BIO: Robert Miller HENDERSON, Cumberland County, PA
  
  Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Joe Patterson
  OCRed by Judy Banja
  
  Copyright 2004.  All rights reserved.
  http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm
  http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pa/cumberland/
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  >From Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania,
  Chicago: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905, p. 6-8
  _____________________________________________________________
  
  ROBERT MILLER HENDERSON, lawyer, soldier, judge, was born in the vicinity of
  Carlisle, Cumberland county, Pa., March 11, 1827, of Scotch-Irish ancestry,
  comprising on both paternal and maternal side, men prominent in the history of
  the county and State. The Henderson and Parker families emigrated from the
  Province of Ulster, Ireland, in the early part of the Eighteenth century;
  Richard Parker, and Janet, his wife, settled three miles west of Carlisle in
  1724, acquiring lands by patent near the Presbyterian Glebe Meeting House (now
  Meeting House Springs), on which he had resided, as recited in his application
  "ye ten years past." His grandson, Major Alexander Parker, was a distinguished
  officer in the Revolution; an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati;
  and the founder of Parkersburg, W. Va., at the mouth of the Little Kanawha. His
  remains rest in the Parker-Henderson plot in the "old Meeting House Springs
  graveyard." Thomas Henderson settled about the same date in the Pequea Valley,
  then within the confines of Chester, now Lancaster county. His grandson, Mathew
  Henderson, in 1790, became a citizen of Cumberland county, and resided in
  Middleton township, near Carlisle, and married; Margaret Wilson (nee Miller),
  daughter of Robert Miller, and widow of Major James Armstrong Wilson, who was
  the son of Thomas Wilson, one of the earlier provincial judges. Major Wilson
  was educated at Princeton, and read law with Richard Stockton. He was admitted
  to the Bar of Cumberland county on motion of James Wilson, in 1774, and died in
  Carlisle March 17, 1788, at the early age of thirty-six years, a victim of mob
  violence. Robert Miller was a man of prominence in the affairs of the Province,
  and a member of the Committee on Correspondence for Cumberland county during the
  period of the Revolution.
  
  William Miller Henderson, son of Mathew and Margaret (Miller) Henderson, was
  born May 28, 1795, in Cumberland county, and died at his residence, "Oakland"
  farm, a short distance east of Carlisle, Oct. 16, 1886. He spent the early part
  of his life in Perry county, and with other Perry county men, under the command
  of Capt. John Creigh, served for a short time in the war of 1812. He
  subsequently returned to Cumberland county, married Elizabeth, daughter of
  Andrew and Margaret (Williams) Parker, and soon attained a position of
  influence and prominence in the community.. In connection with his
  brother-in-law, the late Richard Parker, under the firm name of Henderson &
  Parker, he established a successful milling and distilling business. He was one
  of the original subscribers to the Cumberland Valley Railroad, and for a number
  of years a member of the Board of Directors. He died at the advanced age of
  almost ninety-two years, - quoting from an obituary notice in the Carlisle
  Herald - "running back to the days of Washington his life increased and
  declined through the stormy scenes and great conflicts which attended the
  'Building of the Nation.' Through them all he was a representative man and
  
  CUMBERLAND COUNTY.  7
  
  an American citizen in the broadest meaning of the term."
  
