Henderson were elected, ordained and installed as deacons. Henderson, were named elders, the father previously ordained and the latter ordained and installed. (They were the daughter and son of John Lee I and Ann Sample Henderson). ![]() He was Eleanor’s brother (they were the son and daughter of Moses and Mary Ann Knox Shelby) and his wife, the former Amanda Ann Henderson, was William’s sister. Shelby had also been a key person in the organization of the Tyler church. The first 10 transferred letters from the Bethesda Presbyterian Church in Heiberger, Alabama, and the latter six moved their letters from the First Presbyterian Church in Tyler, which had been organized April 3, 1870.Ĭommitteeman J. M. (Samantha Jane LaGrone) Henderson, Hugh C. ![]() (Martha Elizabeth Henderson) McGahey, Lilly McGahey, (James Milton) McGahey, Viola Dobbins, Thomas A. ![]() Its name was changed to Bethesda in 1885, in honor of a church by the same name the family had established in Perry County, Alabama.Ĭharter members were Wm. L. They met first in the fall of 1880, and on March 26, 1881, the church was officially recognized as the Lindale Presbyterian Church. Shelby and Thomas Niblack were appointed as the committee. In the fall of 1880 the Presbytery granted the request and a committee composed of the Rev. After their first worship services, they petitioned the East Texas Presbytery for permission to make official what they had already established. The new arrivals were William Lee (Januto December 10, 1883) and Eleanor Ann Selina Shelby Henderson (Novemto October 8, 1900), all nine of their adult sons and daughters, a few other family members and one family of their friends. The oldest surviving individual from each of the original “children” who settled in the area unveiled the marker.īethesda Presbyterian Church was established in 1879 by members of the Henderson family shortly after they arrived in East Texas from Perry County, Alabama. I crossed every “t” and dotted every “i,” mailed the papers and waited.Įureka! It all came together in late 1993 or early 1994 when we received word that we had been approved-and on our first try!-and we dedicated the marker that year at the annual family reunion and Bethesda Memorial Services. I read and reread the requirements and began to write and edit the document that you have. I was told by several people with whom I conferred that receiving a marker was not easy and that nobody they knew had received one on the first try. ![]() I asked for and received information from the State Historical Association about securing a marker. We walked and rewalked the cemetery, using what few existing records we could find to determine grave sites. He and I made countless trips from the lake house in Chandler to Bethesda in Lindale. Your grandfather got very involved along with me. I enlarged the annual reunions, wrote and mailed a newsletter which I called “The Now and Then Henderson Herald,” and interviewed cousins galore who still lived in the area for their word-of-mouth memories.Īt some point along the way I determined that the Bethesda Cemetery should have a state historical marker and began to accumulate information to make it happen. Then I tried moving to the lake to be with your grandfather and his mother and at the time became the “matriarch” of my mother’s East Texas family. I asked her to tell me a little more about it, and here is her story, via e-mail, July 2014:Īfter I chaired the first International Women’s Peace Conference in Dallas in 1988, I spent the next couple of years traveling to and from Russia and being very involved in the peace movement. Kerin’s Note: Vivian Anderson Castleberry wrote the following report as part of the application process for the Bethesda Church and Cemetery historical marker in Lindale, Texas, in 1993.
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