Wyatt Dave Henderson Cousin to Wyatt Earp Book 1: My Famous Ancestors and My Hairy Henderson Farmin Family

By Wyatt Dave Henderson

Yahoo! Gather round for a collection of stories from my youth in a world long gone. You will come along with me and my family in exciting tales of survival in Indian Territory, now known as Oklahoma. I know that you, the sophisticated readin' public, may not believe that many of these adventures actually happened, but they did! I know because they happened to me! Although I'll be honest, the modern and acceptably civilized man that I am now barely believes a word of it, that it isn't possible to live through these adventures and to tell the stories. But I did! And they are all true. So here it is. My first book of stories about incredible human strength, farmin', fires, tornados, famous outlaws, and wildlife, including a fair bit about snakes! And all of this told through the eyes of a young and mischievous me, growing up in the same rough area where famous outlaws like Belle Starr and the James Gang roamed! It sure was exciting! Shoot fire! So put down your phones and turn off your TV. You won't need them for a few hours because you are holding in your very hands a time machine. A time machine that will take you to a wild and rowdy, somewhat less than a modern, civilized life while introducing you to my young Hairy Wyatt Dave Henderson farmin' self and my whole farmin' family. So come sit a spell.

We are all inside, waiting for you!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781684987283

Book preview

Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgments

Preface

Sheriffs of Newton County and Jasper, Arkansas

My Wyatt Earp Connection

Some of My Direct Henderson Ancestors

More of My Famous Ancestors

Robbers Roost IT

Survivin’ on the Mountain

Rats Bigger than Cats

The Old Cellar

The Old Dinner Bell

Washday

Playin’ with Fire

The Pearson Reunion

Runnin’ with the Bulls

The Weird-Lookin’ Pear Trees

Catchin’ the Ice Truck

Walkin’ to West Liberty School

Enterprise IT

Doin’ Chores

The Old Hay Barn

The Old Pig Pen

The Mad Dog

The Old Fence Charger

The Snake Pit Pond

The Big Bang

Livin’ with the Animals

Enterprise School

About the Author

Book 1

My Famous Ancestors and My Hairy Henderson Farmin’ Family

Picture of Quinton behind it on front of book given to me by Dale Dalton of Quinton, OK, blood descendant of the Dalton Gang.

Picture of Sam and Belle Starr off of the tin type on their wedding day in 1880 at Ft. Smith, Ark. Given to me by my Cherokee Cousin, Howard Baker. His Great Grandma Lucinda Walkingstick Starr of Stillwell, I.T. passed it down to his Grandma May Walkingstick. Belle gave Lucinda the signed tin type for loaning them her buggy.

1800’s Porum I.T., where Belle Starr’s tombstone came from. It was given to me by my good friend, Richard Carr, from Muskogee OK.

1873 Tulsey Town looking north down Cincinnati St. or Tulsa today. My collection.

Looking east, towards Hoyt, off of the mighty Eufaula Dam, down on the beautiful Belle Starr Canyon and the Ragin Cajun Canadian River. Belle’s grave and rebuilt cabin sits on the near north wooded hill.

Belle Starr’s monument grave at the base of the Rattlesnake infested Hi-Early Mountains at Youngers Bend.

I’m standing at the Starr Cemetery, just west of Briartown, where Belle’s $5 casket came from. Tom Starr’s grave in front of me and my Davis relation is the large one behind me. This is the photo used for my picture on the back cover of my book with the Great Ok. State Seal.

Robbers Roost, or Robbers Caves, with the Jesse James and Belle Starr Corral behind the large rocks. The Twin Panther Mountains are only a mile north.

Map of Belle Starr’s Younger’s Bend and the surrounding towns and some important happenings in those old I.T. areas.

I’m standing in front of the 1830’s port town of Tamaha’s 1884 jail with the Ragin Canadian and the Mighty Arkansas Rivers just behind me.

My Cousin, Wyatt Earp, who tamed Wichita, Dodge City, and Tombstone, Arizona. He also worked for the Katy Flyer R.R. in the I.T. in 1873.

One of my Henderson 1800’s relatives at the Denver, Colorado Train Station. My Collection.

My Great Grandpa Levi Henderson, son of William and Salina Earp Henderson. My blood connection to the Clan Henderson, Scotland and Wyatt Earp.

My Great Grandma, Nora Piatt Henderson, daughter of Robert Piatt and Millie Blaylock PIatt. Connected to Patrick Henry, King Henry VIII, and Wyatt Earp’s wife, Mattie Blaylock.

My Henderson and Ramsay ancestors in 1915 at the 2nd John Ramsay place at West Liberty Mountains. Right to left, Royal R. Frank, H. Thomas G.B.H. John R. and his Dad. Top left, my 6 year old Dad Hilurd after he had just blackened his brother Doyle’s eye on the bottom right.

My Great Grandma Molly Green Ramsay, my Grandma Neva Ramsay, Henderson, King, my Uncle Billy Jean King, my Aunt Verla, and Aunt Vista at the old Delbert King Place at West Liberty, Ok.

