Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-13
ROSE FROM HER ASHES.
Mrs. Joe Henderson Shows Up to
Clear Her Husband.
MOURNED AS DEAD FOR SIX WEEKS.
She Did Not Perish in Her Burning Home
in Hif1in Township.
TIE HUSBAND NOW IN THE W0RKHOUsE

Phoenix-like another human body tina
had been numbered with the silent ha
risen from its ashes. Mrs Joseph Hender
son, mourued as dead for over month, ha
returned in the flesh. ALI this time the
police of McKeesport have been trying
night and day to connect . threa6
of evidence between bit OF charred
remains in her former home, in Mif1in
Township. with her husband, Joseph Hen
derson. Their hope was to make the thread
a cord strong enough to strangle the hus.
band on that great gateway to eternity-the
gallowa Yesterday she appeared at police
headquarters and declared she was Mrs.
Henderson, and instead OF being wanderer
in the mists of eternity, she was only living
house on the road to Heaven.
Joe Henderson, as he was known in the
country, was Southern negro. He was a
shiftless, ne'er-do-well sort of fellow, a
lover Of bad whisky, and not very ardent
lover of his wife. He was generally too
strong to work, and the house he set up for
his Southern wife in Mifflin township was
little 12x2o palace set upon four posts
Henderson Spent All He Had.
Henderson spent his time with the lavish
ness of king. He never had anything else
to spend. In early life he kept his masters
children on the old plantation, but in his
latter days in the North he only kept what
he could get without trouble. Living the
easy retired life that he did, he had great
deal Of surplus energy which he always ex-
pended in convincing his wife of the au-
thority of man over the weaker sex.
Along in April of this year he went home
with comfortable jag. The neighbors de-
clare they heard screams coming from the
house. That night the glow from his burn
ing house lighted up the whole countryside
From that day Mrs. Henderson, who is
nearly white, was not seen The tongue of
gossip wagged and the country folks said
they heard strange noises VI hen on night
their pathway led by the ruins of the ne
gro's home. The man was Stunned, but as
he had never foated beyond his depth in
the social swim, their indifference did not
cut him much.
Had Trouble in McKeesporr.
He soon drifted to McKeesport where he
formed an affection for pretty colored girl,
Annie Whitney. The affection was re-
turned. They called it love for time and
went to housekeeping. But soon the old
desire to teach women their inferiority came
upon him and the second Mrs. Henderson
received SUCH a beating that the authorities
Henderson was arrested. The
story of the burned house in Miflin town
ship leaked out. This was coupled with
the fact that the wife was missing Hender-
son was accused of the murder of his wife.
He protested that he had never killed
anything but time and a few of
the neikhbor's chickens. This did not
avail. Mayor Tillbrook sentenced him to
so days in the workhouse in order to give
the police time to hunt up the murder.
Since then the police have been hard at
work.
Yesterday the dead wife surprised every
body by turning up at Central Station.
She said she had left her home March II
because she was weary of her husband. She
went to Mt. Washington to friend, at
kearsarge and Syracuse streets She has
been sick, and did not know until Saturday
that she hal been mourned as dead. She
wanted to clear her husband, and so came
TO the police She said she could find a
number of people who would identify her
Is Mrs. Henderson. The husband is still at
The workhouse.