Henson Family

Henson Family History

James Baret Henson was born on August 25, 1802 in Pendleton, South Carolina. He
married Elizabeth Ann Talley on June 22, 1822 in Pendleton, South Carolina. She was
the daughter of Prior Talley and Elizabeth Henson. Elizabeth Ann Talley is rumored to
have been full-blooded Cherokee Indian.

James Baret Henson mustered into the Mexican American War on July 17, 1846. He
served with Co. G of the 2nd Texas Mounted Volunteers as musician.
“Lyon's men were mustered in on July IT, 1846, and designated as Company "G", of the
Second Texas Mounted Volunteers. In August, between the 7th and the 8th, the
company was encamped at Matamoros, Mexico. Company muster rolls show that four
men were given discharges from military service for being either sick or disabled. These
were: John P. Esham, Alexander C. McKay, Samuel McKay and Jesse R. Nowlin. From
about August 15th to September 11th, the company was encamped at Camargo, on the
Rio Grande. The climate at Camargo was unhealthy and death and sickness spread
through the military camp. While at Camargo the ranks of the company were further
depleted with the loss of fifteen men. Fourteen were either granted discharges for
disabilities or sickness when the company moved on to Monterrey. The fifteenth man,
James B. Henson, the company's 2nd musician, died.”

From 1999 Edition of "Cherokee Proud" by Tony McClure PH.D
Cherokee Agency East Dec. 1st. 1835
Lieut Van Horne
US Disbursing Agent
Sir
I have just received a communication dated Nov.1835 from the(……………….)
enclosing a copy of a communication from yourself to that department in relation to
James B. Henson. His wife was represented to me to be of Cherokee blood but resided
for many years among the whites and returned with Henson a white man into the
Cherokee Country after the extension of the laws of Georgia. After he came into the
county he was a candidate for the Legislature and was defeated on the score of his
having an Indian blooded woman for a wife. This fact I was well satisfied of from my
own knowledge but having doubts of his being really of Indian blood. I inquired of
several persons of credibility who gave statement which removed my doubts and the
family was consequently enrolled under the provision of the Treaty of May 6, 1828 as
members of the Tribe. I had intended to have answered you fully by my communication
of the 17 April last but suppose the name of James B. Henson was inadvertently
overlooked.
Very Respectfully Your Most Obt Servt
Ben F. Currey

James Baret Henson died on August 15, 1846, in Monterrey, Mexico. He served in the
Mexican American War almost one month before his death.

Known children of James Baret Henson and Elizabeth Ann Talley were:
1. Henry H Henson
2. 2. Eliza Ann Henson

Dr. Henry H Henson was born in Rabun County, Georgia on May 21, 1823.

Dr. H. HENSON REMEMBERS WHEN THE STARS FELL AND OTHER EVENTS OF
EARLY DAYS
"I was born in Rabun County, Ga May 21, 1823, which would make me between 85 and
86 years old. My father moved to Gilmore [Gilmer] County, Ga. where we lived until the
spring of 1834
"On the night of Nov 13, 1833, I saw the comets fall from the heavens by hundreds of
thousands. The whole canopy of heaven was in a general commotion from midnight
until daylight. I was not excited at the strange movements of the stars, as I supposed
they did that every morning.
"Some movers, camped near our house, awoke and called out to my father that the
world was coming to an end. I then got a little excited over it, and stated to my father
that if that was anything to get excited over, I could have notified them two or three
hours before. That was about 4:30 o'clock. I was 10 years old at the time of the falling of
the stars.
"In the spring of 1834 my father emigrated to Arkansas territory and afterwards to [the]
Cherokee nation, where we remained one year. Later we lived in Benton County, Ark.
where we ground all our meal, our family, seven in number, used on a steel mill ...
"My father and family emigrated from Arkansas to Texas in 1841, stopping one year in
Fannin County, and then moving to Rusk County, Tex. where we lived 7 years ...
I have lived under the administration of 22 presidents of the United States and two
presidents of the republic of Texas, vis. Sam Houston and Anson Jones. The first vote I
ever cast was for Anson Jones. The second one was the annexation of the republic of
Texas to the United States in 1845 and I have never regretted casting that vote yet ... "

Dr. Henry H Henson married Mary Ann Hudman on February 4, 1848 in Rusk County,
Texas.