Tucker Knob Mountain and what’s left of the old Tucker Knob School, just east of the Twin Panther Mountains. My Dad went to school there at the ages of 9 and 11.

Log cabin and house on top of Beaver Mountain, where my Grandpa, John Devour, and my Mom, Lena Devour, were born.

Verla, my Dad, Hilurd, and Vista Henderson next to the old Stigler Baptist Church bus.

My Mom, Lena Alice Devour, playing her guitar on the Rocks by Longtown Creek at Bug Hill, Ok.

My Dad, Hilurd, and my Mom, Lena Henderson, right after they got all harnessed and hitched up, holding his horse, Blacky, at West Liberty, Ok.

My Dad, Hilurd Henderson, holding Edwin, in front of John Ramsay’s old 1800’s Homestead House in the West Liberty Mountains, while Old Spot and little Fluffy looks on.

My Dad, Hilurd Henderson, and Old Shorty, in front of our, really fun, old hay barn at the old Paul Eakle’s Place at West Liberty, Ok.

Left to right. Donald, Edwin, Wayne, Thomas Doyle, and little Auther Lee The Flea and the, very innocent, little old me. West Liberty, Ok.

Me, Wyatt Dave Henderson, when I was just a little bit bigger than a little bitty baby Black Bear cub. Three years old, Paul Eakle’s Place, West Liberty, Ok.

Thomas Doyle, me, and Auther Lee The Flea with my spankin new wagon and Old Spot. Paul Eakles Farm, West Liberty, Ok.

Me, the author, Wyatt Dave Henderson, pullin my little bitty brother Auther Lee The Flea in my Red Flyer wagon. 1946, West Liberty, Ok.

Edwin, little old innocent me, Wayne, Thomas Doyle, little Auther Lee The Flea, and the Really Ornery, Donald E., Paul Eakle’s Place, West Liberty, Ok.

Edwin, Donald, and their spankin, newly purchased horse, Shorty, in front of our 1800’s leanin old Paul Eakle’s Farmhouse. West Liberty, Ok.

My Uncle Billy Jean King with his Collie dog, Buddy, at my Grandma King’s little bitty 1800’s old place, just south of the Blu Ridge Civil War Battle Site.

My Grandpa and Grandma Pearson, my Aunt Gladys, her son, L.J., and his two kids, Lisa and Stephen Foster, at my Grandpa’s 100 year old farmhouse. Base of the Beaver Mountains, Enterprise, Ok.

West Liberty Longtown Creek crossing that we had to cross in our horse drawn John Deere wagon when there wasn’t any kind of bridge there. Sometimes it was 2000 lbs. of cotton and our whole Hairy Henderson Family on board, while rushin water was lappin at our sideboards! West Liberty, Ok.

My wife, Carole’s, Dad, Clifford Metzger, hauling hay at Skiatook, Ok, just west of Collinsville, Ok. The way our Hairy Henderson Farmin Family did it.

My Royal, Noble, and Kingly, Henderson shield and crest. Sola Virtus Nobilitat, Virtue Alone Enobles.

Introduction

I’m not writing this book because I am a famous person or someone who has rose from rags to riches. Actually, I’m just an average person who has worked hard for a living all my life. Now that I have grown older, I tend to reflect back to my childhood and growing up more often.

So I’m telling this story for the thousands of people out in the world that have lived a life similar to mine, who wanted to tell their story. But they never had the courage to or either didn’t take the time or effort to do so.

I’m also telling this story or stories for my mom and dad, brothers, relatives, and friends that I had the pleasure and privilege of growing up with. Also, to the many aunts and uncles, grandpas and grandmas, and great-grandpas and great-grandmas that I never got a chance to know.

There are three things that prompted me to start writing this book. First, my wife and I were visiting the old Tucker Knob School site, where my dad went to school, one weekend and ran into Jay Boggs and his family. Jay had written a book about the Tucker Knob area titled Tucker Knob Mountain. So we bought a copy.

Since my dad and I had both grown up in the same general area, it gave me the idea to write down a few of my stories, also.

Next, my wife Carole received some family papers from relatives in Indiana called the Holeman Manuscripts. So she found out that she was directly descended from the Prince of Wales on her mother’s side.

Her mom’s maiden name, being Morgan, meant that she was directly related to Captain David Morgan (Indian fighter and adviser to George Washington during the Revolutionary War), Colonel Morgan Morgan (knighted and settled Morgantown, West Virginia, in 1610), Henry Morgan (the pirate, also knighted and became governor of Jamaica 1670), Colonel Daniel Morgan (Indian fighter, Medal of Honor winner, and helped to defeat Cornwallis at the Battle of Yorktown), and Sarah Morgan (wife to Squire Boone and mother to Daniel Boone), and the other Morgans and Llewelyns of Wales dating back to AD 300.

After Carole had documented her lineage back to Morgan, ruler of ancient Britain AD 300, we decided that we might as well check out my lineage.

The only thing that I knew for sure was that my oldest known relative, my great-grandfather Levi Henderson, and most of my other relatives, were buried at the West Liberty Cemetery and the surrounding areas.

