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The Barney History Project: The people, places, and stories of Barney, Georgia

Norman Campbell Hendry

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January 2, 1857 to September 7, 1938 | farmer, merchant, school trustee, and probable South Georgia Railroad incorporator

The “Neal C.” correction

Folks Huxford's 1948 county history prints “Neal C. Hendry” in its 1896 railroad petition list and again in an 1897 general-merchandise list.[1] No separate Neal C. Hendry has been found. The evidence instead points to Norman Campbell Hendry, usually written N. C. Hendry.

The identification is strongly probable rather than verified because the original railroad petition and the April 3, 1897 Quitman Free-Press page have not been located. Even with that limit, the chain is unusually specific. Norman C. Hendry was a Brooks County taxpayer before his 1885 marriage, lived in Quitman, worked as a dry-goods dealer, owned a plantation near Morven, served on Quitman's school board, and appears repeatedly as N. C. Hendry in contemporary newspapers. A 1904 report gives his full form as Norman C. Hendry.[2] Wedding announcements for two daughters spell out Norman Campbell Hendry.[3][4]

Huxford's own book supports the correction. Its family chapter identifies Norman Campbell Hendry as a son of Neal and Margaret Campbell Hendry. Elsewhere the book says telephone service reached N. C. Hendry's farm by 1907. Only the railroad and merchant passages expand the initials to “Neal C.”[1][5] The most likely explanation is that Huxford expanded an N. C. source form incorrectly.

This distinction matters because Norman's father was a prominent man in his own right. The elder Neal Hendry died in 1892, four years before the railroad charter petition. He was the Brooks County commissioner, Farmers' Alliance Warehouse director and manager, and political figure found in the 1880s and early 1890s.[6][7] Those offices belong to the father, not to Norman.

Parents and childhood

Norman was born January 2, 1857. His original Georgia death certificate names his parents as Neal Hendry and Margaret Campbell and gives his birthplace as Taylor County, Florida.[8] The birthplace is not completely settled. Find a Grave says Lowndes County, Georgia, while some family trees say Brooks County. The certificate is the closest original record, but it was completed eighty-one years after the birth.

The census record follows the family across the Florida-Georgia border. In 1860, three-year-old “Nomand C. Hendry” lived with Neal and Margaret in Taylor County, Florida.[9] By 1870, fourteen-year-old Norman was in their Brooks County household.[10] The 1880 census placed Norman C. Hendry, age twenty-two, with Neal and Margarette in Quitman. It explicitly called him their son.[11]

The elder Neal had been born in Liberty County in 1820 and married Margaret Campbell at Morven in 1844. Huxford lists seven children: William Eli, Sarah Catherine, Alexander Campbell, Neal Wesley, John Gardner, James Edward, and Norman Campbell.[6] A 1916 newspaper account independently called Neill Hendry the father of the then-living N. C. Hendry of Quitman.[12]

That family had several men named Neal or Norman. Norman's brother Neal Wesley Hendry died in 1887, and Neal Wesley's son Neal W. Hendry Jr. was born in 1880. Neither man fits the initials, age, household, wife, property, and civic record attached to N. C. Hendry. They remain important namesake controls, but they do not explain the railroad-era evidence as well as Norman does.

Marriage and household

Norman C. Hendry married Mattie, or Martha Jane, Townsend in Mitchell County on December 30, 1885.[13] Huxford gives December 29, one day earlier. The county marriage record controls the date.

The couple had three daughters:

  • Sarah Nona, born November 30, 1886, who married Cuthbert Powell Grady
  • Tecoah, born December 15, 1888, who married Macon banker Charles Blackwell Lewis
  • Ida Belle, born January 12, 1892, who married Joseph Winfred Harner

The 1900 census found Norman, Mattie, Nona, Tecoah, Ida Belle, and Mattie's brother Henry P. Townsend in Quitman. Norman was a dry-goods dealer and owned the family home without a mortgage.[14] The 1910 census, despite indexing the surname as Hudry, placed the family at 204 Clay Street. Norman was a retired merchant. The household included Martha, Tecoah, Ida Belle, Nona and Cuthbert Grady, Martha's mother Ann E. Townsend, and her brother Henry.[15]

