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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Jackson County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Henry Henderson is a prominent colored resident of Northeast Arkansas, and one whose name is rightly entitled to appear on the pages of Arkansas history. He was born in Madison County, Ala., in 1821, and is a son of Joseph and Amy Walker, who were the property of Samuel Walker, a noted Alabama legislator and slave owner. When Henry was at the age of nineteen years, Samuel Walker died, and he became the property of his heir, Milton Walker, with whom he remained until his twenty-eighth year, when he was then traded to a man named Franklin Henderson, in exchange for a man of the same weight, the trade being made in order to allow the family to remain together. In 1844 he was united in marriage to Malindia Halloway, a comely young slave, who was the property of Louis Halloway, and to this couple were born the following children: Mary, Chatman, Matildia, Ann, Ellen, Sam, Bryson, and a child who died in infancy. Mary is now the mother of a family, and resides in Tennessee, as does also Ann, who has a family of her own. Chatman is the father of a family, and owns a farm adjoining his father, as does also Sam, who owns his own land. Matildia is married, and has a large family, and lives in Washington County, Miss. Ellen has a family also, and lives near her father, while Bryson, who is a well-educated and very intellectual man, teaches school at Weldon. In the year 1860 Mr. Henderson came to Bowen’s Ridge, Ark., with his owners, the Henderson family, and assisted in farming and improving the land. During the war he was taken to the army as cook, and at the close of that period he was paroled at a point near St. Louis. After an absence of four years he returned to his family, and later on moved to the vicinity of Auvergne, Ark., where he conducted the farm work of his old masters, the Hendersons. He remained with them two years, and then took a lease on forty acres of land, where Auvergne now stands. At the end of five years he purchased forty acres, and shortly afterward added fifteen more, and then fifty-five acres still later. Since then he has become more prosperous from year to year, and has donated considerable land to his children. He is one of the leading men of the colored race in that section, and the oldest of the Hendersons’ former slaves.

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This family biography is one of 144 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Jackson County, Arkansas published in 1889.  View the complete description here: Jackson County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Jackson County, Arkansas family biographies here: Jackson County, Arkansas Biographies

View a map of 1889 Jackson County, Arkansas here: Jackson County, Arkansas Map

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