We soon found out that Levi’s mom’s maiden name was Earp (Salina Earp Harp), and that she was buried in Jasper, Arkansas. His dad was William C. Henderson, and he was also buried there.

We checked the court records and the local library and found out that a book had been written about my forefathers (History of Newton County), who had helped settle that area in the 1830s and 1840’s. There was a Henderson Mountain, a Henderson School and Cemetery, and a Harp Creek named after my ancestors.

We found out that the Harps, Earps, and Hendersons had come there from Tennessee, Granville County, North Carolina, and Fairfax County, Virginia.

Since there had already been a lot of research done on Wyatt Earp’s past and genealogy, we soon found out that my second great-grandmother, Silina Earp Harp was a cousin to him.

She had eleven brothers and sisters, including a sister named Wiett and a brother named Wyatt.

Silina’s dad’s name was William Earp Harp (born 1780), who also was my third great-grandfather.

Wyatt Earp’s third great-grandfather was William Harp (born 1729), who was also my third great-grandfather’s cousin.

Having such a famous person like Wyatt Earp as a cousin encouraged me even more to complete this book. Also, I had admired the person of Wyatt Earp since the Wyatt Earp series had aired on TV back in the 1950s. Whenever we kids would play cowboys and Indians, I always liked to play Wyatt Earp, not knowing that he was a distant cousin of mine, at that time.

Finding all of that information out and the additional information which connected our family to Daniel Boone also and to a pistol-packin’, hearse-drivin’, 1800s undertaker, encouraged me to write this book, also. His last name was Green, and he had dealings with the Hangin’ Judge Parker at Fort Smith.

Now oddly enough, as my wife, Carole, and I dug through more information at the Jasper Library and the Newton County Historical Society in Jasper, Arkansas, and, later on, talked to some of my distant relatives, more interesting and valuable information continued to roll in.

Besides bein kin to most of my wife’s famous ancestors, I also found hundreds of my very own. That also included past presidents, kings, queens, and rulers of large and small countries. Included were Robert the Bruce and Henry the Fourth of Scotland and Henry the Eighth of England. The Indian maiden Pocahontas was even in that famous group.

Now, folks, I told you a lot of this information in order to prepare you for some of my future, true-to-life, growin’-up, young stories.

Throughout most of my possibly unbelievable stories to you, but very true to me, I try to work in some of my very famous ancestors whenever I can. So therefore, there will be numerous duplications throughout most of my true to life, very interesting, amazing, incredible, very dangerous, and oftentimes death-defying actual stories!

Also, there will be numerous, repeating duplications of events and places over and over throughout most of my stories. The reason for that is very simple really.

Our Hairy Henderson Farmin’ Family actually lived on four different, very interesting, old farm places. Then, we finally moved to the wonderful little town of Quinton. So each different situation or particular event in my or my whole doggone Hairy Henderson Farmin’ Family lives that I wrote about kind of overlapped each other.

So many of my very true stories actually starts out at our original 1800s old homestead, mountain farm place, or later, old fallin’ down rickety old farm. Then they may take all of you fine readin’ folks all of the way to Quinton, Oklahoma. IT, or what was the 1800s coal camp and the Historic Stage Depot town of Cleveland Gap, IT, over and over again. Yippee-ki-yay!

That kind of makes good Belle Starr horse sense to boot, too, since that was the last beautiful valley that our Hairy Henderson family settled in around those wild and wooly parts.

So be forewarned that several of my true growin’-up stories will be lappin’ over, through, and all around my other stories. But that’s just how my bratty, sassy, pesky, and bashful little Hairy Henderson farmin’ mind was able to put all of my true to life, wild, wooly, and amazing miracle stories together! So there! Beware!

Since I’m on that subject, I’m blastin’ some more Colt 45 information in your direction just to keep your undivided attention! Shoot! Fire! Belle Starr!

Now if you have some gibberish old fears,

And are bored to tears,

Just change some gears,

While not lookin’ in the old rearview mirror,

The rough old, wild, and wooly road,

That you are about to toll,

Actually happened long, long ago,

By the old Belle Starr and Jesse James Trail Road,

Where many old outlaws once rode,

In the Choctaw Indian Nation,

Which was God’s great creation,

And by the old Cleveland Gap Stagecoach Station,

Which was a wild and wooly Indian Nation Sensation!

Now be forewarned also, folks, that I also chose not to have an index in the back of my book. The reason for that is simple really. Some places, names, and things I actually mention over and over again, maybe a hundred times over. So it just doesn’t make sense to try and index all of that multiple kind of repeating stuff. So there!

Besides that, I would be wastin very valuable pages where I could put more of my exciting, very interesting, and rare pictures. Also, as for me, I never ever thumb through the indexes any old how. I just read back through the books for any information I need.

So I’m pretty doggone Bell Starr, Jesse James, and Wyatt Earp shootin’ sure that I, with God’s help, made all of my true blue stories plum interesting enough to boot. Shoot! That’s why I actually believe that as soon as anyone finishes reading my God-inspired, miracle book, this is what I believe will happen. I truly believe that they will want to read my true to life stories back through, over and over again, without being bored to tears!

