Joseph Henderson was born around 1803 in Pennsylvania. He got married at least twice, and he had at least ten children: Margaret, born around 1835; David, born around 1837; Joseph, born around 1839; Robert, born around 1841; John, born around 1843; Newton, born around 1848; Alfred, born around 1852; Helen, born around 1854; Walter, born around 1858; and William, born around 1865. He worked as a merchant in Armstrong, Pennsylvania, and by 1850, he owned $3,500 of real estate. A decade later, he was working as a farmer, and he owned $5,200 of real estate and $1,000 of personal property.

 

His son David served in the Confederate army and died in the Battle of Gettysburg. Henderson wrote mournfully that “this trial is a sore one as it is increased by his falling in rebel ranks…his comrads told me he was zellous in the cause of Rebellion (Oh the grief, I cannot speak of it.)”

 

He moved to Derry, Pennsylvania, in the 1860s and then to Blairsville, Pennsylvania, in the 1870s. By 1870, he owned $10,000 of real estate and $755 of personal property. By 1880, he was suffering from chronic rheumatism. He died sometime after 1880.

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