W. B. Henderson
Henderson c. 1891
Born(1839-09-17)September 17, 1839
Maysville, Georgia
DiedMay 7, 1909(1909-05-07) (aged 69)
Dwight, Illinois
SpouseCaroline Spencer
ChildrenGettis A. Henderson
Blanche Henderson Weedon
Cora Lee Warren
Fletcher Spencer Henderson
Nellie May Henderson
John William Henderson
Mattie Ward Harris
RelativesJohn A. Henderson (brother)
W. B. Henderson
Allegiance Confederate States of America
Service/branch Confederate States Army
Years of service1862, 1863–1865
RankLieutenant
Unit7th Florida Infantry, Co. B
1st. Special Cavalry Battalion
Battles/warsAmerican Civil War

William Benton Henderson (September 17, 1839 – May 7, 1909) was a cattleman, merchant, and prominent figure in the history of Tampa, Florida. He is the namesake of Henderson Boulevard and Henderson Avenue as well as the former W. B. Henderson Elementary School.  

Henderson served with the Confederacy during the Civil War. His company's captain was James Gettis, who raised Henderson's brothers after the death of his father. He then served in the "Cow Cavalry" and commanded it after John T. Lesley was wounded.

After the war, along with Lesley and James McKay, Henderson shipped cattle to Cuba. He was a member of the firm of Miller & Henderson, then the largest store south of Jacksonville, which housed Tampa's first telegraph.

Henderson was instrumental in bringing cigar manufacturers Gavino Gutierrez, Ignacio Haya, and Vicente Martinez Ybor to Tampa. He also helped establish Giddens Clothing Company, and ran the Tampa Harness and Wagon Company.

He established Tampa Heights, the first suburb in Tampa. He was for ten years president of the State Board of Health. He was a part of the Beckwith, Henderson and Warren real estate agency, and held several pieces of land. He also helped start the Tampa Times newspaper, and was president of the Bank of West Tampa

Early years

Henderson was born on September 17, 1839, in Maysville, Georgia, to Andrew H. Henderson and Floria Olivia McDonald.[1] He arrived in Tampa (then Fort Brooke) in October 1846 with his parents.[2] His father was an Irish farmer and an invalid who lived on the corner of Florida Avenue and Whiting Street.[3][4]

Henderson attended the first school in Tampa, established by William P. Wilson in September 1848. John T. Lesley also attended.[5] School was cancelled at 10:00 am on the day of the 1848 hurricane, which Henderson recalled made people "hug the ground" in order to move.[4][6]

Henderson's father died in 1852. In order to support the family, at just 12 years old Henderson took a job at Kennedy & Darling's store, at the corner of Whiting and Tampa streets.[4] His mother died in 1854.[7] He married Caroline Elizabeth Spencer on February 8, 1860. His father-in-law William Spencer was the sheriff of Hillsborough County.[8] Henderson bought a farm on the Alafia River after his marriage.[2]

Civil War

On the eve of the Civil War, on March 9, 1861, a company of cavalry was organized at Alafia with Henderson as captain.[9] In 1862 he enlisted for the Confederacy as a lieutenant in Company B of the 7th Florida Infantry, known as the South Florida Rifles. His captain was James Gettis, who raised his brothers after the death of his father. Gettis was the hero of the Battle of Tampa.[10] Gettis's law partner in Tampa was Henry L. Mitchell, who married Caroline Spencer's sister.

Henderson caught tuberculosis while serving in Kentucky, and was granted a medical discharge.[1] Henderson then reenlisted in Florida's 1st. Special Cavalry Battalion or "Cow Cavalry" and commanded it after John T. Lesley was wounded.[11][12] His horse "Old Reb" was wounded several times in battle.[13]

Post-war Tampa

In 1866, Henderson opened a general store and sold meat to the Federal troops occupying the garrison.[14]

Cattle

From 1868 to 1878, during the Cuban insurrection, when cattle was selling at record prices, he and Lesley drove cattle down present-day Henderson Blvd. to Port Tampa and amassed a fortune.[2][14][15] He introduced Durham bulls to Florida.[11] He and Lesley also owned a salt factory.[15]

Miller & Henderson store

In 1873, Henderson established a dry goods store with Norwegian sailor John Miller, then the largest store in the state south of Jacksonville.[16][17] Henderson ran a steamboat which shipped cattle to Cuba and thereby provided Tampa most of its contact with the outside world.[1][2][18] He would also travel to Mobile, Alabama, regularly, carrying such cargo as watermelons and gophers.[19] Henderson also helped start the banana trade with Central America.[11] Miller and Henderson also served as bankers for area cattlemen.[20]

Telegraph

The first telegrapher in Tampa was Walter Coachman from Jacksonville, with the Tampa and Fort Meade Telegraph Company, whose office was in the store.[17]

Cigars

Cigar manufacturers Ignacio Haya and Vicente Martinez Ybor had intended to move their business to Galveston. Gavino Gutierrez brought them to Tampa and they visited the store, where they were offered some property by Henderson and W. C. Brown of the Circuit Court. They declined the offer, but it played a role in their moving to Tampa.[16] Brown, Henderson, and A. J. Knight were appointed by the Board of Trade to raise $4,000 to bring the cigar business to Tampa. Without waiting for the $4,000, the cigar plants were completed in Ybor City by 1886.[21][22]

Wagons

1899 ad

With his wife's cousin John B. Spencer, Henderson founded the Tampa Harness and Wagon Company around 1880.[23][24]

Railroad

Tampa's first electric railway, the Tampa Street Railway, was established in 1885 by J. E. Mitchell. Henderson, Lesley, and Brown were all members of the Tampa Street Railway Company.[2][25]

