My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE G. HENSON, an energetic young farmer of Pettis County, is engaged in cultivating a farm on section 34, township 45, range 21. He is a native of east Tennessee, and was born in Knoxville, May 15, 1865, being the son of Jesse H. and Margaret (Allison) Henson. The family of which he is a member is well and favorably known in the South. His maternal grandmother was a sister of Governor Houston, of Texas, and one of his maternal uncles was a Judge in that state.

The father of our subject was born in Tennessee, May 15, 1827, and spent his entire life in that state, where he died August 9, 1880. His wife passed away in March, 1891. His life occupation was that of an agriculturist, and he was thus engaged during the Civil War, at odd times working as a teamster. Though his sympathies were strongly on the side of the Union, he was never molested. His family consisted of twelve children, of whom George G. was the ninth in order of birth. Three of the number died in childhood, and of those who survive, all reside in Tennessee except our subject and his eldest sister, Isabella, wife of John Grahl, of North Carolina. One of his cousins was killed at Shiloh, and two uncles, being allowed to choose whether they would enter the prison or the Confederate army, chose the former, and were sent to Andersonville, where they both died.

Upon his father’s farm near Knoxville, our subject passed his boyhood years somewhat uneventfully, and his advantages were such as the common schools afforded. At the age of nineteen he left home and came to Pettis County, Mo., where an older brother then lived. For a few years he worked by the month at various places in Missouri and Kansas, and then he went to St. Louis, where he learned how to manufacture horse-collars, and also served an apprenticeship at the carpenter’s trade. He resided in that city for four years, his time being devoted principally to the former occupation.

In St. Louis, February 14, 1891, Mr. Henson was united in marriage with Miss Lena Recker, who was born in that city July 26, 1872. In September, 1893, he moved to his present home, and has since cultivated a tract of ninety-five acres belonging to his mother-in-law. Politically he is a stanch advocate of Republican principles, and is always willing to give a reason for his decided partiality in favor of this organization. He never voted at any Presidential election until that of 1892, when he cast his ballot for Benjamin Harrison, the unsuccessful candidate. He has been a member of the Carpenters’ Union, and is still identified with the Protective Home Circle at St. Louis.