III

EDUCATION

John B. Henderson, a Sketch-Schools of the Time -Meagre Facilities for Education - St. Charles College, 1855- Read Law while Teaching.

In the neighborhood where my father settled, was a family by the name of Henderson. They came to Missouri from Pittsylvania County, Virginia, a short time before my father settled in the State. The two counties of Henry and Pittsylvania joined and composed a part of a Senatorial District represented by my father in the State Senate of Virginia. The Henderson family consisted of husband, wife and four children when they settled in Missouri. The wife did not live long after coming to the neighborhood. The husband was addicted to the use of liquor and when in his cups was very quarrelsome. While under the influence of liquor he got into a fight with a neighbor, and in it lost his life. He left four children, two boys and two girls, without a dollar in the world. The children were named John, James, Ann, and Mary, and they were left as I have said, without means and without relatives.

The County Court of Lincoln County appointed Carey Duncan guardian for them, and it became his duty to find homes for them among the people of the

neighborhood. The oldest, John Brooks Henderson who, as will be seen hereafter, became greatly and justly distinguished, was apprenticed to Oliver Simonds of Troy, the county seat of the county, to learn the trade of a cabinet maker. The remaining three were given homes with other families. John was a red-headed, quick-tempered fellow, and from the beginning took a dislike to Simonds. After working for a month or so, he and Simonds got into a fight, in which the boy got the best of it. Simonds saw Duncan and told him to find another place for John, and this he did by "binding him out" to old Billy Browning on a farm. This was the beginning of a career hardly surpassed anywhere in the history of the United States.

If ever there was a self-made man in this country, John Brooks Henderson was that man. He rose from absolute poverty to affluence, and from an uneducated youth to a great scholar, from a student of law while he taught a country school to one of the leading lawyers of the Statefrom a tyro in debate to a convincing orator. He became a senator of the United States and served with great distinction. He it was who drew the 13th Amendment to the Federal Constitution. He and Abraham Lincoln were great friends. In his public service he reflected great honor upon the State of Missouri as well as upon the whole country. I give particular mention to Henderson here for the reason that Lincoln County was always proud of him and justly claimed him as the greatest man the county ever produced.

The terms of his apprenticeship were that Brown

ing should furnish board and lodging and clothing and three months' schooling in the year in exchange for John's labor on the farm. Here the boy lived for two years and until he reached the age of eighteen. He had by great industry acquired what was then considered a fair education. He went

to the adjoining county of Pike, where he made the acquaintance of Matthew Givens in the lower part of that county. Here, through the influence of Givens, he was employed to teach a country school, and continued as such teacher for a year. He began to study law while teaching, and before he was twenty years of age was admitted to the bar by Judge Ezra Hunt, then Circuit Judge.

He opened a law office in Louisiana, Missouri, where he continued to reside for many years. He soon became prominent in his profession and by the time he was twenty-three years of age, the voters of Pike County elected him as one of their representatives in the State Legislature and he became at once prominent and influential. He impressed himself and his views upon the body and took an active part in the legislation of the day, especially that which authorized and established a State bank and branches. One of these was located at Louisiana and Henderson became its president, and Benjamin P. Clifford its cashier.

After he had been admitted to the bar in Pike County by Judge Hunt, he went back to Troy to attend a term of the Circuit Court. One evening during the week he went out to "Billy Browning's," to visit with the family of his former master and to stay over night at the place that had been his home

during the time of his apprenticeship. He arrived after the supper had been served. This story I heard Mr. Henderson tell many times.

Mrs. Browning ordered her son Arthur, who was not very bright, to prepare a supper for John. The supper was served in a kitchen that stood in the yard some thirty feet from the residence. Among the "eatables and drinkables" that Arthur served, was a quantity of sweet milk that was contained in a yellow crock. Upon inspection, Henderson discovered that the milk was very rich and covered with thick cream. After drinking all of the milk that was in the crock, he said to Arthur, "You are all more liberal than you were when I lived here! Then you skimmed the milk with a feather, but now you give it full of cream!" Arthur, in a drawling sort of way, said, "That's true, but we would not have given you this milk with cream on it, if it hadn't been that a rat got drownded in it this afternoon. After this information the milk refused to stay down and Henderson was no better off than when he began the supper.

In 1860, the year preceding the war he was a candidate for Congress from the Pike County District. He was an ardent "Douglas Democrat" and was nominated by a convention that met in Mexico, Audrain County. On the day he was nominated, another convention of delegates representing the Bell-Everett or American party met in Mexico in a hall separate from that of the Democratic party, and there nominated as its candidate, Honorable James S. Rollins of Boone County. Thus it was that two of the greatest men in the State were pitted against each other for Congress. The canvass that ensued

was the most noted that had ever taken place in the State.

By mutual arrangement between the two, joint discussions were held in each county of the district. I was a candidate for Circuit Attorney at the same time, and had the pleasure of hearing the two in joint discussion at Middletown, Montgomery County, and at Cottleville in St. Charles County. I was a partisan of Mr. Henderson, supporting him as best I could, and cast my first vote for Congressman, for him. He was a strong man on the stump and gave blow after blow with precision and force. Rollins was the more polished orator of the two and by his eloquence swayed the populace as very few orators could do. He was a handsome man, with most gracious manners, and his words were spoken with an ease that charmed all listeners.

James S. Rollins was elected in November by a small majority, and took his seat in the next Congress. He was a candidate for re-election in 1862 against Honorable Arnold Krekel of St. Charles County. He was again successful. In 1864 he was succeeded in Congress by the Honorable George W. Anderson of Pike.

The opportunities offered in the neighborhood for an education were very limited. About one mile south of my home was a school-house built of logs. It was about twenty feet square, with a door in one side and a chimney place opposite. This chimney was built of stone gathered from the hill-side, and the fireplace was of sufficient size to take large pieces of wood. On the third side of the room, a log in its