As for me, I have actually read each story through maybe twenty-five times or more. But they are still very interesting to me, even now. Wow!

So that’s another good reason for me not to have an index in my miracle book. So there! Signed, sealed, and settled! That’s why I’m not only putting my cousins Wyatt Earp’s, Belle Starr’s, and Jesse James’ Colt 45 blasted stamps on that there decision! I’m also putting my tenth great-grandfather’s, Sheriff Richard Henderson’s, my third great-uncle Sheriff John Cecil’s, and even my singing cousin, Merle Ronald Haggard’s, Okie from Muskogee, blasted stamps on that decision to boot, too! Yahoo!

The Author

Wyatt Dave Henderson

Cousin to Wyatt Earp

Acknowledgments

First of all, I want to thank my beautiful, wonderful, and very patient wife Carole for all of the hundreds of words that she helped me to spell and all of the information she helped me with. That was during the fifteen or so long years it took me to complete my book on account of my other, really busy priorities.

I also want to give credit to my longtime friend and Quinton, Oklahoma, schoolmate W. L. Bookout. He was actually once the Quinton Town mayor. He has helped me out through the years with dates, names, and occurrences that I tended to forget after fifty-eight long and very great years. I’m sad to say, though, that he passed away in August 2018.

My sister-in-law Marty, Thomas Doyle’s wife, also helped me out with a lot of the initial facts and information about my Wyatt Earp connection and my Henderson ancestors.

My aunt Vista Russell also passed on a lot of ancestral information to me, as well as numerous old Henderson, Ramsay, and Russell pictures to me, before she passed away a few years ago. We buried her in the rocky-old, 145-year-old Enterprise Cemetery alongside of my uncle Elmond Russell.

I have to thank my aunt Lois Henderson’s sister Erma Whittet for allowing me to copy numerous other old ancestral pictures too, just before she passed away. She was buried in Bokoshe, Oklahoma, next to her husband and my uncle Doyle and aunt Lois Henderson.

I’m also very thankful for the names, dates, places, occurrences, and charts that I was able to get out of the early old Oklahoma Chronicles, from the Indian Territory days too. They went right along with all of my already gathered up and inherited ancestral information and pictures.

I was able to get lots of real good information at the Jasper, Arkansas, and Historical Society from Donna, the director. The Jasper Library was also helpful too, as was the Jasper County Courthouse.

The very early researched manuscript from my Medford cousin in Cassville, Missouri, that her mom personally researched was also very helpful to my book.

Another fine gentleman who I want to thank is Dale Dalton in my old hometown of Quinton, Oklahoma. He actually owns a business right smack dab where the old Chrysler and Buick dealership used to be back in the fifties.

He is also a true blue, blood descendant of the famous Dalton Gang that tried to rob the two Coffeeville, Kansas, banks in the late 1800s.

Dale Dalton was kind enough to supply me with some 1800s IT, Red Oak, Oklahoma, pictures and also with some turn of the century IT, Quinton, Oklahoma, pictures to boot, too.

I also want to thank Linda at Arcadia Printing for all of the fine Wyatt Earp business cards and blown-up business cards that she has printed and helped me with for fifteen years.

Shirley at Cooley Creek Printing also has been very helpful by copying all of my stories and pictures.

I also especially want to thank Raegan West for typing out my Wyatt Dave Henderson, cousin to Wyatt Earp book number 1.

I also want to thank my sister-in-law Bobbie, Auther Lee’s wife, for giving me some constructive advice on my book writing and publishing.

Carole’s niece, Lisa Metzger, also deserves some credit for helping to downsize and silk screen my book 1 pictures as well as doing corrections and some additions.

Of course, last but not least, though, I also have to thank my five bratty, sassy, pea-pickin’ Hairy Henderson brothers to boot too. So yahoo! That’s for all of the tasty little tidbits of growin’-up information that those older peckerwoods blasted my way with their Colt 45’s just a blazin’!

Shoot Fire! Belle Starr! Lots of that information was just amazin’!

Preface

Well, folks and partners all over the great, wonderful USA and the whole wonderful world, welcome to the wild rootin’, tootin’, and shootin’ but beautiful Belle Starr, Jesse James, and hidin’ out old outlaw Choctaw, Cherokee, and Creek Nations, Indian Territory! Also, you can add the Youngers, the Daltons, the Doolins, and the Rufus Buck Gang to that rough and tumble bunch to boot, too! Yahoo!

That also just happens to be where I was born, grew up, and lived until June of 1959 when I was a tall, skinny, plus six foot, seventeen year old.

So now, welcome also to my Hairy Henderson Farmin Family of eight and our wild and wooly Indian Territory farmin’ and later city slicker rootin’ and tootin’ years!

