James Patterson Henderson, (c.1803-1889), was a physician who lived for most of his professional life in Richland County, Ohio. He was born into the family of Reverend Matthew Henderson, a minister in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Henderson graduated in 1825 from what is now Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania and studied under a physician in Cookstown, Pennsylvania before settling in Newville, Ohio. There he set up his medical practice, married, and raised a son, John. Following his first wife's death, Henderson married Rebecca Tarris is 1869. Besides serving as a surgeon in the Ohio militia during the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s, he joined various statewide medical societies and literary clubs. Upon his death, Henderson gave a substantial sum of money and his library, much of which he inherited from his father, to Muskingam College.
From the guide to the James Patterson Henderson Family Papers, Series II, 1773-1899, (Western Reserve Historical Society)