Contemporary family notices reinforce that census chain. In 1907, Mr. and Mrs. Norman Campbell Hendry announced Nona's engagement to Cuthbert Powell Grady.[3] In 1910, they announced Tecoah's marriage to Charles Blackwell Lewis.[4] In 1913, they announced Ida Belle's engagement to Joseph Winfred Harner.[16] A 1911 notice that placed Mrs. N. C. Hendry with her mother, Mrs. Townsend, independently bridges the initials to Norman's wife.[17]

In 1920, Norman was listed as a farmer at the Clay Street home with Mattie, the Gradys, and grandson Norman H. Grady.[18] No secure 1930 census match was found in the documented exact and variant searches.

Merchant and property owner

Norman was in Brooks County's property-tax records by the mid-1880s. Ancestry indexes Norman C. Hendry in local tax digests from 1883 through 1887.[19] The digest images were not fully transcribed for acreage or valuation, so the entries establish taxable property, not its precise size.

An 1894 Atlanta report referred to “N. C. Hendry, of Hendry & Hendry.”[20] The surviving paragraph does not identify the other partner or describe the firm's trade. Huxford's transcription of the April 3, 1897 Free-Press business list calls “Neal C. Hendry” a general-merchandise dealer.[1] The 1900 census's dry-goods occupation fits that business. By 1910 he called himself a retired merchant.

Farming remained a substantial part of his life. The 1904 Atlanta Journal said Norman C. Hendry and his family would spend several weeks at their plantation home.[2] Other reports locate the country home near Morven or Kennedy, on or close to the South Georgia Railroad.[21] In 1903, Governor Joseph M. Terrell appointed N. C. Hendry as one of Brooks County's delegates to the Georgia Farmers' Congress.[22]

The plantation appeared in a detailed auction advertisement in May 1926. The ad placed it ten miles from Quitman, fourteen miles from Valdosta, and two miles from Morven. It described cultivated tracts with woodland, water, tenant houses, barns, and two main dwellings, with the sale beginning at the Kennedy place on the South Georgia Railroad.[23] These were the seller's promotional claims, not an independent appraisal. They do show the scale and location of the property being broken into smaller farms.

Norman also owned town property. The censuses say the Quitman home was owned free of mortgage in 1900, 1910, and 1920.[14][15][18] In 1912 he sold the house, then bought it back from J. P. Malloy later that year and returned to Quitman.[24] The surviving notices do not provide a street description, deed book, price, or complete title chain.

Public schools and civic work

A March 1900 mass meeting nominated N. C. Hendry for Quitman's city school board, alongside S. S. Bennet, E. A. Jelks, S. S. Gaulden, and Jeff Davis. The report describes the nomination, not a completed school-board election.[25] In 1906, another mass meeting nominated Hendry without opposition, and the report identified the nominees as the incumbent board.[26] That later account supports his school-board service, but these reports do not establish its exact beginning, duration, or any officer title.

His other public roles were more limited. Governor Terrell's 1903 Farmers' Congress appointment recognized him as a Brooks County agricultural representative.[22] In 1915 he was drawn for the federal court's traverse jury at Valdosta.[27] Neither item amounts to elective office.

Norman should not be called a county commissioner. The Neal Hendry who served from 1883 until his death in 1892 was his father.[6][7] The same rule applies to the elder Neal's place on the Brooks County Alliance Warehouse board and his appointment as warehouse manager in 1891.

Church and community life

The Hendrys were closely connected to Quitman's Methodist community. Their daughters' marriages were held at the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Norman hosted several Methodist ministers during the 1908 South Georgia Conference.[4][16][28] When the congregation honored departing pastor Guyton Fisher in 1918, N. C. Hendry was chairman of the board of stewards.[30] In 1930, the First Methodist Church again elected him to its board of stewards.[29] These reports provide direct evidence of church membership and governance late in his life.

Social columns followed family visits, weddings, and guests for decades. Those notices are useful because they keep the same N. C. Hendry tied to Mattie Townsend and the three daughters. They should not be mistaken for evidence of a separate public office.