Then y’all can actually blaze a trail right smack dab behind the six of us bratty, sassy, pesky, pesterin’, and daredevil, maniac, idiotic, death-defyin’, Hairy Henderson farmin monkeys! That’s as we six bratty, misbehaved little, pesky, mischievous, growin’ up monkeys cut paths, leave trails, and leave our maniac and even our death-defyin’ marks all over our four old as dirt, old farms, valleys, and the historic old town of Quinton, Oklahoma, IT! Back in the wild and wooly old Stagecoach and the Katy Flyer R. R. days, it was known as Cleveland Gap.

So that means that our bratty little brood will be livin’, stompin’, roamin’, and ridin’ all over the very same wild and wooly old outlaw trails and places that all of the rootin’ tootin’ and shootin’ old outlaws, US Marshals, and lots of famous people did. A lot of those outlaws, Marshals, Light Horseman, famous people, and Trail of Tears transplanted IT Indians were also my kin to boot, too. Yahoo!

So Shoot Fire! Belle Starr! Slap on those old Colt 44’s and 45’s! Straddle Belle Starr’s beautiful black horse Midnight! Then y’all can actually follow the six of us bratty daredevil, little idiotic, hooligan monkeys all over that very historical old part and very famous Belle Starr and Jesse James Indian Territory Country! Yippee-ki-yay! And all of its glory!

Now all of you city slicker dudes had better be keepin your tenderfoot IT eyes peeled for a pack of huge old Timber Wolves, some screamin old Black Panthers, and maybe one of those giant old Sasquatch Bigfoots that have been spotted in the rough and tumble Indian Territory area to boot too! Yahoo!

Now here is another personal note about my bratty, sassy, younger, and older Hairy Henderson wonderful, Oklahoma, and Land of the Redman Life. I was born raised and still live around lots of very fine Indian Nation Indians, me bein part of that group to boot, too. Yahoo!

So that makes pretty doggone good old Wyatt Earp, Jesse James, and Belle Starr horse sense why I’m part Choctaw, Cherokee, and just a pinch of Blackfoot Indian.

Even today, I actually play golf at the Creek Nation, Route 66, Sapulpa, Oklahoma, Golf Course with lots of Indian and other real fine and Jim Dandy people.

Two of those fine full-blooded Indians just happens to be Talbert Gooday and Garner Peawardy. Talbert is part Comanche and Apache and the great-nephew of the Apache Chief Geronimo. Garner is a full-blooded, rootin’, tootin’, and shootin’ Comanche Indian and also a cousin to Talbert.

I do have a big old problem with Garner though, when he’s on my senior scramble golf team. That full-blooded Comanche Indian tends to go on a warpath if he hits too many bad shots in a row! Whoa!

My also still bratty, knot-headed, older brother Thomas Doyle also plays with us regularly. Now when he hits too many bad shots in a row though, when he’s on my team, we bratty older peckerwoods just slug it out! Ouch!

That’s actually what we younger little Hairy Henderson monkeys did back in the 1940s and ’50s when fist fightin’ was pretty nifty!

I suppose that it was some of our great-grandma Nora Piatt Henderson’s Choctaw Indian blood coming out of us that made us fight and fuss as well as other rough stuff!

Her folks, Robert and Millie Piatt, are buried at Talihania, near Honobia, where the annual Sasquatch Bigfoot Fall Festival is held in the Ouachita National Forest. Yes, folks, the Giant Bigfoots still exist in that area, too! Yes! Or no?

Now the IT was riddled with the Five Civilized Indian tribes after the 1840s and ’50s! So being part Indian myself, I feel like all of you fine folks need to know the names of the thirty-five tribes of Oklahoma. So I’m blastin them at you with Wyatt’s colt 45, Rapid Fire Like! So start duckin’!

Shawnee, Alabama, Apache, Caddo, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Potawatomi, Comanche, Delaware, Iowa, Kaw, Kialegee, Kickapoo, Kiowa, Miami, Madoc, Muscogee, Osage, Otoe-Missouria, Ottawa, Pawnee, Peoria, Tonka, Quapaw, Sac and Fox, Seminole, Seneca-Cayuga, Tonkawa, Wichita, Sioux, Wyandotte, and Blackfoot is why we are all The Land of the Redman!

Sheriffs of Newton County and Jasper, Arkansas

Allen Bellah 1842–1846

John Cecil 1847–1850, 1857–1858

A. J. Boen 1851–1854

James Salman 1855–1856

H. C. Dickey 1859–1862

J. W. Salman 1863–1864

W. A. Seabolt 1865–1866

W. G. Harris 1867–1868

L. R. Jones III 1869 (Jan–Oct)

John Harrison (Nov) 1869–1872

A. C. Phillips 1873–1876

V. W. Murphy 1877–1878

A. J. Casey 1879–1880

Frank Greenhall 1882–1884

J. A. Lee 1887–1888, 1891–1892

F. E. Shaddox 1889–1890

J. K. Jones 1893–1896

M. Tenison 1897–1898

S. L. Bristow 1907–1908

W. A. Green 1909–1912

Dustin Snow 1915–1916

W. J. Pruitt 1917–1919

G. F. Carlton 1920–1921

Sam Hudson 1922–1925

Will Jones 1925–1932

J. A. Tinsley 1933–1934

My Wyatt Earp Connection

Some more sheriffs in my direct ancestral line

Sheriff Richard Thurman Henderson (1667–1746) was a Jamestown, Virginia, Province Sheriff in Henderson County.

