The Hendersons

Jock Bedell was the son of George Washington Henderson Sr and Elizabeth Ann Tomlinson Henderson.

Jock always wanted to be a farmer, and thus the Henderson farm became his passion. He studied at the Marietta Academy (now Marietta College) and spent time studying at the Virginia Military Institute. His love for agriculture called him back to Henderson Hall, so he left VMI to return to his beloved home.

Jock joined his brothers Arthur Taylor and Henry Clay in farming and raising Standard Bred Trotting Horses. In addition to horses, the family raised cattle, chickens, pigs, sheep, peafowl and many different types of crops.

Like his brothers and other family members, Jock Bedell was highly educated and an avid reader. His mother’s educational influence was not lost on him—heunderstood the importance of providing his children with a good eduction.

Jock Bedell met the woman who would become his wife, Anna Rosalie McIntosh, when he returned to Henderson Hall. Anna Rosalie was hired by his parents as a tutor and working at the Henderson Hall schoolhouse. The couple wed in 1878 and ran the family farm for the rest of their lives.

The couple had seven children: George Travis Henderson, Rosalie McMahon Henderson, Hope Henderson, Jock Lee Henderson, Don Lithgow Henderson, Arthur Edgar Henderson, and Lorna Tomlinson Henderson Diehl Banner. Of their children, Rosalie was the one who shared her father’s deep love for Henderson Hall.

Jock Bedell and his son Jock Lee co-invented a rail station indicator, for which they received patents in the United States and Canada. The aim of the inventions was “to produce a more simple, cheap, and effective indicator” for streecars like those that would pass by the Henderson home.

When Jock Bedell died in 1942, he left the Henderson Hall property to Jock Lee and Don Lithgow Henderson. Jock Lee gave part of his share in the estate to his older sister Rosalie McMahon Henderson, who lived on the property until her death in 1966.