BEN and ELSIE HENDERSON by Eva C. Miller
The Henderson family came to this country from England and
lived in what is now New York City. They were Loyalists at the
time of the Revolution and fled to Canada, where John William
married Eliza UptoGrove or Bratt. From Canada they moved to
Wisconsin, where Emerson, my grandfather, was born. Emerson
Wesley Henderson and his wife, Ada Savinna Griffin, had Mary
Luella and Albert, both deceased before age 21. Their other
children included George, Chester, Florence, Benjamin, Harvey
and Clarice Henderson.
My father, Ben Henderson, the sixth of eight children, was
born on June 24, 1888 near Heart Prairie, Wisconsin.
At the age of 14, his family moved to Brown County, South
Dakota. On November 1, 1911, Ben was married to Elsie Kranhold,
the daughter of Frederick Kranhold and Anna Kraus Kranhold. She
was born on November 1, 1890 in South Dakota. To this union two
children were born, Eugene Harvey, on June 19, 1913 and Eva
Clarice, on October 25, 1915.
My parents lived and farmed near Groton in Brown County until
the fall of 1918, when they moved to Ziebach County south of
Dupree. They continued to farm and ranch until 1948, when they
moved to Sturgis, South Dakota.
Our family did not homestead but my father and his oldest
brother, George, bought the SE 1/4 and NE 1/4 of Sec. 1, R. 11,
T. 20. We arrived in Dupree by train with George, his wife,
Eliza and their two sons, Donald and Dyle. George's family
didn't stay long, moving back to Brown County within a couple of
years. Our two families lived in a large tent while the men
mowed, raked, and gathered their winter supply of hay. Next they
built houses, a bank barn, and dug a well by hand. My dad,
always a peaceful man, did on one occasion, have to take up his
revolver to prevent, so he thought, our hay from being stolen.
Strapping on his gun he bravely strode out to the nearest rack.
The "hay rustler'' happened to be an Italian, J. P. Werner, who
spoke very little English. He waved his hands and pointed to the
next man. Turns out it was Anson Callen and anyone who knew
Anson can imagine how tickled he got when dad accosted him.
Instead of stealing the hay, they had come to haul and stack it
for the "new neighbors". They were served lunch and got to meet
the wives and children when they were finished.
Before they left we had been invited to Thanksgiving dinner
at the Olivers, who lived south of us, where Erling and Linda
Wilkins Olson are now living.
Our house, a two-room shack, had a boxcar roof and was lined
only with building paper. In the winter it was heated by the
cookstove and the frost never thawed from the corners till
spring. I remember one time we had gone to bed and there came a
knock at the door. The caller was one of the Longbrake girls.
She'd heard there was a barn dance at Talbott's (probably 8 or
10 miles east of us) and thinking we might be going, wanted to
ride along. She must have lived 10 or 12 miles north and west of
us. The folks got up, got us all ready, hitched up the team and
we all went to the dance! Dad played the violin and was often
called upon to play for these neighborhood dances. The women
took cake or sandwiches and we kids usually lasted at least
until after lunch was served before falling to sleep on a pile
of coats. Sometimes the women fixed box lunches, trying to outdo
each other in decorating their boxes, and they were auctioned
off to the highest bidder. This was usually done to raise money
for the schools. Or, they would take pies to be sold. If a young
"courting" couple happened to be in the crowd, the men would try
to find out which was her pie or box lunch and they would run
the price of it way up.
Eugene and I attended the Whittler school, the Pretty Creek
School, and when the winter snows came, we went to the Hanneman
School were we would live with the teacher during the week. What
a long winter! In order to have spending money for the Fourth of
July and Labor Day celebrations, we would trap gophers, remove
their tails and keep them in a tobacco tin. When it was full,
we'd take it to the courthouse and were paid 10 cents a piece.
We also rode the creeks and killed crows for 10 cents each. We'd
also try to enter all the street sports we could at the
celebrations. There were three-legged races, sack races, 50 yard
or 100 yard dashes and pie-eating contests. We were lucky some
of the time and won our share of the money.
In the fall of 1927, while we were back visiting in Brown
County for Thanksgiving, our house burned down. Nothing was
saved and in those days, we didn't carry fire insurance either.
Once again we came to know of the generosity of friends and
neighbors. Jess Miller and Lester Jennerson contacted everyone
for miles around, and each one donated what he could to buy
lumber for a new house. By January, the neighbors pitched in and
helped us to build a new home. Jess and his son-in-law, Clarence
Phillips, drove a team over 4 miles every day to help. I was in
the 8th grade at the time and took turns staying at the Miller's
or with the teacher, Mrs. Leach. Mom, Dad, and Eugene stayed
over at Owen Shedd's while work was going on in the house. At
that time, all the farmers milked cows and sold cream, either at
the local Cream Station or shipped it in 5, 8, or 10 gallon cans
to some produce company like Tilden's or the Equity in Aberdeen.
Dad and Mother discovered they had a talent for making good
butter and they could make more money by churning their cream
and delivering the butter to regular customers. So we churned
our cream every week and on Friday or Saturday delivered it to
our customers. We must have had 25-30 customers taking an
average of from two to four pounds of butter weekly. They paid
50 cents a pound which was usually a little higher than creamery
butter price.
In 1934, Dad was elected County Commissioner in the District
south and west of Dupree. He served in that office until 1948.
At that time he moved to Dupree, which was out of the district.
