This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/yNi.2ACEB/4044.1.1 Message Board Post: Hi, Cynthia and Cynthia. My gr gr gr grandfather was named Burnett Henderson and his son, my gr gr grandfather, was Burnett M. Henderson! We believe his middle name could have been Murry, for his daughter named her 1st son John Murry... John was after her father-in-law, was Murry after her own father??? Burnett M. was born in Tennessee around 1800-1805, but according to the 1920 Putnam Co., MO census, his daughter says her parents were both born in KY. He married Nancy Williamson, probably in TN since their first 2 children were born in TN. Nancy was born, we believe, in GA. I know Burnett was in KY in 1838-1842 because their next 3 children were born in Hopkins Co., KY. Between 1842-1845 they move to Putnam Co., MO.(called Dodge then); between 1845-1849, Nancy dies there; and in 1848-1849, he remarries a Sarah ? and has a son, William P. Henderson born in 1849. Between 1845-1848, Burnett is the 1st sherriff in Dodge & Putnam Co., MO. He was one of the founders of the town, ! holding the 1st town meeting in his home in 1849. In 1853, Burnett, Sarah, and their 3 year old son, William, and all his other children except Mary, who has just married, leave Mo. headed for Dallas, Texas. In letters to Mary, he described the trip, "The trip took 8 weeks from the time we left, and lay by 18 days. We had a beautiful time for moving but corn and provisions were vary high. We traveld through five tribes of Indians and found them vary friendly and hospitable. I lost my best horse fifteen miles this side of Red River. He was taken sick in the Chocktaw nation and died in a few days. No other bad luck happened on the road." He signs adding his wife's name, Sarah. Sarah may have died in TX for we hear nothing more about her and at the next report, the children are back in MO., his sons living as farm hands and 1 daughter living with Mary and her family. Did Burnett also return to MO? I don't think he stayed, if he did, for in 1859, (according to an autobiography ! written by James Dale Scobee, Mary's husband), Burnett and he "met up" in Arkansas and together they joined the gold rush to Colorado. They couldn't have "met up" if they both lived in the same town so I suspect Burnett was still living in TX or somewhere other than MO. According to the autobiography, they passed through tribes of Cherokee, Osage, Arrapaho and Comanchee Indians. They prospected on the head waters of the Platte and Arkansas Rivers over the country where Pueblo, Denver, Leadville and Cripple Creek now stand. Several months later, his son-in-law returned home, alone, penniless and without rifle, revolver, blanket or horse. He says the last he saw of him, Burnett Henderson was climbing up Pikes Peak to look for more gold. (He'd found some, for he had earrings made for his daughter.) I've been looking for Burnett Henderson for years. I'm sure that the Hendersons came originally from Ireland. Sometimes 1st names are repeated... are any of these names familiar in your Henderson line? These are the children of Burnett M. & Nancy Williamson Henderson: Emma, Mary Ann, Maynard, John, Alta Zera, Elizabeth J. (Betty); and of Burnett M. & Sarah ? : William P. Joanne Scobee Morgan - morgans4@swbell.net