Henderson
Henderson, Texas
Henderson, the county seat of Rusk County, is on U.S. Highway 259, 138 miles east of Dallas near the center of the county. It was named for James Pinckney Henderson, the first governor of Texas, when the town was laid out in 1843. A post office was established there in 1846. The town grew rapidly during its first two decades, but a fire in 1860 destroyed most of the commercial buildings. The Henderson and Overton Branch Railroad was completed in 1877 and connected the agricultural center of Henderson with the International & Great Northern at Overton. At that time the population was 1,500. In addition to being a shipping center for agricultural products, in the nineteenth century Henderson was also a center for education, with a number of private schools. Among them were Henderson Female College (1849–66), Fowler Institute (1850–ca. 1861), Henderson Masonic Female Institute (1864–66), and Henderson Male and Female College (1871–90). In 1990 Henderson was the home of the Texas Baptist Institute and Seminary.
The great East Texas oilfield, discovered in Rusk County near Henderson in 1930, caused the population to increase from 3,000 in 1930 to 10,000 in 1933. The boom ended in the early 1940s and the population dropped to 6,437, but a legacy of twenty-eight manufacturing and service industries remained to sustain the town's economy. Boral Henderson Clay Products, the largest of these, manufactures face brick and tile. Henderson was incorporated in 1940 with the mayor-council form of city government. The present courthouse was built in 1928 near the town square, where the first courthouse was erected in 1849, destroyed in the 1860 fire, and rebuilt in 1878. In front of the present courthouse is the 1936 commemorative statue of Thomas J. Rusk, for whom the county was named.
Virginia Knapp | © TSHA
Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.
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Belongs to
Henderson is part of or belongs to the following places:
Currently Exists
Yes
Place type
Henderson is classified as a Town
Associated Names
- (Gibsontown)
Location
Latitude: 32.15767620Longitude: -94.79617800
Has Post Office
Yes
Is Incorporated
Yes
Population Count, 2021 View more »
13,502