The family first appears in the census record in 1850 in Panola County, Texas. Henry
Henson’s occupation is a farmer.

In 1860, the Henry H Henson family is found in Sabine, Van Zandt County Texas. Henry
Henson’s occupation is physician.

Dr. Henry H Henson served in the Civil War as a member of Company G of the 15th
Texas Cavalry.

FIFTEENTH TEXAS CAVALRY. In January 1862 George H. Sweet, a newspaperman
from San Antonio, began organizing a cavalry regiment. Sweet, who had been born in
Ulster County, New York, had served earlier in the war as a private in Hood's Texas
Brigade in Virginia. Having secured a commission and authority to organize his own
regiment, Sweet returned to Texas and formed ten companies from Bexar, Wise, Dallas,
Johnson, Tarrant, Limestone, Denton, Red River, Van Zandt, and Johnson counties.
Sweet had little trouble raising his regiment, which was composed of "middle-aged men
and boys," according to one member, and each had to supply his own horse and
equipment. They practiced their cavalry drill on courthouse squares and prairies around
the Lone Star State and, armed with Bowie knives and armament of every kind,
presented a most unmilitary appearance. Finally, on March 10, 1862, the Fifteenth
Texas Cavalry was mustered into service at McKinney in Collin County.
Initially, the regiment marched through Clarksville and into Arkansas. On May 20, 1862,
the regiment was reorganized in response to the new Confederate Conscription Act.
Essentially, the act specified men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five must
serve in the military unless they held certain jobs or were responsible for twenty slaves.
In essence, the act eliminated men who had voluntarily enlisted and put men in the
ranks who did not want to fight. The act did not add any men to the regiment, but
around 100 were discharged due to being too young or too old. In addition, one of the
provisions of the act allowed the enlisted men to elect their own officers, and the
composition of the regiment changed dramatically. Colonel Sweet was reelected
colonel, while Maj. George B. Pickett of Wise County was promoted to lieutenant
colonel, and William Cathey of Company K was promoted to major.
On July 8, 1862, the regiment fought their first battle, near Batesville, Arkansas. The
regiment lost eight killed and seven wounded. In Colonel Sweet's report, he singled out
Capt. Valerius P. Sanders of Company A for "signal coolness and bravery." On July 24,
1862, the regiment was dismounted, and their horses were sent home. For the rest of
the war, the Fifteenth was to serve the Confederacy as infantry.
In the late fall of 1862, the regiment was sent to garrison the post of Arkansas, then an
unfinished fort being built by slave labor on the Arkansas River. The Fifteenth Texas
Cavalry was brigaded together with the Tenth Texas Infantry, and the Seventeenth, and
Eighteenth Texas Cavalry regiments, dismounted, and Colonel Sweet was assigned
temporarily to command the brigade.
The area was terribly unhealthy, and at least 100 men in the regiment died. Many others
had to be discharged from the service. One officer, Robert M. Collins of Company B,
stated he came close to "cashing in his checks" and was quartered near the graveyard,
which he stated was being used regularly and services held around the clock in order to
inter the large number of young men who had died. Many soldiers in the Fifteenth died
before ever seeing or even firing at a Yankee.
On January 10, 1863, about 40,000 Federal troops under the command of Maj. Gen.
John McClernand attacked the fort. Two days of furious fighting ensued, until the
Confederates capitulated on January 11. The garrison of 4,791 officers and men
surrendered, mostly Texans, and were sent on transports up the Mississippi River to
prison. In the Fifteenth Texas Cavalry, twenty-seven officers and 436 enlisted men were
captured. Exact casualties are unknown, but the regimental assistant surgeon, Nathan
Wyncoope, was mortally wounded while tending to the sick and wounded in his charge.
Officers were sent to Camp Chase, Ohio, and the enlisted men were sent to Camp
Douglas in Chicago. Arriving with few amenities and fewer blankets, many soldiers who
had become sick from exposure on the way upriver, died from pneumonia and other
causes. In about two months' time, over 700 of the Texans died, about 100 from the
Fifteenth Texas Cavalry.
Finally, on April 3, 1863, the enlisted men were sent for exchange to City Point, Virginia,
and received on April 10. Officers were sent to Fort Delaware on April 29 and received
on May 4. Due to their various ailments, many men had to be discharged, and some
died in various hospitals around Richmond, Williamsburg, and Petersburg. The enlisted
men suffered worse than the officers, and upon their exchange, many officers found
themselves to be supernumeraries. About two-thirds of the officers of the regiment were
sent back to the Trans-Mississippi Department. The Sixth and Tenth Texas Infantry and
the Fifteenth Texas Cavalry were combined into one regiment. Maj. Valerius P. Sanders
