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Local figure

Pleasant Henderson

Pleasant Henderson moved to Chapel Hill in 1797 and on 9 December was chosen steward of the University of North Carolina. He built a large home on Franklin Street for his family and student boarders, gave up the stewardship in 1802, and kept living in Chapel Hill while clerk of the House of Commons from 1807 to 1830.

Source: NCpedia: Henderson, Pleasant

2 indexed works are connected with this person.

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Indexed works

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Plan of the Village of Chapel Hill on a scale of 200 yards to an Inch--Copy from a Plot in the Possession of William Pannill which was taken from the Plot of John Craig, Esq.

1817

Hand-drawn plan of the village of Chapel Hill in 1817 at 200 yards to the inch, copied from a plot owned by William Pannill that was itself taken from John Craig's survey. It locates the University of North Carolina and names neighboring landowners, among them Joseph Caldwell, William Hooper, Pleasant Henderson and James Hogg.

DPLA

Henderson, Major Pleasant: photographs (Chapel Hill Historical Society)

Photograph of a drawn likeness of Major Pleasant Henderson, the first steward of the University of North Carolina, undated. From the UNC Faculty and Administration binder in the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection.

CH Historical Society

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 6 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Pleasant Henderson is chosen steward of the university Pleasant Henderson moved from Mt. Pleasant to Chapel Hill in 1797 and was chosen steward of the University of North Carolina, following John Taylor in the post. A UNC Libraries exhibit records that he owned nineteen enslaved people.Search the index · NCpedia: Henderson, Pleasant
  2. Students stone steward Pleasant Henderson's house Complaints about the food at Steward's Hall under stewards John Taylor and Pleasant Henderson helped fuel the student uprising of 1799. In 1801 Henderson's house was stoned, and he did not reapply for the stewardship.Search the index · Documenting the American South: Steward's Hall
  3. Pleasant Henderson gives up the stewardship and opens a store Henderson gave up the university stewardship in 1802 and declined the trusteeship he was elected to. About this time he went into business as Henderson and Searcy, and he kept his Chapel Hill residence while serving as clerk of the House of Commons from 1807 to 1830.Search the index · NCpedia: Henderson, Pleasant
  4. Pleasant Henderson writes to trustee Walter Alves about a student secession at the university Pleasant Henderson wrote to Walter Alves that about 45 students had left the university in protest over the trustees' rule requiring student monitors to take an oath, and urged Alves and the board to act. People: Pleasant HendersonSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Letter from Major Henderson to Walter Alves, September 3, 1805
  5. Caldwell takes students before a justice of the peace over attacks on President Chapman's property After night raids on Chapman's stable, cart and gate, and tar and feathers on his gatepost, Caldwell asked justice Pleasant Henderson for a general warrant. Refused, he named five students, and a hearing questioned the student body under oath. People: Pleasant Henderson, Robert H. (Robert Hett) ChapmanSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 233
  6. Pleasant Henderson leaves Chapel Hill for Tennessee Still deep in debt, the former steward and storekeeper moved west. His son Dr. Alexander Martin Henderson secured the family home on Franklin Street, and the store on the property was advertised that year as Norfleet and Henderson's.Search the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 63

Places in this person’s story

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Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

  • Steward’s Hall University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 3 events here

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