Mr. and Mrs. Robert Henderson very quietly and unostentatiously slipped through the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage, last Friday, March 3. A number of relatives and old time friends who had the date in mind called upon them, and tendered their congratulations. Letters were also written them by their children and grand-children. On account of Mrs. Henderson’s delicate health it was thought prudent not to attempt a reception. When the warmer weather comes, however, the daughters will see that the event is properly celebrated by the children and those friends who have known them many years. If all their friends are to be included the major part of the population of the town will be involved.

Mr. and Mrs. Henderson have spent all of their married life in this county, and during nearly all of that time Monticello was their home. Here, they have led industrious, frugal, honest and serviceable lives. Here their children were born, and here tow of them await the resurrection. Here they expect to end their own days. It is therefore not strange that they should have an affection for the town, nor that the people of the town should have an affection for them. There is none with a disposition to wish them other than a long life with its last days full of joy as they contemplate the past, and bright with hope as they face the future.

Robert Henderson is a native of North Harpersfield, Delaware county, New York, where he was born June 30, 1832. He removed to Ohio when 17 years of age, where he learned the trade of a carpenter and joiner. He came to Iowa in the spring of 1855 and settled in Jackson county, but after a short stay there he removed to Castle Grove township and worked at his trade. It was while living there that he returned to Ohio and married Polly L. Palmer at Bazetta, Trumbull county, March 3, 1861. Mr. Henderson has been an extensive contractor and builder, and no doubt he has erected more structures in the various townships of the county than any other carpenter in the county.

Mrs. Henderson’s parents were natives of Litchfield county, Connecticut. Her father was the son of B. Palmer, a Revolutionary soldier, and her mother, the grand-daughter of Timothy Johnson, also a Revolutionary soldier, whose ancestors were Colonial soldiers and civil officers. John Johnson, the original emigrant, came to America with the Winthrop fleet in 1629. He settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and was ‘surveyor of all ye armies.’ He was also an original member of The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Co., and a representative to the general court for fourteen years. His son, Isaac, of Mrs. Henderson’s ancestral line, served all his life in the Colonial armies, and was the Captain Isaac Johnson, of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Co., who was killed at Fort Narragansett, in 1675, in one of the battles of King Phillip’s war.

Mrs. Henderson has an illustrious line of ancestry, that might well be the boast of a Colonial Dame or a real daughter of the Revolution, but she is a modest woman and never made a parade of the fact. In this connection it may be added that Mr. Henderson’s father served in the war of 1812, and received a grant of land for his services.

Mrs. Henderson (nee Palmer) was born at Johnston, Trumbull county, Ohio, January 18, 1832. She was a teacher in the public schools of Warren for several years previous to her marriage.

Mr. and Mrs. Henderson were the parents of five children, viz: Charles P. Henderson, who died November 20, 1899; Jennie R., the wife of J. F. Porter, of Davenport, the president of the Tri City Electric Railway Co.; Jessie J., who died August 27, 1867; Ella L., the wife of Charles L. Bartholomew, of Minneapolis, the well known cartoonist, whose widely copied pictures bear the signature of “Bart;” Robert W. Henderson, of Monticello, who has assumed his father’s business as a builder. Mr. and Mrs. Henderson’s two daughters are graduates of the State College at Ames.