of the Fifteenth was one of the field officers in this new consolidated regiment. The
Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Twenty-fourth, and Twenty-fifth Texas Cavalry regiments, also
captured at Arkansas Post, were also consolidated into one regiment, and both new
regiments were placed in a new brigade under the command of Brig. Gen. James
Deshler.
It was rumored that no officers in Lee's army wanted the Texans, so they were sent to
Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee. Pat Cleburne, a divisional commander in that
army, needed replacements and decided the Texans were "a fine body of men out of
which good soldiers are made" and welcomed the Texans. He was rewarded for his
trust, as the Texans proved to be one of the best brigades in the army. The Texans were
sent initially to Wartrace, where they were retrained as infantry, all under the watchful
eye of the Irish major-general.
On the evening of September 18, 1863, Deshler's brigade splashed across Crawfish
Springs, and the bloody battle of Chickamauga began. For two days, the battle raged,
and Deshler's men were assigned to hold a position. Hold it they did, even though
Deshler was killed, and the Texans suffered severely under artillery and small-arms fire.
The next day, the Texans advanced, and assisted in driving the blue-clad army into
siege at Chattanooga. The Fifteenth fought well in their initial battle after their exchange.
Five men were killed, sixteen were wounded, and fourteen were captured or missing.
On November 24–25, 1863, the regiment won new glory at Missionary Ridge and
Tunnel Hill, where the regiment lost one man killed, seven wounded, and two missing at
Missionary Ridge, including Maj. V. P. Sanders, whose right arm was wounded severely
and had to be amputated. The regiment was also acknowledged on November 27,
1863, at Ringgold Gap, where the Texans threw back the victorious Federals. The
Fifteenth lost four wounded and one man captured in that action. The Texans, then
under the command of Hiram B. Granbury, won the thanks of the Confederate
Congress. Granbury won his general's star and command of the brigade that would
thereafter bear his name.
Beginning in May 1864 the Fifteenth Texas Cavalry served in Granbury's Brigade,
Cleburne's Division, Hardee's Corps, Army of Tennessee, and opposed Sherman's three
armies converging on Atlanta. Fighting daily at places such as Resaca, Pickett's Mill,
Dallas, Kennesaw Mountain, Peachtree Creek, Leggett's Hill, and the siege works
around Atlanta, the Fifteenth lost four killed, nine mortally wounded, fifty-eight less
seriously wounded, and three captured.
After the fall of Atlanta, the Confederates fell back to Palmetto, Georgia, before
commencing a move into Tennessee. On November 30, 1864, the Army of Tennessee,
including Granbury's Texas Brigade, charged the Federal works at Franklin, Tennessee.
In five hours of furious fighting, the Confederates lost over 6,000 men. Granbury was
killed, and his brigade decimated. Of the 1,100 men who went into the fight, only about
450 answered roll call the next morning. In the Fifteenth Texas Cavalry, 7 were killed,
including Capt. Matthew M. Houston, commanding the regiment; 10 wounded; and 13
were missing.
The brigade was all but finished at the battle of Nashville on December 14–15, 1864.
The Texans defended their assigned position well but had to retreat on the. The last
major Confederate offensive of the war was over.
On April 28, 1865, the Confederate Army under the command of Gen. Joseph E.
Johnston surrendered at Greensboro, North Carolina. The Fifteenth Texas Cavalry
numbered only forty-three: three officers, eight non-commissioned officers, two
teamsters, and thirty enlisted men. Out of the 1,200 men who had served in the
regiment at one time or another, only forty-three, or 3.5 percent, were at the surrender.
Of course, many of the men were not at the surrender at Arkansas Post, as they were
on detached duty, escaped capture, or were on sick leave. Among this number was Col.
George H. Sweet, who commanded Camp Ford, a prisoner of war camp near Tyler,
Texas. Following the war, Sweet traveled in Mexico and operated several different
publications, including the Texas New Yorker, designed to promote northern investment
and immigration to Texas. Sweet moved to Galveston in 1878 and published the
Galveston Journal. He later returned back to New York. His widow, Lizzie, obtained a
pension from the state of Texas in 1899 and stated, "[I] have not heard from him for 12
years."
Sweet's disappearance occurred many years before the last of his old soldiers passed
away. With the passing of Alonzo L. Steele, formerly of Company F, on December 6,
1936, in Baytown, Harris County, it is believed the last of the old veterans of the
Fifteenth Texas Cavalry had "crossed the river, to rest 'neath the shade of the trees."1
In 1870, the Henry H Henson family is still in Van Zandt County, Texas. His occupation
is listed as physician, but he is in possession of a large amount of cash and his farm is
highly valued.

