San Joaquin County
Biographies
JOHN HENDERSON
JOHN HENDERSON, proprietor
Grand Central Hotel.--Among the pioneers of California now resident in
Stockton, and prominently engaged in business here, is the gentleman whose name
heads this sketch. Mr. Henderson is a native of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland,
born on the 4th of October, 1835, his parents being David and
Cecelia Jane Henderson. His father was a jute manufacturer in Scotland, but
after coming to this country in 1854 he was retired from active business
pursuits. He lived after that in Stockton, and he and his wife died in this
city.
John Henderson, subject of this sketch,
was reared in his native country, and received his education at Dundee. In
1849, when a mere boy in years, he left the parental roof to make his own start
in life, and proceeding to Liverpool took passage on a sailing vessel bound for
California. The voyage, which was a fortunate one, with only one stop (at
Valparaiso), occupied seven months, and in February, 1850, Mr. Henderson landed
in San Francisco. He soon was on his way to the mines, and brought up at Agua
Fria, Mariposa County, where he commenced prospecting. He continued his labors
there and in that vicinity, moving down upon the Tuolumne river, and continuing
his prospecting in this direction. After a year in the mines he went to San
Francisco, and there embarked in business pursuits. He built up an extensive
business as a coffee and spice merchant, his place of business being in Happy
Valley, opposite the present site of the Philadelphia Brewery. In 1854 he was
joined by his parents, who came out from Scotland, and in that year he removed
to Stockton and engaged in the restaurant business on the levee, in company
with William Inglis, who is also one of the prominent citizens of Stockton, and
whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume. This business continued for
about ten years, when Mr. Henderson, attracted by the reigning excitement of
the Comstock mines, went to Nevada and located at Aurora, where the celebrated
Del Monte mine was opened. For five years he carried on the restaurant and
hotel business there, and then went to Diamond City, Montana, where he kept
hotel and also followed mining, spending two winters there. In 1869 he once
more returned to Stockton, and built the Grand Central Hotel, which he
completed to its present condition in 1876.
Mr. Henderson was married in San Francisco
while residing in Stockton, to Miss Mary Wallace, a native of Knox County,
Illinois. They have two children, viz: Grace Cecelia and Ila Louise.
Mr. Henderson is a natural hotel man, and
conducts one of the best and most pleasant houses in central California. The
Grand Central is a handsome, commodious structure, admirably arranged, and
containing seventy-five well lighted and well ventilated rooms, in one of the
most pleasant locations in the city. The house has a large patronage, and has
the reputation of always maintaining its guests, who come to it when in
Stockton as to a home.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 609-610. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
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