Obituary

HENDERSON, Rachael

In Memoriam.

DIED - At Rivera, Los Angeles county, Mrs. Rachel Elisebeth Henderson, aged 77 years

(Unknown newspaper. She died 1904)

Rachel Elisebeth Carpenter was born in Rensselaer county, New York, in the fall of 1827. She moved with her parents at the age of 16 to
Jackson county, Missouri. In the summer of 1850 she crossed the plains in company with relatives in a wagon train. The journey took from
April till September. A member of this same wagon train was Robert Henderson, of Carter county, Kentucky, to whom she was married in November, 1850,
at the home of her aunt, in San Jose, California.

After several years following the varying fortunes of the goldseekers, Robert Henderson and family moved to the mountains of Lake county
(then Napa county) in the fall of 1858, settling on the banks of Kelsey creek. One lone house marked the place where Kelseyville now stands,
and the whole Clear Lake region boasted only one school.

After 11 years in Lake county, Robert Henderson moved again, this time to Los Angeles county, buying a home on the banks of the San Gabriel river,
12 miles south of the city of Los Angeles. Here they prospered also, till a year or two later the sudden death of the husband and father cast
such a gloom over them that in 1871 the family moved back to Lake county to live.

The rest of her life history is well known. She has spent the later years of her life among her children, of whom three survive her -
L. Henderson and Mrs. H. C. Trailor, of Kelseyville, and Mrs. James Barlow, of Los Angeles county; a sister, also, Mrs. Fannie Morrison of Upper Lake,
and six grandchildren mourn her loss.

She was one of those dauntless pioneer women that the early days of California knew so well, never shrinking from any undertaking, however arduous,
if the welfare and prosperity of her family demanded it. Twice across the plains in the face of cholera and hostile Indians, once across the isthmus
on a mule, with her child in her arms, to join her husband in Missouri; once an actual eye-witness of mob law, opening her door in the morning to

_ __ree victims of Jud_____ her front yard (article torn and missing the remainder)

Submitted by: Anita Crabtree

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