San
Joaquin County
Biographies
ABRAHAM PARSONS
HENNING
A most worthy and highly esteemed
pioneer who always endeavored to live up to the Golden Rule, and who will be
sure, therefore, of the honor usually accorded by posterity to those whom the
world cherishes for helping to make life of value to the living, was Abraham
Parsons Henning, to be thought of by all who knew him, not as having died, but
rather as having continued elsewhere a career of marked usefulness. Born in Saline County, Missouri, on November
1, 1846, he was the son of John Pinnell and Mary Katherine (Vanmeter)
Henning. She was born in Westmoreland
County, Virginia, near the home of General George Washington; and her father’s
family was related, through its branch of the Fairfax family, to the first
President of our land. Mary Katherine’s
relatives on her mother’s side were most honorable descendants of the
“Honorable Parsons,” who was well-known for his ability, integrity, wealth and
generosity. Mary Katherine was only a
child when her father, Abraham Vanmeter, who had married Elizabeth Parsons,
sold their old Virginia home and started across the dense forest-land of the
west to make their next home in Missouri.
He stopped near Miami, Missouri, on the river, and purchased several
hundreds of acres of government land.
There he established the home-place, since added to so that it has come
to embrace several thousand acres, which as late as the nineties was still known as the old Vanmeter home. The youngest son of Abraham Vanmeter, named
Able James Vanmeter, together with his wife, Annie, resided on the place during
the nineties, and she is still there.
On June 16, 1840, Miss Mary
Katherine Vanmeter, was married to John Pinnell Henning, who came out to
California for the first time in 1849.
Later, he returned to Missouri, and in 1854, the family came across the Great
Plains, Mrs. Henning, during the long, hazardous journey, driving her own
team. The oldest son, Irving Pinnell,
was then twelve years of age; the next, Addison David, was ten years old; while
the youngest son, Abraham Parsons, the subject of this sketch, was only seven,
somewhat tender ages, which did not, however, deter these sturdy boys from
riding horseback the long, tiresome journey, over 3,000 miles, at the same time
driving cattle, and standing guard during the night, like men, on the watch
against a possible ravaging onslaught of the prowling Sioux and Cheyenne
Indians, precautions not in vain, for only a few days after the departure of
the family from the fort, the Indians killed many of the soldiers in
cold-blooded murder. The Indians at this
time were becoming desperate over the apparent destruction of their game, and
in revenge were accustomed to make the most cowardly and unprovoked assault on
the immigrants. On Bear River, the men
in advance of the Henning train killed an Indian and captured twenty ponies in
an encounter with the red men. Mrs.
Henning was a very cool and careful driver, and never had an accident, even in
crossing the roughest mountain rivers, although along the River Platte and
among the Black Hills the storms raged almost daily, and once, during a hard
thunderstorm, the lightning killed an ox.
After what could be called a
fortunate and in many ways a pleasant journey of five months, all the party
reached San Jose safely and camped on the Collins ranch at the eastern
foothills of the Santa Clara Valley, the ranch then owned by Mr. Collins, the
hat manufacturer of San Francisco. Soon
after, Mr. Henning purchased a farm of 160 acres from a Mr. Johnson, and there
the family made their home. There also,
Mary Elizabeth was born, who later married a Mr. Hall and resided in a lovely
home on the Monterey Road, near San Jose.
The other daughter, Sarah Frances, who married Mr. De Rome and settled
at Menlo Park, was born on the farm near Edenvale, to
which John P. Henning later moved. Two
sons, John Thomas Henning and Herbert Vanmeter Henning died when only a few
years old. Addison Henning passed away
in 1892, on the 5th of April, at the Henning home at San Miguel, one
month after the father died; and both J. P. and his son Addison were buried
near the home. This home-place remained
in the estate of the heirs of J. P. Henning for quite awhile after his death.
J. P. Henning was engaged in farming
and stockraising in the Santa Clara Valley until 1859, when he bought out
Buffalo Jones, above Los Gatos, and undertook the running of sawmills together
with stockraising. He laid out
Lexington, and named it after his home in Missouri, where he and his brother
Alpha W. resided and owned a furniture factory.
