A Little piece of Paradise… College Hill, Ohio - SELFCRAFT

Chapter 27 Furniture and Philanthropy: The Henshaw FamilyOf the many prominent College Hill families, few stand out as that of George Henshaw, Jr. He leftnot only a successful business but a wealth of information about what it was like to come from Englandand start a business in Illinois and Ohio. In 1911 he wrote a manuscript about his family and the late Mrs.Dorothy Henshaw shared a copy with us.George Henshaw Sr. was born in London in 1805, the son and grandson of soap manufacturers.George Sr.’s father died when he was five, and his mother when he was but seventeen. When he wasfifteen, his mother apprenticed George to a cabinet-maker. He served there seven years. His masterprovided him food, lodging and trade training, while his mother contributed clothing, pocket money andthe apprenticeship fee.Before his apprenticeship ended, he married Ann Oldenburg and as soon as his seven years wereover, he started business for himself.“We all left London, England, early in November 1843. Our family consisted of father, mother andeight children...William a baby in arms who died during the long voyage. The name of the ship wasConstellation, she was a full rigged ship of three hundred and sixty tons, having three masts and squaresails. She was just an ordinary merchant ship and had brought a cargo of sugar to London from the WestIndies, she had no accommodation for passengers, so father took his own workmen and put up cabins forour use, making things quite comfortable for us...We had quite a long voyage, fully three months, we had many storms, the waves running very high,also calms when we hardly moved for days. We lay in sight of one of the Bahama Islands quite a longtime, the natives bringing out to us oysters, fish, bananas, oranges, pineapples and several kinds ofvegetables, they were eagerly bought by us and the few other passengers. We were especially glad to buythem as we had only salt meats and fish since leaving England and only such vegetables as could be kept,like potatoes, cabbage, etc. Canned things were not known in those days neither vegetables, fruits ormeats. We baked bread and had ship biscuits. Condensed milk was not known, had it been we might havesaved the life of our little baby brother, William, who was buried at sea. Father had to make the coffinhimself, there being no one else to do so. The loss of the baby was a heavy blow to mother, who wasgreatly distressed to see her baby boy committed to the sea.The fresh provisions were a most welcome change to us, as was also being able to obtain fresh water,the water we laid in at the time we sailed had become almost undrinkable, it smelt and looked like dirtypond water. During the voyage our sister, Sarah, while playing on the deck fell down one of thehatchways, she was unconscious for quite a long time. We were all very anxious until she recoveredconsciousness, as there was no doctor on the ship, we did not know what to do. We could only wait andhope, she was deaf for a number of years afterwards but finally recovered.We finally landed sometime in the latter part of January or early in February, at New Orleans. Ourfinal destination was Albion, Ill., a small town in Edwards County. It was settled by English people underthe supervision of a gentleman by the name of Flowers, who bought a large tract of land which heintended to sell or lease to the people he brought over from England, but the whole enterprise fellthrough, land being so low in price, the men soon had means to buy from the Government at the rulinggovernment prices, which was one dollar and quarter per acre. No one but a working farmer would existat the prices paid for produce or livestock, nor could any one hire laborers and raise crops from the landand pay for the labor. The man had to own the land that worked it, and dispose of his wool and hides atthe country stores for groceries and cotton goods. That was about the only farm product that could bedisposed of, it having more value in a small compass than most other productions of the farm.I give a sample of prices obtained when there was anyone who would buy: corn ten cents per bushel,wheat, not raised in the county, principally on account of a weevil which destroyed all the small grain,chickens, one dollar and fifty cents per dozen, egg, four cents a dozen, beef, two cents per pound, mutton,four cents per pound, pork, one dollar and fifty cents per hundred pounds. You could buy a whole deerfrom one dollar to two dollars. I have seen two large wild turkeys sell for twenty-five cents.160