Sheriff Richard Henderson Sr. (1679–1760) was a Jamestown Province Sheriff and later a North Carolina Sheriff.

Richard Sheriff Henderson (1696–1748) was a Sheriff in North Carolina.

His son Maj. Samuel Henderson was a High Sheriff under him.

Col. and Judge Richard Henderson was a deputy under his father, Samuel, during his early years in North Carolina.

Col. Richard Henderson’s son Nathional later was a North Carolina Sheriff for thirty years.

Walter Harp Earp was an IT Deputy US Marshal.

Nathional Henderson was a Jasper, Arkansas, (1876) Justice of the Peace.

John Alexander Harp Earp (1844 D. 1923) was a 1908 Jasper Sheriff.

Wyatt Henderson Harp Earp was a Jasper, Arkansas, (1920–31), Justice of the Peace.

My cousin, Odis Ray Pearson, was the Sheriff of my hometown of Quinton.

Well, folks, as of today January 20, 2020, there has actually been over 200 million hits on Google about my seventh great-grandfather, Thomas Marion Harp Earp, and my cousin Wyatt Earp’s connection! They are still counting by the thousands each and every day, too! Yahoo!

Some of My Direct Henderson Ancestors

Eochaid Mugmedon and Queen Carinna—King and Queen of Tara

Eochaid Mugmedon (AD 350–400)—Father of High King Niall

King Niall Noigiallach (379–415)—First Irish High King, credited with running the Romans out of Ireland, assassinated in 415

Big Henry Son of King Neachtain (1114)—traces back to 706 + 415

Clan Henderson ruled at Fardell Castle Scotland

Robert the Bruce (B. 1193) at Lochmaken Castle Scotland

Robert Henryson I or Son of Henry (B. 1240)

Robert Henryson II (B. 1260) and Martha Thompson

Robert Henryson III (B. 1280) and Elizabeth Mudre

Robert Henryson IV (1300–1376) and Jonet Fairoull

Robert Henryson (1460) was a medieval scholar, poet, and writer

Robert Henryson V (1320–1406) and Marjory Gray

Robert the Bruce (1300) and Helen Llewelyn of Scotland, defeated King Edward II of England with the help of William Wallace and won their independence from England

David Bruce (1324–1371), Robert’s son, inherited his throne. He married Joan of the Tower

Cochet Henderson (1340–1406) and Cunningham wife.

Sir Thomas Henderson VI (1360–1406) and Rachel

Abner Henderson—son of Sir Thomas. (B. 1380)

Sir John Henderson (1400–1465) Member of Clan Henderson or Henryson. Born in Fife, Scotland.

John’s grandson, Sir John, was knighted by King Charles I

Sir James Henderson 1450–1513), first knight of Fordell.

He, his knight son John and King James IV, were all killed in a battle on September 9, 1513. James, John, and King James were 6'8" tall, like most of my Henderson ancestors were back then, and some are now.

Robert Henderson (1625) and Ursula Fleming

Lt. Col. Thomas Henderson (1560) one of the founders of Jamestown

Thomas Henderson Sr. (1580–1670), also a Jamestown founder

Pocahontas’s son Thomas Rolfe was named after him.

James Henderson and Christian Douglasse

His son Sheriff Richard Thurman Henderson (1661–1749) and Polly Washer

Sherriff Richard Henderson Sr. (1678–1760)

Richard Sherriff Henderson (1696–1748) and Henrietta Henly

Sherriff Nathanial Henderson (1723–1783) and Patience Harris

Edward Henderson (1743–1790) and Joannah

Wilson Henderson (1762–1847) and Sarah Frost

Edward Henderson (1793–1866) and Anna Benefield

William Henderson (B.1817) and Salina Harp Earp Henderson. They both died of the smallpox in 1865 at Jasper, Arkansas.

Levi Henderson (1856–1915) and Nora Piatt.

Thomas Green Berry Henderson (1889–1919) and Geneva Ramsay

Hilurd Henderson (1909–1992) and Lena Devour

Edwin, Donald, Wayne, Thomas Doyle, Auther Lee, and Wyatt Dave Henderson—Cousin to Wyatt Earp

Thomas Henderson (1798–1844) was appointed the first Royal Astronomer of Scotland

The Henderson Noble and Royal Crest reads Sola Verta Nobilitat Virtue Alone Enobles

So my Clan Henderson and my kin to Wyatt Earp hat is off to the current Henderson Clan Chief, Alistair Donald Henderson, at the restored Fardell Castle in Fife, Scotland.

So The Hendersons are here was the mighty Scottish battle call back in the 1500s, when most of my Clan Henderson ancestors were 6'8" tall!

Then John Paul Jones battle cry was I have not yet begun to fight in 1779, while Patrick Henry’s cry in 1775 was Give me liberty or give me death!

They were also my distant kin too, through Robert Piatt and Wilson Henderson who were my second and fourth great-grandpas.

