BRANTON
H. HENDERSON, vice-president of the First National Bank, was born in
Norristown, Montgomery County, Penn., December 24, 1823, and is a son
of John and Elizabeth (Branton) Henderson, of that town. His
father was a lawyer of the Montgomery County bar, and died when our
subject was a small child. In 1827 his mother, with her two sons,
Samuel and Branton H., came from Norristown to Mercer, Penn.,
accompanied by her brother, Samuel Holstein. The latter was for many
years one of the prominent attorneys of the Mercer County bar, where he
resided until 1854. He then removed to Neshannock Falls, Lawrence
County, Penn., where he owned a mill property, and lived at the Falls
until his sudden death at New Castle, in 1869. Our subject was educated
in the common schools of Mercer, and Allegheny College, Meadville. He
early engaged in mercantile pursuits in Mercer, and in 1858 removed to
New Castle with his mother, leaving his brother Samuel in Mercer,
where the latter followed merchandising up to within a few years of his
death, which occurred at Mercer in 1862. Samuel's first wife was a
daughter of Judge Thomas S. Cunningham, a pioneer lawyer of the
Mercer bar, and left one son, Matthias H., now vice-president of
the Sharon National Bank. By his second wife he left three children,
who, with the widow, reside in Philadelphia. Mrs. Elizabeth B.
Henderson died in New Castle in 1871, and in 1872 Branton
H. and his nephew, Matthias H., removed to Sharon, where
both have since resided. Mr. Henderson became interested in the
development of the coal fields in 1865, and has been largely interested
in the iron interests of the valley during the past twenty years. In
1868 he organized the firm of Henderson, Allen & Co., who built the
Allen furnace, later known as the Henderson furnace, at Sharpsville, in
that year. In 1872 he was one of a company who established the Spearman
furnaces of Sharpsville, and is still interested in that enterprise. He
has been connected with the First National Bank of Sharon since 1873,
and vice-president for the past two years, while his nephew has been
interested in the Sharon National Bank since its organization in 1875.
The Henderson family are Episcopalians in religious faith, and
both Branton H. and Matthias H. are prominent members of
the Masonic order.
History of Mercer County, 1888, pages 729-730
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