by Narissa Phelps for the Lennox Wave

I travel Henderson Lane daily, and whilst I know a little about John Austin Henderson, his wife Isabella fired my imagination because it was her tragic death that led John to move from Ballina onto the family property in Lennox.

Isabella was born in 1839, the daughter of George and Isabella Donnelly and granddaughter of convict Isabella Tyson and her free husband, William Tyson. She spent her childhood in Appin, and it was there that she met and married (1855) John Henderson, a Scottish shipwright who was visiting his uncle. The following year they moved to Ballina where John became a senior constable.

Isabella, like many women of her era, suffered the immense grief of losing many children. Of her nine babies, only four survived childhood. Isabella was often alone, as John’s job as constable took him as far as the Tweed. In 1860, the couple selected a parcel of land at North Creek—Henderson Farm— a property the family retained until the 1990s. John began the construction of the dry-stone walls, renown in this area.

In 1869 and 1870, Isabella gave birth to, and lost, two daughters, and by this time, Isabella herself was ill with consumption. She died on 29 March 1871, aged just 32 years. John, devastated by his wife’s death, also became ill, triggering his departure from the police force and his move onto his 100-acre Upper North Creek property. The children were put in the care of Mrs Geraghty and John, who never remarried, devoted his time to dairy farming, seeing his young family when he could. He was particularly interested in botany and experimented with sugar cane varieties until handing the management of the farm to his son. John died in 1903, aged 69.

Isabelle Donnelly Henderson.