoing on along the hillsides and through the valleys. The Pale Face supplanted the red faced hunter. Japhet has enlarged his dwelling and not content with living in the tents of shem he has occupied the wigwams of the red man.
The first immigration into Cedar Valley began in 1837, from middle Georgia. The oldest settlers were from Green, Putnum and Taliaferro counties. These men came to found a colony. The Priors, Wests, Gibsons, Janes, Richardsons, Hoggs, Walthalls and others were from the same community.
Asa Prior was the pioneer. Judge William Hogg came to Collard Valley in 1849 and settled where Frank West and his mother now reside. He lies buried at the old homestead.
Ballenger Gravelly was the first white man to settle in Cedar Valley. I have heard him tell how he used to shoot deer “mosing” in the Big Cedar in front of his dwelling. He came to Cedar Valley in 1833 or 1834, and located the home that now stands near Friendship church, and is lived in by two of his children–Mr. John Gravelly and Mrs. Herridge. His oldest children learned to speak the Indian Language. In 1837 on the site of the old Baptist church, Martin Kelly loved and sold on the spot goods and liquor. I am informed by the best authority that the Indians were not his only customers. Water was abundant in Cedartown even in 1837, but then it was used chiefly as a beverage.
The present Hand pond had no existence in 1837. There was a lime sink there. This Asa Prior enclosed and fattened his hogs in. From that time the pond appeared. The first school in Cedar Valley was taught in a part of Mrs. Brook’s residence. In 1837, Rev. John Wood, a hardshell, taught there. Sheriff Ellis Clements went to him when 7 years old. Mr. Beers, a Northern man, followed Wood in the school. And afterwards Rev. Jack Mosely, brother of Ben Mosely, taught there. He was a Methodist. Ben Mosely taught on the Cave Spring road, near Wm. Peek’s residence. He built a boarding house on the hill to the right of the road just beyond the brook between R. O. Pitts and the Wm. Peek place. After this, Ben Mosely went to Covington to fill a Professor’s chair. He was a man of giant frame and giant mind. His pupils in Cedartown and Polk still speak of him in love, mingled with some painful recollections due to their escapades.
Polk County was created by an act of Dec. 20, 1851, out of Paulding and Floyd counties. Paulding was names for one of the captors of Major Andre.
In 1852 the county authorities bought of Asa Prior a tract of land for $1,200 and divided it into lots, sold at public outcry in 1852, for the benefit of Polk County. This tract of land has these four corners: First the intersection of Main Street and West Avenue. Second, where the Calaboose now stands. Third, the intersection of Rockmart and College streets. Fourth, the intersection of College Street and West Avenue.
More to come…