Originally from Indiana, Charles Henderson became president of the S. C. Henderson Wholesale Grocery Company in Joplin. Charles was also associated in mining ventures, was a director of the Joplin National Bank, a director in the Joplin Realty Company, and a pioneer in the telephone and electric business. After Mr. Henderson’s first wife Emma Downs Henderson died in March of 1926, he married Jessie Onstott Mead in the autumn of 1927.
The marriage of Ethel Henderson (one of two daughters) to Robert Ballard was solemnized at this house on Christmas Eve 1927. The wedding party descended the stairway and crossed to a rose-twined trellis. Guests walked into the house through the porte cochere entrance. A supper was served in the dining room on a lace table cloth with crystal candlesticks and a silver tea service. Strands of smilax and roses were festooned from the front door to the nearest chandelier.
This house has beige brick cladding, gabled dormers, dentil molding at the roofline, and many other architectural features.
Charles G. Henderson died in 1947 at the age of 81, but in 1933 his hometown newspaper reported on his death! Nine days later a retraction was printed with Charles Henderson stating that it was not often a man could read his own death notice. The newspaper should have reported on the death of Charles’s son, Charles A. Henderson.
The Simon Schwartz House