The South Georgia Railroad

Huxford names “Neal C. Hendry” among twenty-six petitioners for the South Georgia Railroad charter in 1896. The proposed capital was $65,000 in 650 shares.[1] The original petition, Secretary of State charter file, subscription book, stock ledger, and corporate minutes were not located online.

The March 23, 1896 organization meeting is independently documented. Stockholders accepted the charter, adopted bylaws, elected nine directors, and chose the first officers. Hendry was not on the first board or officer slate.[31] No evidence places him on the earlier subscription committee, right-of-way committee, or construction staff.

The safe conclusion is narrow: according to Huxford, N. C. Hendry, who was very likely Norman Campbell Hendry, was a charter petitioner. His merchant and plantation interests give a sensible reason to support the line, but motive cannot substitute for a record. No source found states his number of shares, payment, engineering work, or later management role.

The line did matter to his property. Huxford says the Quitman Telephone Company extended service to N. C. Hendry's farm by 1907.[5] The 1926 plantation sale began at a place on the South Georgia Railroad.[23] Those later connections do not prove an operational railroad role.

Death and burial

Norman died in the Morven, or 660th militia, district of Brooks County at 7:30 p.m. on September 7, 1938. His Georgia death certificate records myocarditis, with senility as a contributing condition. It calls him a married farmer, names Neal Hendry and Margaret Campbell as his parents, and records burial at Oak Hill Cemetery on September 8.[8]

The next day's Macon Telegraph reported that Norman C. Hendry had died near Quitman on Wednesday night. It named his wife as the former Mattie Townsend of Camilla and listed their three daughters, Mrs. Charles B. Lewis, Mrs. C. P. Grady, and Mrs. J. W. Harner. The funeral was set for Friday morning, September 9.[34] The notice independently confirms the death date and the family identification.

Two later sources disagree. The photographed marker says September 8, apparently using the burial date, while Huxford gives September 15.[6][32] The original death certificate is the best evidence and controls this dossier. The marker remains valuable for the cemetery placement and for showing how the one-day conflict arose.

No fuller contemporary obituary was found in the documented online newspaper searches. Norman's probate indexes were located, but the underlying files were not fully transcribed.[33] No estate value should be inferred from the plantation, town home, or probate index alone.

Assessment

Norman Campbell Hendry spent most of his adult life between Quitman and the family's country property near Morven. He worked in dry goods and general merchandise, farmed, owned substantial rural and town property, served on the city school board, represented Brooks County at a farmers' congress, and sat on the Methodist board of stewards.

The railroad connection survives through a flawed name. Huxford's “Neal C.” is best understood as an incorrect expansion of N. C. Hendry, whose contemporary full name was Norman Campbell Hendry. That correction is graded strong probable because the life record fits in every material respect and the elder Neal was already dead. It remains short of verified until the original charter petition or another independent shareholder record is found.

Open questions and research limits

  • The original South Georgia Railroad petition and the April 3, 1897 Quitman Free-Press business page were not located. They are needed to determine whether the source printed N. C. or Neal C.
  • Norman's birthplace remains conflicted. The death certificate says Taylor County, Florida; derivative sources give Lowndes or Brooks County, Georgia.
  • The original tax digest images, deed indexes, probate packets, and any will or estate inventory were not fully examined.
  • No secure 1930 census household or contemporary 1938 obituary was found.
  • The other member of Hendry & Hendry and the firm's exact business history remain unresolved.
  • The railroad share count, subscription amount, and any later stock ownership are unknown.

