I am Vincent Claude Henderson III, the fourth of seven children of Vincent Claude Henderson and Fern Elizabeth Henderson. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, I grew up in Port Allen, Louisiana, and Lake Jackson, Texas. I attended Ouachita Baptist University earning a Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Texas at Austin.
While at college at Ouachita, I met my match, my wife, Sherry Hall Henderson. She earned a Bachelor of Music Education while there. She too attended the University of Texas at Austin, earning a Master of Music in Opera Performance, and attended the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, earning a Master of Education in Counseling.
We have lived in Little Rock since 1980 where I have been employed by the State of Arkansas. From 1984 until 2005 I was the Executive Director of the Arkansas Code Revision Commission, responsible for the creation and maintenance of the Arkansas Code of 1987. After the commission staff merged with the Arkansas Bureau of Legislative Research in 2005, the service agency for the state legislature, I have lead the section responsible for the technical and legal review of all drafted legislation and the codification of all legislation into the Arkansas Code of 1987.
I have been involved in several organizations over the years, including Boy Scouts of America as a volunteer adult leader, retiring last year after 30 years, and as the Arkansas State Director of Referee Instruction, United States Soccer Federation, retiring last year after 15 years in that position. I am still an active soccer referee and instructor, licensed since 1990 and 1992, respectively. I am the Arkansas Tartan Day Coordinator, and I am an officer and member of the Arkansas Scottish Cultural Society.
Like so many members, I showed up at a Scottish festival, in my case the Arkansas Scottish Festival put on by Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas. That is where I met Tom and Linda Hendricks who, being very persuasive, convinced me to join the Clan Henderson Society shortly before my family and I attended the 2009 Gathering of the Clans in Edinburgh.
After several years as a member of the society, Larry Henderson, then-president of the society, appointed me to fill a vacancy in the office of Vice President and General Counsel to which position I have been elected and reelected.
My father was the third of four sons of Cornelius Albert Henderson and Martha Paula Erken Henderson. I was more fortunate than my cousins, because after my grandmother died, C.A., as my grandfather was known, came to live with us for several years. He was a character. His stories and one-liners are legend in our family. But he rarely spoke of his experiences in the Great War.
My mother did the genealogical research for the Henderson side of our family, much derived from others work. She determined that our Henderson branch, working back, went from Pottawatomie, Kansas to St. Joseph, Missouri to Morgan County, Illinois to Ohio to what is now West Virginia to Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Edward Henderson born in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, in 1730, claimed to be an Ulster Scot, according to one of his sons. Online records seem to indicate he was the son of James Henderson born in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, in 1709. Right now that is as far as we can go in tracing our Henderson roots.
However, as with so many families, our family has a long-standing story about our ancestry. The story goes that two Henderson brothers, Scottish Highlanders, came to the Colonies to seek their fortune. They did not come from poverty, their family owned land. We assume that neither was the oldest son as he would have inherited the land and remained in Scotland. It is this sort of conundrum that makes genealogical research so interesting. Is this story true? If it is, how does what we think we know fit in with the family story. If it is not true, what is the truth and where did this family story come from, and why?
The search continues.
