Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/569

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY


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the most beautiful, productive and best man- aged properties in the South. At the out- break of the war betwen the states, Mr. Henderson enlisted as a private in General Scales' North Carolina regiment, and con- tinued in active service until the close of the struggle, rising through the various grades to the rank of captain. When peace came he resumed the management of the paternal farm, and was among the most active in the organization of the Patrons of Husbandry. He married, May 24, 1861, Betty Martin, born March 31, 1842, daugh- ter of Nathaniel and Susan (Gilmour) Mar- tin, of Richmond, \'irginia. Children: i. Sue Gilmour, married Edward Hines, and was the mother of two children : Sue Hen- derson, now the wife of J. Pinkney Scales, and Bessie H. 2. Nathaniel, married Minnie Buchan, and has children: Henderson, Sue, Estes, Harlee and Walter. 3. Lucy Farrar, married W'. T. Estes, and had children : Henderson, Gilmour and Triplett. 4. Rich- ard Leonard, of further mention below.

Richard Leonard Henderson, fourth child of Richard Bullock and Betty (Martin) Henderson, was born May i, 1870, in W'ar- ren county. North Carolina, and was about ten years old when the family removed to Henderson, North Carolina. He attended private and public schools, and the Ells- worth Military Academy, where he was a student for two years. He began his busi- ness career in the employ of a firm of to- bacco brokers, handling leaf tobacco. In 1891 he entered the service of the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Company at Newport News, and during the business de- pression of 1893-94, when its force was re- duced from thirty-five hundred men to three hundred men, he again found employment in the tobacco business. In 1896 he became chief clerk in one of the principal depart- ments of the shipbuilding company, and continued in that capacity until 1912, when he was elected cashier. This position he has since filled, with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of his employers. He is an active member of the Presbyterian church, a member of its finance committee, and has for two years represented his ward in the board of aldermen of Newport News. Mr. Henderson is not a member of any clubs, and devotes all his leisure time to his home and family. As a means of diversion he

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rears game chickens, in which he has been very successful. A cultured and genial gen- tleman of the true Southern type, with affable manners and pleasing address, the number of his friends is limited only to those who have had the fortune to meet him. He is a worthy son of worthy sires, and well represents the traditions and prin- ciples of those who went before.

Mr. Henderson married, April 11, 1900, Anna Virginia Robinson, a daughter of John A. and Annie (McNulty) Robinson, the for- mer a native of Adams county, Pennsyl- vania, and the latter was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania. Mr. Robinson was an attorney, practicing his profession in the state of Pennsylvania; about 1893 ^^ took up his residence in Newport News and here became the editor and publisher of the first daily newspaper. To Mr. and Mrs. Hender- son have been born three children : Vir- ginia Robinson, born May 31, 1905; Rich- ard Leonard, May 25, 1907; Anne Marshall, January 12, 191 1.

Christian Kreider Weaver. Christian Kreider Weaver, a manufacturer of New- port News, is a native of Pennsylvania, reared in Virginia, and descended from a very old Swiss family of the Keystone State. The immigrant ancestor, Hans Weber (in English, John \\'eaver), was a native of Switzerland, came to America in 1717, and settled in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, where he secured a tract of three hundred and seventy acres of land in what is now West Lampeter township, one mile north- east of Lampeter Square, which had been deeded by William Penn to John Rudolph Bundley in 1711. He cleared and improved the land, and upon his death left the prop- erty to his only son, Jacob Weaver. The greater part of the original estate is still in possession of the family. Many changes have been made by division and subdivision, and upon the original property now stand eleven residences and a school house. The land is fertile and in place of the forest trees are now found fields of waving grain and lush meadows, upon which sleek cattle browse.

Jacob Weaver, the son, married Magda- lena Barr, and they were the parents of four children: Jacob and John (twins); Magdalena, who married Jacob Rohrer, and