Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 19/Enoch Pinkney Henderson
ENOCH PINKNEY HENDERSON.
By George Stowell.
Among the educators of the pioneer days of Oregon, Professor E. P. Henderson is entitled to honorable mention. He came to Oregon while it was still a territory, and was engaged in his vocation as an instructor of Oregon youths for many years.
His first engagement, in the line of his profession in Oregon, was as principal of Columbia college, an institution which flourished at Eugene in the late fifties and early sixties of the last century.
It was my privilege to matriculate in that institution in the autumn of 1858, about a month after arriving at Eugene from California, and Professor E. P. Henderson was its headmaster at that time.
The building that was occupied that term by said college was built for a hotel, or tavern, as it was termed in those days, and was not as conveniently arranged for school purposes as was desirable, but as a makeshift it did passably well. This building was occupied that college year for the reason that the college edifice which had been erected on ground owned by the institution, on a hill about a mile southwest of the town, had been recently destroyed by fire. However, in spite of this incommodious housing, the school was efficiently organized, and the various branches of studies were prosecuted with a zeal and morale that were commendable. This result was largely due to the ability of Professor Henderson as an organizer, instructor and inspirer of his pupils.
Professor Henderson was instructor in physics, mathematics and the languages. There were two other tutors connected with the school, one of whom, Professor Geiger, taught the classes in philosophy, physical geography and cognate branches.
Professor Henderson remained only a year with the college after I entered it as a student. The cause of his severance with the school was not for the reason of dissatisfaction of the patrons with his teaching, nor of the Board of Trustees with his method of conducting the school, but because of his political views. A majority of the Board of Trustees was strongly pro-slavery, while Professor Henderson was a Freesoiler, although he sedulously avoided any reference to the disturbing subject on the school premises, and discussion of it was forbidden by any of the societies connected with the school; still in the mind of the Board he was an incipient abolitionist and therefore unfit to be a tutor of the youths of the land. So after the end of the school year 1858-59 he was supplanted! by a "fire eater" from Maryland. This generation cannot comprehend the bigoted intolerance of the pro-slavery men of that period.
This, however, did not end Professor Henderson's career as a teacher. Afterwards he taught in several places in Oregon and Washington, notably in Lebanon, Oregon, and Dayton, Washington. He gave satisfaction wherever he taught, and always and everywhere was held in affectionate esteem by his pupils.
Professor Henderson was an ordained minister of the gospel in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, though he never was the pastor of a congregation, that I am aware of. He lucidly and! vigorously set forth in his sermons the tenets of the gospel as he understood them, and his life was the daily expression of his Christian experience.
Professor Henderson took the census of Lane County for the United States in 1870. The country was then thinly settled and largely undeveloped. While engaged in this work he made a careful investigation of the possibilities of the country and made same the subject of a series of newspaper articles, which were helpful factors in directing attention to the latent resources of the country and quickening their development.
He was also a practical land surveyor, and at one time fulfilled a contract for the official survey of some townships for the Government.
He was a native of Kentucky, but his boyhood and young manhood were spent in central Missouri. I do not recall, if I ever knew, at what institution or college he obtained his education.
He died, at a ripe old age, in the early nineties. His impress for good still abides and will until the generation that knew him shall have passed away.