Land

In 1881, Brown and Henderson purchased almost all of Depot Key.[26] Henderson bought Weedon Island, Florida, with his war bond in 1886, and gifted it to his daughter Blanche, who married Dr. Leslie Weedon.[27]

Fire

Henderson was foreman of the first fire fighting group in Tampa, Hook & Ladder Company No. 1, organized in 1884.[28] On May 8, 1886, a fire destroyed all the buildings on the block bounded by Franklin, Whiting, Tampa, and Washington streets, with the exception of the First National Bank. This included the warehouse of Miller & Henderson.[29]

Board of Health

He was for ten years president of the State Board of Health, and chairman of the Board of County Commissioner.[2] He was a member of the Relief Committee during the yellow fever epidemic of 1887–88.[30]

Giddens Store

Giddens Corner, 1911

Henderson was a partner of Henry Clay Giddens of the Giddens Clothing Company when it started in 1889, at the corner of Franklin and Lafayette streets.[1][31]

Tampa Heights

He established Tampa Heights, the first suburb in Tampa, in 1889.[11][32] He lived at 212 7th Avenue in Tampa Heights, in a house with a turret.[11]

Real estate

He was a part of Beckwith, Henderson and Warren real estate agency,[33] working with Beckwith since 1889, and Warren as well since 1899.[34] George Warren married his daughter Cora Lee Henderson.[11]

Newspapers

Henderson was instrumental in consolidating two newspapers into the Tampa Times.[11] In 1893, he was vice president of the Tampa Publishing Company.[35]

Banking

Henderson was president of the Bank of West Tampa when it was founded in late 1905, an expansion of the Drew-Henderson-Harris bank.[36] He was also president of the West Tampa Improvement Co., and the Tampa Building and Loan Association.[2]

Personal

He was an active Methodist and Freemason. He took deep interest in politics, but never sought political office.[37]

Henderson died in Dwight, Illinois, where he had gone to recover from a nervous disorder.[38] His funeral was the largest ever in Tampa at the time.[39] He is buried at Oaklawn Cemetery.[40] Rev. W. J. Carpenter noted in his eulogy "No man can write the history of Tampa or of South Florida and leave his name out."[8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Robinson 1928, p. 271
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Hillsborough County Florida Pioneers 1914". genealogytrails.com.
  3. ↑ Peeples 1906, p. 158
  4. 1 2 3 Canter Brown Jr. (2018). ""The most terrible gale ever known" - Tampa and the Hurricane of 1848". Sunland Tribune. 24: 2, 4.
  5. ↑ Ivey 1998, p. 2
  6. ↑ Robinson 1928, pp. 29–30
  7. ↑ Grismer 1950, p. 320
  8. 1 2 Robinson 1928, p. 273
  9. ↑ Grismer 1950, p. 138
  10. ↑ Kyle S. VanLandingham (2018). "James Gettis: Tampa Pioneer Lawyer". Sunland Tribune. 23.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Marston C. Leonard (November 1978). "Tampa Heights: Tampa's First Residential Suburb" (PDF). Sunland Tribune. 4 (1): 6–10.
  12. ↑ "FPAN - Destination: Civil War - - Plant City". www.flpublicarchaeology.org.
  13. ↑ Hartman, David W.; Coles, David (24 November 1995). "Biographical Rosters of Florida's Confederate and Union Soldiers, 1861-1865: 5th Florida Infantry-8th Florida Infantry". Broadfoot Publishing Company – via Google Books.
  14. 1 2 Grismer 1950, p. 321
  15. 1 2 Donald J. Ivey. "John T. Lesley: Tampa's Pioneer Renaissance Man". Sunland Tribune. 21: 13.
  16. 1 2 Robinson 1928, p. 60
  17. 1 2 Grismer 1950, p. 165
  18. ↑ Harrison 1915, p. 24
  19. ↑ Donald J. Ivey (November 1996). "The Accidental Pioneer: Capt. Jim McMullen and the Taming of the Pinellas Peninsula". Sunland Tribune. 22: 27–40.
  20. ↑ Ivey 1998, p. 24
  21. ↑ Grismer 1950, pp. 182–183
  22. ↑ Durward Long. "The Historical Beginnings of Ybor City and Modern Tampa" (PDF). The Florida Historical Quarterly. 45: 34.
  23. ↑ Grismer 1950, p. 83
  24. ↑ Isaacs 1905, p. 92
  25. ↑ Grismer 1950, p. 190
  26. ↑ Grismer 1950, p. 325
  27. ↑ The Weedon Island Story (PDF). p. 16.
  28. ↑ Grismer 1950, p. 192
  29. ↑ Grismer 1950, p. 193
  30. ↑ Eirlys Barker. "'A Sneaky, Cowardly Enemy': Tampa's Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1887-88". Tampa Bay History. 8 (2) 3: 8. S2CID 43162023.
  31. ↑ Moore, Daniel Decatur (1922). "Men of the South: A Work for the Newspaper Reference Library". Southern Biographical Association – via Google Books.
  32. ↑ "Past - Historic Tampa Heights". tampaheights.org.
  33. ↑ Robinson 1928, p. 179
  34. ↑ Isaacs 1905, p. 41
  35. ↑ Grismer 1950, p. 200
  36. ↑ "West Tampa - Howard Avenue page 1". www.tampapix.com.
  37. ↑ Robinson 1928, p. 272
  38. ↑ "30 Per Cent Increase in Tampa's Cigar Output". United States Tobacco Journal. BMT Publications. 19 November 2018. p. 93 – via Google Books.
  39. ↑ "With Many Loving Tributes Col. Henderson Is Interred". The Tampa Tribune. May 11, 1909. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  40. ↑ "A Walking Tour Guide of Oaklawn Cemetery" (PDF).

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