SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) - A child born on Christmas day on a plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana, left home with $32 in his pocket on a spiritual journey that would lead him to become dean of a college theology department, the principal of a Black school in Shreveport, a minister in Baptist churches from Louisiana to Tennessee, the Vice-President of both the Louisiana Baptist State Convention and the Louisiana Baptist State Sunday School Convention, and General Field Secretary of the Educational Board of the National Baptist Convention of the United States. Bishop John Harris Henderson was born on Christmas day in 1872 near Bayou Sara on the Old Independence Plantation. Other plantations in the immediate area included Star Hill Plantation and Richland Plantation. We find proof of the existence of Independence Plantation and others on Bayou Sara because of a war claim that was taken before the Claims Commission on Mar. 3, 1871. During the proceedings of the war claim, Marie P. Evans asked the United States to pay her for stores and property taken by U.S. troops in 1862 during the second occupation of Baton Rouge under commander General Thomas Williams. To understand the enormity of plantations on Bayou Sara, we examine Evans' claim that Union troops stole, from her plantation, $15,000 worth of furniture from 21 rooms in the mansion, 500 hogsheads of refined sugar, 900 barrels of molasses, 1000 empty barrels, 800 cords of wood, 40 miles, 15 wagons, 20 carts, 5000 bushels of corn, 100 tons of hay, six horses, five barrels of brandy, six barrels of bourbon, ten baskets of champagne, two casks of claret wine, 200 hotels of claret wine, 40 barrels of rosin, 20 barrels of pickled pork, 500 pounds of bulk pork, 20 barrels of pickled beef, 40 head of cows, 135 head of meat cattle, three buggies, fixtures from the mansion, engines, machinery, books from the library, silverware, and more. A witness to the Union Army's removal of said goods lived on Independence Plantation. We also learn in the Congressional document, specifically the Reports of Committees of The House of Representatives for the Second Session of the Forty-Third Congress, that Marie P. Evans left Louisiana and lived in Paris, France, for the duration of the Civil War. What we know of John's childhood on the Independence Plantation near Bayou Sara is limited. He was said to have been blessed with incredible physical strength, splitting 400 rails per day while "quite young," according to the author William Hicks. John's parents were Protestant Christians, doting on the spiritual needs of their nine children until all of them became believers. One of John's brothers, Bishop Thomas Fields Henderson, became the pastor of their family's home church. Thomas baptized John in 1886, and in 1892, John was licensed to preach at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in New Iberia. Shreveport man born in 1869 established schools, led churches, worked with Booker T Washington At once, John understood that he needed to prepare for the ministry. He was befriended by Dr. E. N. Smith at Howe Institute in New Ibearia, and in 1893, John graduated from Howe. He then attended Leland University, where he graduated in May 1897. John was ordained in 1901 before graduating from Virginia Union University in 1902. Image of John Harrish Henderson found in The National Cyclopedia of the Colored Race, published in 1919. He married Rainy Butler in December 1902 and became the Dean of the Theological Department at Coleman College, which was then located in Gibsland, Louisiana. John and Rainey had four kids: Leona, Joseph, Harvey, and John, Jr. John accepted a call to Trinity Baptist Church in Shreveport in 1903, and he during his time he moved the congregation from Lone Star Hall to a beautiful building valued at $8,000 just after the turn of the century. He also organized Henderson Chapel in Shreveport and served as the Principal of the 13th District Academy. John added 200 members to the roll during his time at Trinity Baptist Church. He also founded Henderson Chapel Baptist Church in 1908 and was elected "Pastor for life" at the chapel. He organized the Baptist Minister's Union in Shreveport. In 1910, John left Shreveport for Minden, where he became the pastor of First Baptist Church and built one of the most modern church buildings in Louisiana. He became the Vice-President of the Louisiana Baptist State Convention and the Louisiana Baptist State Sunday School convention before leaving Louisiana to become the pastor of Roanoke Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Roanoke Baptist Church in Hot Springs erected a frame building at the corner of Whittington and Ozark in 1868, just after the end of the Civil War. The congregation was formed by enslaved peoples who held church services under a brush arbor. Merritt Mauzey, BRUSH ARBOR, lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, gift of the arts in memory of his wife Maggie, 1969. The church also started the very first school for Black children in Hot Springs, Arkansas history. While John pastored Roanoke, he erected a new $35,000 building, raising as much as $4619 during one fundraiser. John was appointed as the General Field Secretary of the Educational Board of the National Baptist Convention of the United States in 1917. He was also a member of the Federal Alliance of the Church as of Christ in America. He left Roanoke to become the pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1917. Sources: Reports of Committees of the House of Representatives for the Second Session of the Forty-Third Congress, 1874-75, printed by the Government Printing Office in Washington, 1875. Time Tour: Hot Springs' earliest churches, by Elizabeth Robbins of the Garland County Historical Society. The National Cyclopedia of the Colored Race, by Clement Richardson, Editor-in-Chief, President of Lincoln Institute, Jefferson City, Mo, National Publishing Company, Inc., Montgomery, Alabama, 1919. The book was recommended "highly to all Americans, with the hope that a perusal of it will bring a better understanding and a warmer spirit of friendship and inspiration to both races," by the Principal of Tuskegee Institute. History of Louisiana Negro Baptists from 1804 to 1914, William Hicks, National Baptist Publishing Board, Nashville, Tenn. Jaclyn Tripp took the lead on this article.