Carey, Charles Henry.  "History of Oregon." Vol. 2. Chicago-Portland: Pioneer
Historical Pub. Co., 1922.  p. 106-109.
Includes portrait.

JOHN LELAND HENDERSON

John Leland Henderson, attorney at law at Tillamook city, is descended from
distinguished American ancestry in both paternal and maternal lines, the names
of his ancestors appearing in the history of this country from the earliest
colonial days. His birth occurred in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1851, and he is a
son of John and Catherine (Leland) Henderson, the former a native of Indiana.
The grandfather, also named John, was one of the most distinguished lawyers of
the south and was a contemporary of Clay, Calhoun and Webster. For many years he
served his state in the United States senate and Daniel Webster is said to have
remarked of him that Senator Henderson was without doubt the best land lawyer in
America. His son John, the father of John Leland Henderson, was associated with
him in connection with the legal profession. Like his father he was a man of
strong convictions and had numerous friends and enemies. During one of the
political riots at the time of reconstruction in the south, he was shot while in
the streets of New Orleans in February, 1866, and passed away soon afterward.
The American founder of the Leland family was Henry Leland, an English
gentleman, who came to this country in 1652, and our subject is a direct
descendant through his son Ebenezer of Sherburne and his son Phineas Eleazer of
Grafton. A grand aunt of Mr. Henderson's was Abigail Leland, who married
Millard Fillmore, later president of the United States. A great aunt, Elvira
Leland, married Charles Coolidge and became the great-grandmother of Calvin
Coolidge, now serving as vice president of the United States. The mother of Mr.
Henderson was a daughter of Judge Sherman Leland, who was for many years probate
judge of Norfolk county, Massachusetts, and a member of both house and senate of
the state. He was widely recognized as a representative member of the legal
profession and as a citizen was always interested in any movement for the
development and improvement of the general welfare. Mrs. Henderson was a woman
of superior education and for many years, both before and after her marriage,
was a teacher of several languages, being able to speak and write them fluently.

Until 1865 John Leland Henderson received his education by use of a fine
library, together with instruction from his mother, who was his sole tutor till
he entered the Jesuit College of New Orleans, Louisiana. Later he was a student
in a military school at Brattleboro, Vermont, and was also for some time
enrolled in Cornell University, but upon the completion of his freshman year
there took up the profession of teaching on the Pacific coast. In 1870 he came
to Oregon, locating in Portland, where he engaged in surveying. In 1871 he
taught his first school in Eugene and afterward taught in other places in the
Willamette valley. In 1879 he moved to Olympia, Washington, teaching in the
Collegiate Institution. In 1891 he went to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, where his
ancestors had lived and there he studied law, being admitted to the bar in 1893.
He engaged in the practice of his profession there and also conducted an
abstract business until 1898, when he returned to Oregon and was admitted to
practice before the bar of this state. He located in Hood River, where he
resumed his practice, remaining there for eleven years, when he returned to
Portland. In 1911 he located in Tillamook, where he has since resided and has
gained recognition as a representative member of the legal profession
throughout the state. The zeal with which he has devoted his energies to his
profession, the careful regard evinced for the interests of his clients and an
assiduous and unrelaxing attention to all the details of his cases have brought
him a large business and made him very successful in its conduct. In addition to
his professional interests he is secretary and treasurer of the Tillamook Title
& Abstract Company, one of the most complete plants of its kind in the state.

In 1873 occurred the marriage of Mr. Henderson and Miss Harriet E. Humphrey, a
member of one of Oregon's representative pioneer families, and they became the
parents of the following living children: Leland J., a successful engineer of
Columbus, Georgia, and the father of the famous Dixie Highway, of which he is
president; Louis A., who is a graduate of the University of Oregon and served
for fourteen months as captain of engineers in France during the World war;
Edwin A., a journalist of Seattle, Washington; Sidney E., a mining engineer,
whose home is in Oklahoma and who married Lucia, the only daughter of President
P. L. Campbell of the University of Oregon; and Faith, the wife of E. H.
Rueppell of Portland. In 1897 Mr. Henderson married Marian I. Grimes of Rapids
Parish, Louisiana, and two children have been born to this union: Robert Lynn
and William E. The elder son served with the marines during the World war and
William Joined the navy, making a fine record in the naval school. He is now
associated with his father in the operation of a one hundred and sixty acre
ranch, located at Sugar Loaf Peak in Tillamook county. Mr. Henderson takes
particular pride in his six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren and
expects to live to see his great-great-grandchildren.

Fraternally Mr. Henderson is an Odd Fellow and Knight of Pythias, and he has
filled all the chairs in both organizations. He is likewise a Mason, having
attained the degrees in the chapter and council, and he is an exemplary member
of that order. He has always been a great athlete and although he is now nearing
the seventy mark, every Sunday he walks to his ranch, a distance of seven miles,
where he works all day returning home on foot in the evening. He holds many
records as a swimmer and while living in Hood River in 1908 swam the Columbia
river from Hood River to Cascade locks, a distance of twenty-two miles. Mr.
Henderson's life has been one of continuous activity and he has attained success
in every undertaking whether along the line of his profession or in business
circles. During the ten years of his residence in Tillamook he has made many
friends who appreciate his sterling characteristics and genuine personal worth,
and he is readily conceded to be a representative citizen of Oregon.

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in November 2006 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.