In 1861, J. P. Henning bought 250 acres of land west of Edenvale, on the old Monterey Road, and set out a large
family orchard, one of the first to be planted in that vicinity. He also made valuable improvements while
preparing a genuine homestead; but in after years he bought other titles and
paid full value in gold coin three different times, each to a different
claimant, for the same piece of land, and finally was ruthlessly driven from his
home by so-called officers of the law.
Under the necessity of beginning
life all over again, Mr. Henning removed to Lompoc, in Santa Barbara County, in
1874, to the New Temperance Colony, of which he was an active trustee, and his
eldest son a highly esteemed secretary, from 1875 to 1880. In the latter year, the oldest son, Irving
Pinnell Henning, married Miss Ella Brown; and after their marriage, they
removed to San Jose. He was for many
years connected with the Cogswell Polytechnic College, and later with the
California School of Mechanical Arts, of San Francisco, founded by James
Lick. The youngest son, Abraham Parsons,
the subject of this sketch, married Miss Sarah Ryder.
After a number of years, John
Pinnell Henning, with his wife and youngest daughter, Fannie, moved near
Cayucos, in San Luis Obispo County; and here Fannie married Alfred De Rome, a
skillful artisan at the forge. Following
the marriage of the youngest of the family, the parents sold their home and
took up a government homestead, twelve miles east of Paso Robles; but Mr.
Henning soon sold this, and bought instead a forty-acre tract of highly
improved land, two and one-half miles to the south of San Miguel Mission on the
Southern Pacific Railway and main county highway, bordering the Salinas
River. There J. P. Henning died, and the
mother made her home on this ranch with her daughter until her death.
Abraham
Parsons Henning was married near Salinas, California, on May 20, 1873, to Miss
Sarah Ryder, born in San Francisco, the daughter of William Charles and Rachel
Marie (Kerr) Ryder, both natives of Boston.
William Ryder made the journey to California in 1854 with his wife, and
after settling in the Gateway of the West, conducted the old Reddington Drug
Store in that city of many years. Later,
in partnership with his brother, he bought a farm near San Mateo, some 200
acres in all, and for a few years made his home at this place. In 1872 he moved to the vicinity of Salinas
and engaged in the raising of grain at that place and it was here that Sarah
Ryder married Abraham Parsons Henning.
Sarah was the eldest of eight children, the others being as follows: William Charles, now deceased; Rachael Marie,
who is Mrs. Bardin and lives in Salinas; Eliza Jane,
Mrs. Gruwell, who lives at San Miguel; John,
deceased; Henry; Harriet, now Mrs. Machado, of Monterey; and Mrs. Florence
Smart, also deceased. William Ryder died
at the age of seventy-eight, and his wife when seventy-four.
After
their wedding, Mr. and Mrs. Henning resided in San Jose for some fifteen years,
and then removed to Cottonwood, in Shasta County, where their children were
reared and educated. They were blessed
with ten children: John A. is in Lodi;
Irving L. is of Woodland; Wilbur S. lives at Lodi; Frank A. is in Lodi; Allen
D. is in Dorris, California; Henry H. is at Lodi; Marion D. is at Gervais, Oregon; Mabel Frances died in 1892; two years later,
George Parsons passed away; and Florence L. is at home in Clements with her
mother.
In 1911, Mr. Henning moved with his
family to San Joaquin County and in November bought a ranch of fifty acres
about one mile to the east of Clements, on the state highway. This was open land but Mr. Henning’s
enthusiastic application to the industry involved enabled him to develop this
ranch as he had developed orchards and vineyards in Fresno, Santa Clara, and
Shasta counties. He set out thirty-five
acres to an orchard, planting plums and walnuts. The orchard is irrigated by a private pumping
plant on the ranch. The remaining
fifteen acres are ordinary farming land.
Here Mr. Henning built a commodious home, and here he died, on December
27, 1920. He left a widow and eight
living children, and two sisters and a brother, Mary E Hall of Los Gatos,
Fannie De Rome, and Irving P. Henning of San Jose, the rest of the family
having already preceded him to the Great Beyond. Mr. Henning was a Republican. He endeavored to be liberal and fair in all
things, and supported whatever made for the public welfare and community
progress.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
672-677. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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