Sources

  1. Folks Huxford, The History of Brooks County, Georgia, 1858-1948 (1948), pp. 197-200 and 474-475; Internet Archive item historyofbrooksco00huxf.
  2. Atlanta Journal, July 10, 1904, p. 16, Newspapers.com image 969523249.
  3. Norman Campbell Hendry and Sarah Nona Hendry engagement notice, Macon Telegraph, March 31, 1907, p. 11, image 825321957.
  4. Tecoah Hendry and Charles Blackwell Lewis wedding invitation, Macon Telegraph, September 13, 1910, p. 5, image 825518636.
  5. Huxford, p. 194, Quitman Telephone Company extension to N. C. Hendry's farm.
  6. Huxford, pp. 374-376, 474-475, Neal Hendry and Norman Campbell Hendry entries.
  7. Valdosta Times, January 30, 1886, p. 1, Neal Hendry county commissioner interview, image 889717600.
  8. Georgia death certificate, Norman Campbell Hendry, September 7, 1938, Ancestry collection 2562, record 1008248, original image 004577427_00241, record.
  9. 1860 U.S. census, Taylor County, Florida, Neal Hendry household, Ancestry collection 7667, record 10684367.
  10. 1870 U.S. census, Brooks County, Georgia, Neal Hendry household, Ancestry collection 7163, records 588242-588243.
  11. 1880 U.S. census, Quitman, Brooks County, Norman C. Hendry in Neal Hendry household, Ancestry collection 6742, records 7464992 and 8269643.
  12. “Radical Freshet” retrospective identifying Neill Hendry as father of the present N. C. Hendry, Atlanta Constitution, July 16, 1916, p. 9, image 26916290.
  13. Mitchell County marriage record, Norman C. Hendry and Mattie J. Townsend, December 30, 1885, Ancestry collection 4766, record 941927, image 40660_307875-00403.
  14. 1900 U.S. census, Quitman, Brooks County, Norman C. Hendry household, ED 6, sheet 14, Ancestry collection 7602, record 52866967.
  15. 1910 U.S. census, 204 Clay Street, Quitman, Norman C. Hendry household, ED 17, sheet 18A, Ancestry collection 7884, record 3197520.
  16. Ida Belle Hendry and Joseph Winfred Harner engagement notice, Macon Telegraph, November 16, 1913, p. 14, image 825425976.
  17. Quitman social notice, Macon Telegraph, August 13, 1911, p. 16, image 825383105.
  18. 1920 U.S. census, 204 Clay Street, Quitman, Norman C. Hendry household, ED 40, sheet 5A, Ancestry collection 6061, record 7317775.
  19. Georgia property-tax digest indexes, Norman C. Hendry, Ancestry collection 1729, records 5746396, 5748982, and 5760281.
  20. N. C. Hendry of Hendry & Hendry, Atlanta Journal, June 16, 1894, p. 15, image 969461519.
  21. Country-home notice, Savannah Morning News, July 12, 1903, p. 12, image 879583136; Thanksgiving farm notice, Atlanta Constitution, December 3, 1900, p. 8, image 26835232.
  22. Georgia Farmers' Congress delegate list, Atlanta Constitution, September 20, 1903, p. 5, image 26836857.
  23. N. C. Hendry plantation auction advertisement, Valdosta Daily Times, May 3, 1926, p. 5, image 889451693.
  24. Quitman home sale and repurchase, Atlanta Journal, February 12, 1912, p. 5, image 969959395; Valdosta Daily Times, September 21, 1912, p. 8, image 889661291.
  25. Quitman school-board nomination, Savannah Morning News, March 28, 1900, p. 6, Newspapers.com image 852603938, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
  26. Quitman municipal and school-board nominations, Valdosta Times, March 31, 1906, image 890227042.
  27. Federal court jury list, Valdosta Daily Times, June 8, 1915, p. 5, image 889232684.
  28. South Georgia Methodist Conference host list, Atlanta Journal, November 29, 1908, image 969963769.
  29. Quitman First Methodist Church officers, Macon Telegraph, October 19, 1930, p. 5, image 826314584.
  30. Quitman Methodist tribute to departing pastor Guyton Fisher, Americus Times-Recorder, December 15, 1918, p. 5, Georgia Historic Newspapers, Newspapers.com image 809535224.
  31. “The South Georgia,” Savannah Morning News, March 24, 1896, p. 2, Newspapers.com image 852573116, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
  32. Norman C. Hendry marker, Oak Hill Cemetery, Find a Grave memorial 141563005, marker image.
  33. Brooks County probate indexes, Norman C. Hendry, Ancestry collection 8635, records 1204991, 1660459, and 1660472.
  34. Norman C. Hendry death notice, Macon Telegraph, September 8, 1938, p. 9, image 826250299.