My eighth great ancestor Col. Richard Henderson purchased the Cumberland Gap, which later became Kentucky. His pioneer son, Samuel Jr. Henderson, along with Daniel Boone, ran forty miles one way to rescue Betsey Callaway and Jemima Boone from a band of Indians, Jemima being Daniel’s daughter. Two weeks later, Samuel and Betsy’s marriage was the first ever in Kentucky. A year later, their son was the first white child born in Kentucky.

Col. and Judge Richard Henderson drew up the treaties for the army that initiated the Indian’s Trail of Tears Travesty March to the IT.

The very first Indian Rolls, the Henderson Rolls, were named for him. After his death, his epitaph read that he had treated all people fairly.

More of My Famous Ancestors

I am also a cousin to Belle Starr, Merle Haggard, Daniel Boone, and Jesse James. Merle Haggard’s Jasper, Arkansas, Harp ancestors and my Jasper, Arkansas, ancestors are the same. My second great-grandmother was Salina Earp Harp Cecil Henderson.

My eighth great-grandfather and Wyatt’s fifth great-grandfather was John Earp, born in 1680 and died in 1745.

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was born on March 19, 1848, near Henderson County, North Henderson, and Henderson, Illinois.

My grandpa Thomas Green Berry Henderson was born on March 19, 1889, near Enterprise, Indian Territory.

My ancestor Wyatt Henderson Harp was a gun-totin’ Justice of the Peace in Jasper, Arkansas, in 1898. There are four more Wyatts in my family line besides Wyatt Davis, Wyatt Belyeau, Wyatt Harp Earp, and Wyatt Earp that I know of.

My ancestor James Henderson, from St. Joseph, Missouri, was one of six pallbearers for Jesse James on May 5,1882. Jesse and Frank James rode with my ancestor Captain John Cecil, during the Civil War, around Arkansas and the IT. Before that, he was Sheriff of Newton County and Jasper, Arkansas, for seven years. Jesse and Frank, being my kin, too. My ancestor Walter Harp Earp was an Indian Territory US Marshal for Judge Isaac Parker at Fort Smith, Arkansas.

My cousins, Will and Mabel Harrison, were at Belle Starr’s funeral at Younger’s Bend IT on March 5, 1889. Will Harrison, Mabel’s brother, later married Belle and Cole Younger’s daughter, Pearl and moved to Tamaha, IT. William and Benjamin Harrison, the presidents and signer of the Declaration of Independence, are also my kin.

My ancestor Col. Richard Henderson was Daniel Boone’s Commanding Officer and close friend in the 1700s. Richard’s son Nathanial was a Sheriff in North Carolina for thirty years. He also married into the Boones.

My fifth great-grandfather Col. James Harrison fought alongside Col. Daniel Morgan, Col. David Morgan, and General Green at the Battle of Yorktown and defeated General Cornwallis.

Col. James Harrison’s wife, Winnie Redden, daughter of King James the V, Ruler of Scotland, also my fourth great-grandmother, lived to be 110 years old, B. 1737, Scotland. Died 1847, Overton County, Tennessee.

I was born and raised seven miles from Belle Starr’s grave and Younger’s Bend, near Enterprise and Quinton, Oklahoma, from 1942 to 1959.

Now here is a little deeper look into just a few of my many, very famous, and royal relations to 1431 to North Wales and the birth of my ancestor Jasper Tudor. He was born to Owen Tudor and Catherine of Valois.

My fourth great-grandmother Sarah Tudor Harp Earp, Sampson Harp Earp wife’s royal lineage goes all of the way back to Jasper Tudor 1431–1495, Earl of Pembroke and Duke of Bedford. He was the godfather of the Tudor Dynasty and also the uncle of King Henry VII of England. Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth are in that line, too. Jasper is also connected to Llewellyn Prince of Wales.

My ancestor Thomas Henderson was a Jamestown, Virginia, founder. Henderson County there is named for him. He was also a descendant of King James I. John Rolfe, Thomas’s kin, also sailed there in the Sea Venture in 1610 and settled there after his shipwreck. He later married the beautiful Indian Princess Pocahontas. Later, they had a son named Thomas, named after Thomas Henderson. Thomas Henderson’s son Richard became a Sheriff in Virginia. His son Richard Sheriff Henderson was also a Virginia Sheriff. His son Samuel was also a Deputy Sheriff under him in Granville, North Carolina, known as Major Samuel Henderson. His son was Col. Richard Henderson who formed the Transylvania Co. who is my kin, too. At that time, Wyatt Earp’s ancestors lived within twenty miles of mine. Then they traveled west together, while settling this great land of ours. Another ancestor, Hickory Henderson, was the first Union General in the great state of Texas, after the fall of the Alamo, and Texas joined the Union.

My ancestor John Rolfe took Pocahontas and little Thomas back to England to the royal family, as well as her sister Matachanna on the Sea Venture. After a short stay, they set sail back toward Jamestown. Sadly though, near Gravesend, England, Pocahontas died of pneumonia. So John Rolfe buried her at St. George’s Church Cemetery at Gravesend with a sad heart. Little Thomas survived, but John left him to be raised by his royal family there in England.