Mary Ann Hudman Henson died in 1880. She is not enumerated with the family in the
1880 census.

Sometime after the death of Mary Ann, Henry H Henson married her sister, Susan
Hudman. They are found in the 1900 census in Milam County, Texas.

In 1910, Henry and Susan Henson are back in Kaufman County, Texas, living next door
to James Washington Henson.

On February 24, 1911, Dr. Henry Henson died of old age. He is buried in the Union
Grove Cemetery in Wills Point, Van Zandt County, Texas.

children of Dr. Henry H Henson and Mary Ann Hudman were:
James Washington Henson - 1849
William Henson - 1851
Martha Henson - 1853
Louisa Henson - 1854
Joseph Henson - 1856
Susan Henson - 1858
Queen Victoria Henson - 1860
Henrietta Henson - 1862
Mattie Henson - 1862
Leann Henson - 1864
Ida Henson - 1870

James Washington Henson was born on July 12, 1849 in Panola County, Texas to
Henry H Henson and Mary Ann Hudman. He married L Clementine Murrey on May 17,
1876 in Van Zandt County, Texas.

In 1880 the James Washington Henson family is found in the Van Zandt County, Texas
census records. Living with the Henson family is an orphan, Robert Farris.

The next appearance in census records is in 1910. James W Henson and family are
living in Elmo, Kaufman County, Texas.

In 1920, James W Henson and family are found in Hiram, Kaufman County, Texas.

In 1930, the James W Henson family is located in Kaufman County, Texas. James W
Henson has three boarders living in the household.

On July 6, 1936 James Washington Henson died of heart disease.

He is buried in the Locust Grove Cemetery in Hiram, Kaufman County, Texas.

William Slone Henson was born on December 22, 1882 in Hiram, Kaufman County,
Texas.

His first census appearance is in 1910 living as a hired hand in the household of James
M Watson.

In 1920, William Slone Henson is living with his wife and children in the household of his
father-in-law, Robert L Anderson. They are located in Gladwater, Gregg County, Texas.

In 1930, William Henson and his family are living in Kaufman County.
Finally, in 1940 the family is still in Kaufman County.

William Slone Henson died on November 10, 1957 of heart disease. He is buried in the
Locust Grove Cemetery, Hiram, Kaufman County, Texas.

children of William Slone and Nora Georgia Anderson Henson were:
Edgar L Henson - 1913
William Henson - 1915
Lavon Henry Henson - 1919
Lloyd Henson - 1925
Ollie King Henson - 1927
R L Henson - 1930
J W Henson - 1930
Rex Wayne Henson - 1935