The History of Henderson, Texas

Henderson was established as the seat of Rusk County on January 16, 1843, on land donated by W.B. Ochiltree and James Smith. The town was named for James Pinckney Henderson, who would become the first governor of the State of Texas after annexation in 1846. (Rusk County itself honors Thomas J. Rusk, the Texas Revolution leader and U.S. Senator from nearby Nacogdoches.)

For its first 90 years, Henderson was a farming and trading center in the rolling Piney Woods of East Texas, with cotton and timber the mainstays. Its handsome 19th-century downtown and historic homes date from this agricultural era — the calm before the storm of oil.

Everything changed in 1930. The aging wildcatter Columbus Marion 'Dad' Joiner, drilling on faith and credit against the advice of geologists, brought in the Daisy Bradford No. 3 discovery well about eight miles west of Henderson in October 1930. It tapped the East Texas Oil Field — which would prove to be one of the largest oil fields ever found in the lower 48 states, stretching for miles beneath Rusk, Gregg, and surrounding counties.

The effect on Henderson was explosive. The population climbed from about 3,000 in 1930 to some 10,000 by 1933, according to the Handbook of Texas, as drillers, roughnecks, speculators, and merchants poured into the boomtown. The oil field reshaped the entire region — making nearby Kilgore and Longview boomtowns too — and Henderson has been an oil-and-gas town ever since. The East Texas Oil Field is still producing nearly a century later.

The oil boom also forms the backdrop to one of the most heartbreaking events in American history. On March 18, 1937, in the oil-patch community of New London, about ten miles northwest of Henderson in Rusk County, a natural-gas leak beneath the school ignited and destroyed the building, killing nearly 300 students and teachers — the deadliest school disaster in United States history.

The tragedy had a lasting consequence: in its aftermath, Texas and then the nation required that an odorant be added to natural gas so leaks could be smelled, a safety measure still in use worldwide today. The London Museum and a granite cenotaph in New London memorialize the victims, and the event remains a solemn and important part of the region's history.

Today Henderson is a city of about 13,000 and the seat of Rusk County, still anchored by the energy industry. Oil and gas production from the East Texas field continues, and the area is also a center of lignite coal mining and power generation, with the large Martin Lake power plant nearby. Manufacturing, healthcare, and retail round out a diversified small-city economy.

Henderson has preserved its heritage well. The Depot Museum complex tells the story of the railroad, cotton, and oil eras, and the annual Heritage Syrup Festival each November celebrates the old East Texas tradition of making ribbon-cane syrup. The town has produced its share of notable figures, from soul singer Archie Bell to Texas Governor Mark White. Sitting at the crossroads of US Highways 79 and 259, roughly 35 to 40 miles southeast of Tyler, Henderson remains a working East Texas town with deep oil-country roots.