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Pioneer Teacher of Spirit River-page 6

After Miss Henderson returned from Edmonton after Christmas, she bought the house of Mrs. Ash and Mr. Gallagher which was across the street from the hospital and a short distance from the school where she taught. She enjoyed having her own home and was gracious receiving visitors and new arrivals to Spirit River. One arrival in 1921 from England was Maud Elizabeth Boyce. Miss Henderson and Mrs. "Chip" Kerr were her first friends on arrival in Spirit River. She stayed with Miss Henderson and was married from her tiny house in 1923 to Ed Holmberg, who built a house for his future family near Miss Henderson's home. Olive Boorman, daughter of Ed and Maude, recalled in a letter of October, 1998, that "In the life of our family, she loomed large."22

Many trips were made back and forth between the Henderson home and the Holmbergs, Ed always available to do "handy man things for her." She responded in measure, especially through the "dirty thirties" when her Christmas gifts to the Holmberg children could be counted on to be very welcome books. "One year," recalled Olive, "she gave me a hand-cranked miniature washing machine, which I just loved to do my dolls' laundry in. She was the first to send congratulations and a gift to Vancouver when my first child was born, and I'm sure she was just as thoughtful to twenty-three others of her students."23 Going with her parents to Miss Henderson's home to listen to Scottish music on her gramophone was a real treat in the thirties, especially tunes by Harry Lauder and John McCormack.

In 1956 Harry and Olive Boorman returned to Spirit River with their two sons and lived in the house Olive's father, Ed Holmberg, had built beside Miss Henderson. The retired teacher was very independent but now and then she would consent to come and have a meal with them. They enjoyed listening to her about earlier days. "One story that she enjoyed telling about was a visit from an old bachelor she used to give clothes and things to, who lived south of town in shabby conditions. (She was ever kind and aware of those less well-off than herself.) She would always try and give him a good meal before he tramped back over Holden's Hill and invariably, whatever meal she put in front of him - roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy (she was a good cook) and vegetables, he would look at his heaped plate and say: 'Have you any saskatoon juice Mrs?' All of us who lived in Spirit River had saskatoons, so she would get it and he would proceed to cover whatever was on the plate with juice."24

Olive recalled that in the late winter of 1956 when varicose ulcers on her lower legs defied home treatments, Miss Henderson reluctantly agreed to follow Dr. Law's advice and go to the hospital:
The Holy Cross hospital was a stone's throw across from her house, but the ground and sidewalks were awash with melting ice and we couldn't operate a wheelchair or anything to take her the short distance. So my husband. Harry Bowman, with her amused permission, just hefted her onto his back and 'piggybacked' her through the slush.

That turned out to be her last trip anywhere. Miss Henderson died in her sleep in January, 1957. We all thought it a deservedly peaceful way to go for this self-reliant pioneer and family friend.25
Her funeral services were held from the Spirit River United Church on January 7, 1957. Honorary pall bearers were all old timers of the district: J. Fildes, E. Cox, G. Brownlee, F. Johnson, and A. Swanson, and R. Stevens of Rycroft. The only living relative, Marian Henderson of Victoria, attended her sister's funeral. Shortly after Miss Henderson's death, a memorial fund was set up for the purchase of books for the school library for she had played an active part in establishing this library.

Notes
1. Information contained in the Spirit River Signal, March 1951, reprinted in Chepi Sepe. Spirit River, The Land  The People. Spirit River: Spirit River History Book Committee, 1939, 472-474. A special thanks goes to Jean Yanishewski of the Spirit River Museum for all the help she gave me in the preparation of this article.
2. Information about the Henderson family was provided courtesy of the Prince Edward Island Public Archives & Records Office, Charlottetown, P.E.I. Marion Henderson, once while visiting in Spirit River, volunteered the information that two of their relatives are in the famous picture of the Fathers of Confederation. The original painting was destroyed when the Legislature burned down and there were apparently fewer individuals in that painting than the more famous one we see today.
3. Regina Normal Souvenir, 1902,27.
4. Letter to Travers, April 5, 1919. The originals of letters from Miss Henderson to Mary Emerson Wilhelmina Travers (Lowe) have been deposited in the Spirit River Museum, courtesy of her daughter Dorothy Lowe of Tacoma, Washington. Copies will be placed in the Historical Society of Alberta office in Calgary.
5. Letter to Travers, February 8, 1919.
6. Letter to Travers, January 8, 1919.
7. Letter to Travers, May 21, 1919.
8. Ibid.
9. Letter from Olive Boorman, October 3, 1998 to Jean Yanishewski, Spirit River Settlement Historical Society.
10. Chepi Sepe. Spirit River, The Land The People. Spirit River: Spirit River History Book Committee, 1939, letter from Kay Arndt, 264.
11. Letter from Olive Boorman to Jean Yanishewski, October 5, 1998.
12 Alice Blackie in "United Church activities, Miss Henderson did not suffer fools gladly." Letter from Olive Boorman to Jean Yanishewski, October 3, 1998.
13. Letter to Travers, December 24, 1919.
14. Letter to Travers, November 18, 1919.
15. Letter to Travers, October 23, 1919.
16. Letter to Travers, November 18, 1919.
17. Letter to Travers, February 5, 1920.
18. Strangely enough, in spite of her education, Miss Henderson frequently used the pronoun "I" where she should have used "me."
19. Letter to Travers, February 5, 1920.
20. Letter to Travers, April 9, 1920.
21. Letter to Travers, April 12, 1920.
22. Letter from Olive Boorman to Jean Yanishewski, October 3, 1998.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.

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Reprinted with permission from Betty Dahlie and Alberta History (Autumn 2000 Volume 48, Number 4) 17-24
 
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