My ancestor Thomas Rolfe (B. 1615, D. 1680), grew up to be a very handsome and stout man with many descendants. He first married Elizabeth Washington, whose folks were John and Dorothy Washington of England. John was George Washington’s great-grandfather. He sailed to Jamestown in 1657 aboard an English ship. Oddly enough, his ship wrecked just like John Rolfe’s did back in 1610. He did survive though. John Rolfe actually died at an early age of thirty-four in 1622 in Virginia. Thomas and Elizabeth had three children, John, Jane, and Anne. Now lastly I need to also mention one of my very latest little ancestors.

It just so happens that he was named after the rootin’ tootin’ Jesse James, the straight-shootin’ Wyatt Earp, and me Wyatt Dave Henderson, cousin to Wyatt Earp, Jesse James being my kin, too.

Jesse James is related to me through King Henry III and King Henry VIII on my Royal Tudor side. He is also related to me though Benjamin and William Harrison, the presidents on my Harrison side. Pocahontas is also related to me through my Benjamin Harrison line that goes back to 1538 England and Wales.

So now that all brings me to my goin’ on two years old, rootin’, tootin’, and really scootin’ great-grandson Jesse James Wyatt Vance.

He is the son of C. J. Vance and my granddaugher Lindsey Vance from Chandler, Oklahoma, Land of the Redman.

Robbers Roost IT

Located about seventy-five to one hundred miles southeast of Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, lies a very beautiful, interesting, and also very historic part of Southeastern Oklahoma. It’s the area where my early ancestors, the Hendersons, the Harps, the Ramsays, the Devores, the Kings, and the Pearsons settled in the mid-1800s.

That was when it was the rough and tumble, the very rugged, and the very lawless outlaw-infested Indian Territory!

If you drew a line through the outer boundary towns, it would include the following towns: Checotah, Texanna, North Fork Town, Briartown, Porum, and Tamaha formed the Northern boundary; Stigler, Keota, Lequire, and McCurtain formed the Eastern boundary; Red Oak, Wilburton, Hartshorne, and Haileyville formed the Southern boundary; Krebs, Bug Tussle, McAlester, Crowder, Canadian, Indianola, and Eufaula formed the Western boundary; then last but not least, Bower, Brooken, Enterprise Sandrich, West Liberty, East Liberty, Russellville, Hoyt, Whitefield, Bug Hill, San Bois, Kinta, Tucker Knob, Quinton, Blocker, and Featherston were the towns and settlements inside of the boundaries. A few of these historic old towns and their buildin’s no longer exist though.

Startin’ with Eufaula, the area that I am referrin’ to encompasses numerous towns and communities. That also includes numerous clear runnin’ rocky streams, brooks, and rivers as well as several pine tree and blackjack oak covered mountains.

Some of those real tall and beautiful mountains actually seem to reach way up into the clear blue Oklahoma summer sky. Then in the winter, they would actually pierce the low-hangin’ winter clouds.

The whole doggone old outlaw infested Indian Territory area probably covered about six hundred odd square miles.

The North and South Canadian Rivers and the crystal clear and very rocky Piney and Longtown Creeks all run together just about four miles east of downtown Eufaula. Those rivers and creeks, along with many other tributaries flowin’ in upstream, forms the gigantic, 650-mile long shore lined Eufaula Lake.

It was started in the late 1950s. Then it was dedicated by Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s just a short distance from where Belle Starr was gunned down in 1889 and right across the river from where her old Younger’s Bend Hideout used to be.

Today, the shoreline and the general area are dotted with hundreds of nice lake homes, trailer houses, and cabins. The Texanna Road, 71 Highway, No. 9 Highway, and the 69 Highway almost completely encircle the main body of the sometimes very muddy and the sometimes crystal-clear record fish catchin’ lake.

Now I suppose that you actually could refer to Lake Eufaula as a huge Jekyll and Hyde type of lake. Sometimes, it’s as clear as a crystal ball. Then at times, it’s as muddy as the old Muddy Boggy Creek down by Atoka.

The muddied-up water is caused by the tremendous rains and floods that rushes down from the red-dirted Oklahoma City area and the red-dirted plains counties to the west.

The whole western part of the state of Oklahoma has high concentrations of iron oxide in its red clay soil. So when the two Canadians carry all of that to the crystal clear Eufaula Lake, guess what happens?

It’s just like old Paul Bunyan himself and his giant old Babe Blue had up and poured a giant one-million-gallon barrel of bright red paint right square dab into the big middle of the clear blue Eufaula Lake!

Then, when late summer arrives and the heavy rains have already come and gone, it clears right back up all over again.

That weird Jekyll and Hyde type of an effect can actually happen several times a year, too, on the North and South Canadian arms.

But the Big and Little Piney Creek arms, which drains out of the rugged Brooken Mountains, the Porum Landing, which drains out of the Hi-Early Mountains, and the Longtown arm, which drains out of the tall and rugged Beaver Mountains and