DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Howard Henderson came into this world in 1842, and he came to Texas in 1857 — young enough that Texas still had a few rough edges left to show him. And Texas, being Texas, did not disappoint.
By 1862, Howard found himself caught up in one of the uglier chapters of the Civil War on this soil — the Battle of the Nueces. He was a Unionist, him and others like him, and they were ambushed by a Confederate force near the Nueces River. That is not a small thing.
An ambush. And Howard Henderson walked out of it alive. You sit with that a moment.
He survived something that was designed to make sure he didn't. After the war, he went on to serve as a Texas Ranger — a man who'd already stared down the worst and kept movin'. In 1866, he married Narcissa Turknett, and the two of them settled near this very site, out here in Kerr County, building something quiet and their own after years of anything but quiet.
Then 1870 came. And 1870brought grief that no piece of land or hard-won peace can soften. Their infant twin sons, Thomas and Philip, both died.
Two boys, two losses, one year. Howard and Narcissa laid them to rest here, and in doing so, they began what would come to be known as Henderson Cemetery. Other family members followed, and neighbors too, finding their final rest in ground that Howard and Narcissa consecrated with the hardest kind of love there is.
A man who survived an ambush in 1862, who rode as a Ranger, who built a life — and in the end, what marks this land isn't any of that. It's two little boys named Thomas and Philip, and the parents who refused to leave them alone.
What the marker says
Howard Henderson (1842-1908) came to Texas in 1857. He was a survivor of the Civil War Battle of the Nueces in 1862, in which he and other Unionists were ambushed by a Confederate force near the Nueces River. He later served as Texas Ranger. Henderson married Narcissa Turknett in 1866 and they settled near this site. In 1870, upon the deaths of their infant twin sons Thomas and Philip, they began a family burial ground which became known as Henderson Cemetery. Other family members and neighbors were also buried in the graveyard. (1990)