  Robert Miller Henderson, his son, was educated in the public schools of
  Carlisle and at Dickinson College, graduating from the former in 1838, and from
  the latter in 1845. He pursued the study of law with the Hon. John Reed, and on
  Aug. 25, 1847, was admitted to the Bar of Cumberland county. He at once entered
  upon the practice of his profession at Carlisle. His interest and activity in
  the politics of that period gave him the Whig nomination for the Legislature in
  1851, and although the party in his district was in the minority, he was
  elected, and also re-elected in 1852. At the outbreak of the war of the
  Rebellion, he raised a company at Carlisle, of which he was elected captain,
  and was duly commissioned April 21, 1861. The company proceeded to Camp Wayne
  at West Chester, and formed Company A, 7th Pennsylvania Reserves, 36th P. V. I.
  This regiment was attached to the 2d Brigade, McCall's Division, of the Army of
  the Potomac. Capt. Henderson, served as judge advocate, court martial of the
  division from December, 1861 to June, 1862. The 7th Pennsylvania Reserves was
  sent to the front on July 25, 1861, two days after the first battle of Bull
  Run, and saw the hardest kind of service. In the summer of 1862 it went into
  the memorable seven days fight before Richmond, with full ranks, and when the
  fighting was over scarcely 200 of the brave men were left to answer the roll
  call. While leading his company at Charles City Cross Roads, on June 30, 1862,
  in this series of battles - the color guard having fallen - Capt. Henderson
  (quoting from the Official Records) "seized the standard and bore it off the
  field," receiving at the same time a wound in the left shoulder. Although
  wounded he refused to leave his command, and on July 4th, upon recommendation
  of Brig. Gen. Seymore, was promoted for "brilliant gallantry" to
  Lieutenant-Colonel of the Regiment. Soon afterward the Reserves were
  transferred from the Peninsula to the Army of Northern Virginia, then under
  command of Gen. Pope, and on the 29th and 30th of August, 1862, participated in
  the second battle of Bull Run. Here the Seventh was led by Lieutenant Colonel
  Henderson, and on the evening of the second day, while engaged in a desperate
  struggle for a vitally important position, he was shot from his horse, a minie
  ball passing through his body. He was borne from the field by four of his
  soldiers, all of whom feared and believed that he had received a mortal wound.
  He, however, recovered, and on the 2d of January following, rejoined his
  regiment at Belle Plain, and was detailed by Gen. Doubleday, Inspector General
  of the Division. He served in that capacity until April 18, 1863, when
  President Lincoln appointed him Provost Marshal of the Fifteenth District of
  Pennsylvania, in which position he served until the close of the war, and was
  honorably discharged Nov. 10, 1865. On March 13, 1865, he was brevetted colonel
  and brigadier general for gallantry in the seven days fight before Richmond, and
  in the second battle of Bull Run.
  
  After the war Gen. Henderson resumed the practice of his profession at
  Carlisle. In April, 1874, he was appointed by Gov. Hartranft, additional law
  judge of the Harrisburg district (12th), composed of the counties of Dauphin
  and Lebanon. In November of that year he was elected to the position by the
  people without opposition, and in January, 1882, became the President Judge of
  the District. He subsequently resigned from the Bench, and resumed practice at
  Carlisle, associating with him his former
  
  8  CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
  
  partner, John Hays, Esq., and his son, J. Webster Henderson, under the firm
  name of Henderson & Hays. A few years later Mr. Hays withdrew from the firm,
  and Judge Henderson & Son continue in practice. The degree of Doctor of Laws
  (LL. D.) was conferred upon him some years ago by Dickinson College, his alma
  mater. He is one of the original members and officers of the Pennsylvania State
  Bar Association, and was the first president of the Cumberland County Bar
  Association. He is president of the Carlisle Deposit Bank; also of the Board of
  Trustees of Metzger College; a trustee of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School;
  a director of the Carlisle Gas & Water Company; and of the Manufacturing
  Company. He is a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United
  States; the Grand Army of the Republic; and president of the "Pennsylvania
  Reserves Association." He is also a member of the Pennsylvania Scotch-Irish
  Society; Phi Beta Kappa; and other learned and patriotic societies. For many
  years Judge Henderson has been a trustee of the First Presbyterian Church, of
  Carlisle, and a ruling elder of the congregation since 1871. He married June 7,
  1853, Margaret Ann Webster, daughter of John Skinner and Elizabeth (Thornburgh)
  Webster, of "Mt. Repose," Baltimore county, Maryland.