Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas John Henderson Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

JOHN HENDERSON

(Transcribed by Peg Luce)

John Henderson brought his last train into the station yesterday, checked in with the Great Dispatcher and went to his long lay-over. Throughout his long life of seventy-two years he had made a great run. He came to the terminal clear-eyed, with his record in order, with the precious burden entrusted to his care safely delivered and with the consciousness of a duty well performed. He was a railroader to the core. He had worked on the Missouri Pacific for forty years and none stood higher in company ranks than he. As a conductor, he had handled some of the company’s finest trains, and handled them competently. For he bore responsibility calmly, easily and with full confidence. He was a fine figure of a man, trim, sure-footed and bearing himself erect. When he stepped down off the steps of the Missouri Pacific’s pride, The Sunflower, as it thundered into the station, resplendent in his modest blue uniform with its gilt buttons, he typified the hardy race of men that has placed American railroads first in the world. There was shrewdness and kindness in his keen blue eyes; this was the Irish blend of him beaming at a world which he found good and to which he always gave his considerable best. Born at sea under the United States Flag, he had lived a life far removed from the humdrum, and the romance of railroading drew and held him.

Today we wave a hail and farewell after you, our dear friend, John Henderson, standing in the vestibule as your train swings away around the bend. For us it is the sorrow of a sad parting. For you, it is bound to be always clear signals ahead. June 19, 1934.