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Note: ge date to William Henderson and his birth and death dates and locations is an article from the Commercial-News, Danville, Illinois, August 12, 1911. This is not an obitury but a special feature run in the newsppaer in 1911 due to the advanced age of Frances:
"Frances Ann Henderson, 89 years old on July 25, who lives with Mrs. Hiram Baldwin, Perrysville Road, her eldest daughter, is justly entitled to the honor and distinction of being the oldest resident of Danville. She has lived in this county almost continuously for more than eighty-five years.
When Mrs. Henderson, as a child three and one-half years old, was brought here from Lawrence county, Ohio, where she was born, July 25, 1822, there were only three houses, small, primitive buildings made of poles and covered with clapboards. One of these buildings was occupied by Dan Beckwith, grandfather of Clarence Beckwith, and the founder of the city of Danville. Mrs. Henderson remembers that Mr. Beckwith then lived on one of the banks of the North Fork River, near the present beautiful Ellsworth Park.
One of the other cabins was the home and business house of William Hubbard, the earliest trader of this section of country, who conducted a peaceable and profitable traffic with the Indians, bartering the necessaries of life -- and some things not necessary -- for furs of wild animals that abounded in great abundance in the dense forests and along the rivers. Hubbard was the trader in whose honor was named Hubbard's Trail, extending from Southern Indiana to Ft. Dearborn, now Chicago.
Therefore, Mrs. Henderson has seen Danville develop into a large prosperous and beautiful city from an Indian trading post, situated in a wilderness so wild and unpromising at that time as to dishearten many settlers.
It is with a feeling of pardonable pride that Mrs. Henderson traces her ancestry back to the Revolution. Her father, Benjamin Martin, a pioneer settler of Vermilion county, Illinois, was born in Bedford County, Virginia, and her mother, whose maiden name was Rhoda Blankenship, was born in Virginia. The Blankenships were among the oldest and best families of the state; they belonged to the First Families of Virginia.
Henry Anderson, her grandfather, assisted to win the memorable and glorious victory at Bunker's Hill. During the terrible fighting, the Americans suffered greatly for the want of water, and after the conflict ended, several, including Anderson, nearly died of drinking too much water from a creek. Thirst tortured many of the Americans while the battle was in progress. Mrs. Henderson has always been proud that her ancestor assisted to win freedom for the colonies and lay the foundation for this mighty republic.
The trip from Ohio to the then western wilderness of Eastern Illinois was made in wagons, and required a month's time; whereas, the same distance may be covered in a good automobile, at the present day in fifteen hours. If a person is in a great hurry, he may cover the distance, by train, in a much briefer space of time.
After remaining a few days as guests of Mr. and Mrs. Beckwith and their family, the immigrants from Ohio moved on to a place five miles south, known for many years afterward as Brooks Point, and for more than thirty years as the village of Westville.
Where the city of Danville now is, Mrs. Henderson remembers as a dreary enough barren [place], covered for the most part by hazel brush and a tangle of forest trees and wild vines. Mr. Martin and his family decided it was not a good enough place for them as a home, therefore they moved on to the south a few miles where there was a settlement and a more promising outlook for the future. Where the Georgetown road now is, there was then merely a path that ended at a point marking the present city of Georgetown.
Mr. Martin arrived at Brooks Point at about the same time the land there was opened for market. He acquired ownership of a large body of land, including what was afterward the Mahlon Finley farm, and lived in that locality for ten years. He then moved with his family to Missouri, where they lived a few years, after which they came back to Brooks Point, never again to leave that locality.
They endured without a murmur of complaint, all the hardships of pioneer life, including an occasional trip of Mr. Martin to the nearest flouring mill, situated fifteen miles away, at a point on the Vermilion River near which afterward sprang up the present beautiful town of Eugene, Indiana.
In speaking of the old days, among the brightest and happiest of her long, useful life, Mrs. Henderson says, "We raised cotton, spun it, colored it, wove it, and wore it." There was enough cotton raised here in favorable seasons in pioneer times, to supply the needs of the scattered settlers. The fabric was known as "domestic gingham."
For a long time there was a camp of Kickapoo Indians in the neighborhood, but they were friendly. The different tribes, however were frequently at war with each other, and Mrs. Henderson, as a young girl, knew of some of the battlefields.
In 1849 her marriage to William Henderson was celebrated, the event being of considerable interest in the sparsely settled country. Mr. Henderson, himself a pioneer, was born in Ohio in 1818. He bought the well-known Henderson farm, which now joins Hegeler on the southeast, the purchase having been made from his father, Jesse Henderson. It is on this farm that Mrs. Henderson's daughter, Mrs. Belle Robinson, of this city, has laid out Maplewood Park subdivision.
William Henderson was a man who was trusted absolutely by all his neighbors and also by bankers and others in Danville. So far as his own honesty was concerned, he was never required to give a note to meet an obligation. Some of his and Mrs. Henderson's first and best friends will be remembered by the older residents of Danville as influential and important people. They were Jesse Culbertson, William Mann, William Hessey, Victor and Prosper LeSeure, Benjamin Crawford, Levin T. Palmer, Dr. Scott, the Leverich brothers, John Lamon, father of Brown and May Lamon; Cyrus Douglas and wife, the first couple married in Vermilion county; James O'Neal, the first white child born in Vermilion county; Thompson Ross, Reason McMillan, Frank Coburn, Sr., Peleg Spencer. To recall these names, so familiar to her in her childhood and young womanhood, is a great pleasure to Mrs. Henderson.
Mr. Henderson died January 9, 1864, and the public sale of his personal property was one of the largest up to that time ever held in Vermilion County. Mrs. Henderson recalls that their family carriage was bought by William Giddings, one of the first businessmen of Danville, who used it for many years as a passenger cab. Their furniture, manufactured in 1859, was among the first made in Danville. It was turned out of the old Rutledge factory.
Mrs. Henderson remembers that in the early days goods were bought in Perrysville and Eugene, Indiana, and brought home by way of the canal and the river; and almost all the products of the farm found a market at Perrysville, which then was a distributing point for the south, southwest and southeast. Marketable hogs usually were driven to Eugene, Indiana, the trip requiring ten days.
Mr. and Mrs. Henderson's wedding trip was by carriage to Milford, two days being consumed each way, the roads being so miserably bad. At one point on the road there were no houses nearer each other than twenty miles.
Mrs. Henderson has for many years, made her home in the family of Hiram Baldwin, first on the farm, afterwards in this city. She takes as much pleasure in life as ever she did and hopes, as do her relatives and friends, that she may live many years yet. Aside from defective hearing, all her faculties are unimpaired. She is a happy, hopeful woman, who still, has a lively interest in the every-day affairs of life. The picture shows Mrs. Henderson holding in her lap, little Hugh Rea, her great-grandchild, infant son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Rea. Mrs. Rea was Miss Belle Baldwin, granddaughter of Mrs. Henderson.
Mrs. Henderson's children are Mrs. Belle Robinson, Mrs. Emma Bushong and Mrs. Susan Baldwin, of Danville. She has two brothers, Benjamin Martin of Indianola and Andrew Baldwin [error: should be Andrew Martin], of Arkansas."
Note: The source for the marriage of Frances Ann Martin, her birth and marria
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