THE GREAT FIRE

OF 1860

Submitted by Gloria B. Mayfield

It was 8:00 on a Sunday night, Aug.5, 1860. The majority of the people in Henderson had been to church earlier that day and mothers were preparing their children for bed. Farmers and shopkeepers alike were oblivious to what was going on in the downtown area. Most of the businesses had closed in respect for the Sabbath and the town was quiet.

The census had just been finished four days before. Abraham Lincoln was campaigning for the upcoming Nov. 6 election against encumbant James Buchanan. The secession issue was the talk of the day and many were beginning to realize that a civil war was going to be the inevitable outcome of the slavery issue. Rusk Co. was overwhelmingly sided with the Confederate point of view. (A later vote on Jan. 8, 5 months later, showed 1376 votes by the Rusk Co. citizens for secession as opposed to 135 against.)

It had been one of the "hottest summers on record in Texas with temperatures up to 112 degrees", causing a severe statewide drought. The grass in the fields was brown since it hadn't rained since February and fire was a constant worry because of the dry conditions. There was also the underlying threat of arson due to several other fires which had been set intentionally in Dallas & other Texas towns, blamed on the heated slavery arguments. There was rumor of a conspiracy to destroy people & cities in the south by emissaries of the Abolition Aid Society of the North. Towns had been warned to post guards to watch for illicit activity by these people. Henderson officials had not heeded these warnings, apparently assuming themselves safe in their relative small size & somewhat isolated location.

The fire was already going strong before anyone even realized it had been set. It began on the south side of the downtown square in an old building which at that time was empty. The building was directly behind the Wiggin, Hogg & Felton's Drug Store which was on the main street, surrounded by other buildings and within the matter of just a few short minutes, the entire south side of downtown was a hot smoking mass of unapproachable flame stretching high into the East Texas sky.

As smoke billowed over the countryside, people poured into the downtown area, trying to save anything they could in the searing heat. Storekeepers, with the help of others, managed to get what was later estimated as $50,000 worth of goods out of their shops and into the streets, only to watch it burn as the fires came crashing into the hastily piled merchandise, carried by collapsing buildings and burning embers. It burned well into the night, lighting the surrounding area as if it were daytime.With the exception of one lone business and the Presbyterian church, everything was lost.

The University of Texas archives has this account, written by John S. Crow to D. W. in 1951, "I was about 8 years old when Henderson burned in 1860. I went to town with my father the day after the fire. It burned every house as well as I recollect except the Flanagan brick building. There may have been the Davenport Hotel left. It cleaned Henderson up. I was looking for a knife - thought maybe I could find one somewhere. The destruction was a horrible sight to everybody except to an 8 year old boy. I remember I was barefooted & careful not to burn my feet. I remember what my father said at the time. They thought a fellow named Green Herndon, a Union man, had hire a Negro woman to burn Henderson. Herndon was a Northerner and was a pronounced opponent of secession. On the Negro woman's testimony a mob gathered. They threw a loop around his neck, tied it to a saddle horse which went around the public square dragging Herndon to death. Then they hung the body to a tree and shot it full of holes. War was in preparation & people were in fits of anger."

There were 43 buildings destroyed, including 2 newspapers, the "Texas New Era", edited by S.G. & Leon Swan, & the "Star-Spangled Banner, edited by James W. Flanagan. The Marshall Republican gave this account, "All from McDonough's Hotel to Smither's office, taking that entire block, and from Redwine's Store to Liken's corner, running back to the Presbyterian Church (which was saved) was consumed, including 10 stores, 2 drug stores, 8 or 10 law offices, 2 family groceries and many other buildings."

One account of what happened afterwards says that the Negro woman who was said to have set the fire was later supposedly hung because she confessed to making up the story about Herndon paying her to light it after the birth of a child. A different account states that a vigilante committee had a trial & determined both Herndon & his Negro servant guilty, and hanged them on Aug. 25. Herndon was buried in an unmarked grave in the Pine Grove Cemetery, 9 miles east of Henderson.