He had also served as community committeeman, and county
committeeman on the then AAA program (Agricultural). In the
early forties he traded places with Cully (Lewis) Miller, who
lived on Cherry Creek in a settlement that became known as
Little Ireland. The year before he traded and moved, Mother had
suffered severe burns on her face, arms and legs, from an
explosion in our cellar --one we thought must have been due to a
natural gas leakage, as there was water in the cellar at the
time. There seemed to be no other explanation. The house did not
burn--it was just a flash explosion.
After they moved to Dupree, they ran a lunch counter a year
in an old building next to the old laundromat. They moved to
Sturgis in 1949 where Dad had secured employment as a Nurses
Aide at Ft. Meade. Dad worked at Ft. Meade until about 1959,
when he retired because of ill- health. He died at Sturgis in
June, 1961.
Mother continued to live in Sturgis until December of that
year, 1961. She came back to Dupree and lived in a trailer in
our yard until her death in December 1964.
While they lived in Sturgis, they were active in the
Presbyterian Church, then mother joined the United Church of
Christ in Dupree. During those early years, some of our
neighbors were: Norman and Nora Jennerson, and Lester; the Carl
Johnson family, Anson Callen family, Les Leake, Vern Oliver's,
Pevoy's, the Solomonson's, John and Henry Nagel (they were
bachelors and each had a claim), the Tupy family, Zacek's, the
Klinchuch family, Diermier's, the Jesse Miller family. Further
south and southwest were the Serres' family, Wall's, Herren's,
Holmes, Mitchell's, Hensley and Starr, Wuennecke's, Ike Lee's,
Floyd Frames, Bolander's and Bowlings, Ritter's, Bridwell's,
Longbrake's, Thede Lafferty's, Ed Lafferty, Glen French's,
Ohnemus' family, and the Campbell Bros. Owen Shedd's came later,
and the Walter C. Miller, Sr. family moved on to the Jake Maca
place, also the Pete Christiansen family. I think the one memory
that stands out above any of them was Henry Nagel, the bachelor.
He used to come to our school picnics and dances, etc. and when
he opened the door to come in, he flipped over on his hands and
walked around the room that way. He walked everywhere and he
said it rested him to walk a ways on his hands.
Eugene married Jane Miller in 1933 and Eva married Delbert W.
Miller in 1947.
EUGENE H. HENDERSON by Eva C. Miller
Eugene H. Henderson, son of Ben and Elsie Henderson was born
at Groton, South Dakota on June 19, 1913. He came with his
parents to Ziebach County in the fall of 1918 where he grew up.
On June 24, 1933 he married Jane Miller, daughter of Jesse
and Maggie Miller. They lived on the old Oliver place, where
they farmed, milked cows and Eugene and his dad built dams under
the Range program.
Eugene C. (Gene) was born in Dupree on August 14, 1934. They
moved to Idaho and lived there a year or two. Harley, their
second son was born in Idaho on October 30, 1937. While Harley
was a baby, they returned to Dupree and lived on the old Thede
Lafferty place.
Their house burned in 1940, when Harley was three, and Harley
was badly burned on his legs. As before, when the Ben Henderson
residence burned, members of the Henderson family knew the
wonderful generosity and love of the people in this community.
Money, furniture, clothing and food were donated. In February,
1941, after their home burned, Eugene, Vin Jeffries, Ben
Olmstead and Cully (Lewis) Miller bought a ranch down on Cherry
Creek. The location came to be known as "Little Ireland".
A year or so later, Cully and Ben Henderson traded places and
Ben and Elsie moved down on Little Ireland, while Cully and his
family moved up on Section 1-11-20 where Ben had lived. The same
fall Eugene and Jane moved to Little Ireland, on November 19,
1941 their third son, Benjamin Jesse, was born. They lived on
Little Ireland until the spring of 1947, at which time they sold
the Cherry Creek ranch to Voyle Samuelson and moved to the old
Andrew Lee place, southwest of Dupree. Then they moved to Dupree
for a year, while he worked for the State Highway Commission.
They bought a small acreage from Bill Wartenweiler and built up
the place north of Dupree where they still reside. Gene, Harley
and Ben all went to Dupree High School.
Gene married Elsie Fuhrer, daughter of William and Christine
Fuhrer, and they have two sons, Bill and Dale. Both sons
graduated from Dupree High School and are living at Dupree--both
unmarried. Harley served a term in the Army, stationed in the
Philippines, then he went on to school at Aberdeen where he met
and married Terri Hayashi from North Dakota. They are now living
at Rosholt, South Dakota and he is vice- president of a bank in
that area. They have five children--Jimmy (attending SDSU at
Brookings), Tracy (a high school senior), Shawn, Audra and
Michael. Ben went to college at Brookings and Aberdeen, then
served a hitch in the army. He was stationed in Germany. When he
came back, he married Audrey Rohrer from Faith. He then finished
school in Spearfish and Vermillion and went on to become a
doctor. He rejoined the army and served his internship at Fort
Sam Houston, then to Ohio and is now at the clinic in Mobridge.
Ben and Audrey have two sons, Travis and Josh, still in
elementary school.
HARVEY HENDERSON by Eva C. Miller
My uncle, Harvey Henderson, (Dad's youngest brother) his
wife, Pauline and two of their four children, Ivan and Alveretta,
moved to Ziebach County from Brown County in 1919. Their other
two children, Mildred and Milton LeRoy (Bud) were born in
Dupree. They lived on the old Philips place west of Dupree and
north of the old rodeo grounds. Later, they moved south of
Dupree on the Les Leake place. Ivan and Alveretta attended the
Whittler school for one year. Harvey played the guitar and mouth
organ, Dad played the violin, and together they often played for
dances in the area. Harvey's family moved back to Brown County
in the mid-1920's.
