What’s important about Henderson?
••• He comes to Texas first (to live). Perhaps that’s why LD was prompted to move?
••• He and LD participate in many land transactions together, giving clues as to where LD was living.
••• He likely goes to care for his brother in Eagle Pass when LD was wounded by the LIpans on the Pendencia.
••• Henderson absolutely must know that LD has a second family. The children are young (and vulnerable) when LD is laid up recovering from his wounds. Did Henderson and Nancy help care for them?
••• LD is living (or visiting) Corpus Christi in 1874, just a few years after Henderson’s death. Was LD there to settle any of his brother’s affairs?
Henderson Lafferty was the older brother of old Lorenzo, born in Georgia in 1798 (senior by just four years). As a young man, he moved with his family to Arkansas. He became a Methodist minister, and as such was called to service in the Texas Conference in 1846. Just prior to his leaving Arkansas, he is noted as having performed several marriages in Indian Territory — the part of [now] Oklahoma adjacent to Arkansas which was previously settled by the Cherokee people. He is found in this area with Rev. John Carnihan, a Lafferty family friend, who christened many of the children. Note that Henderson’s brother, Binks, has a son named Lorenzo Dow Carnihan Lafferty.
“On 1 November 1833, by act of the Territorial legislature, Carroll County, Arkansas, was formed. The County at that time included, Boone County, and a Part of Newton, Madison, Marion Searcy Co. Henderson Lafferty, a pioneer Methodist preacher and shrewd businessman, was the first merchant of Carrolton and Carrol County. Lafferty had extensive knowledge of the Carroll Co. Territory. He successfully impressed the County Commissioners Henry Keys, John S. Blaire, and Barnett Cheatham that Carrollton was the logical location for the new county seat. He purchased 80 acres of land from James Jones. The Commissions paid Lafferty $1,000.00 for the land for the county seat center. This was considered a big sum for the land. Henderson Lafferty held church services in the Court House before a church was built. Carrollton Methodist church was organized in 1836. This Circuit included more than a dozen preaching places.”
Source: Independence County Chronicle/contributed by Mary Lafferty Wilson
Henderson and wife, Nancy Craig Lafferty, are liberally sprinkled in the pages of Texas history, from their arrival in 1846 until his death in June 1870. There are numerous references to him in Methodist publications as well as local historical resources.
1821 — Married Nancy Craig in Pulaski, Akansas Territory
1830 — Land transactions in Washington, Arkansas Territory
1840 — Carroll County, AR
1846 — Joined the Texas Methodist Conference (moved to Texas?)
1849 — Patented 320 acres in Rusk County, TX
1850 — St Marcos, Hayes County, TX living next to Albert G. Adams and Lucinda (Lafferty), plus Matthew and Martin Adams.
1853 — Moved to Corpus Christi (per Methodist Church records)
1859 — According to Abney, Henderson is minister to a Methodist Church in Corpus Christi at the time of the Pendencia attack.
1860 — Cannot find him on the census in Corpus or in Dewitt County. He is mentioned as preaching at Sabinal at the Kincheloe home.
1871 — Died on June 16 of consumption, in Concrete, Dewitt County, TX. (Teaching at Concrete College?)