HENDERSON, DUNCAN (1866-1920)

HENDERSON, DUNCAN, Presbyterian minister, St Andrew's Church, Chatham, 1898-1907; b. near Oban, Argyll, Scotland, 5 Feb 1863, s/o Duncan Henderson Sr, a grocer who died before 1871, and h/w Catherine Macgilvray; m. 1903, Ida Agnes Edgar, sister of Mary Caroline Edgar; d. Chatham, 27 Mar 1920.

Duncan Henderson graduated from the High School of Glasgow and the University of St Andrews (BSc) and attended divinity school for a year. He then immigrated to Canada and finished his theological studies at the Presbyterian College in Halifax. He was ordained in 1891 and had his first charge at Blue Mountain and Garden of Eden, Pictou Co., N.S., where he was stationed until called to Chatham in the spring of 1898.

Henderson was much admired in Chatham for his superior scholarship and many other ministerial assets. It was said that his pulpit messages were heard because they were delivered with "vital force." Since he also had "great executive ability and a legal mind" he was equally effective at church management. The St Andrew's congregation was invigorated by his leadership, and in 1899 the church was extensively renovated and officially reopened.

In 1901 Henderson was reported to have fallen heir to a valuable property in Scotland. In 1903, at age thirty-six, he was married to Ida A. Edgar, the thirty-eight-year-old organist of St Andrew's, who resigned from that position on the eve of their wedding. In 1904 he became seriously ill. After many months of struggle and a year's sick leave he decided to give up his charge in 1906. Soon afterwards he lost his eyesight, but he continued to act as a guest and supply minister. "His memory was marvellous," stated the Chatham World. "He would give out the hymns, make the announcements, and read the Scripture lesson precisely as though he could see the printed pages, without a slip or a prompter."

A legacy of the later years of Henderson's ministry was the formation of the congregation at Millbank, where Bethel Church was dedicated on 31 December 1905. The Millbank congregation was one with that of Russellville and Oak Point until second and third churches were dedicated in those communities on 15 March and 5 July 1914, respectively, during the pastorate of the Rev. George W. Wood.

Henderson remained an active member of St Andrew's Church until his death in 1920, at age fifty-four. He was survived by his wife and a brother, Angus Henderson, who was a journalist in Stirling, Scotland. After church union in 1925, his widow, Ida A. Edgar, served as organist and choir leader of Calvin Presbyterian Church in Chatham. She died in 1959, at age ninety-five.