George Whiting HENDRY

Father: Frank Truman HENDRY
Mother: Fairy Estelle Lent WHITING

Family 1: Margaret Elizabeth Orr MUNN
  1. George Orr HENDRY
  2. Andrew Munn HENDRY 
                                                                     _James HENDRY ___
                                                    _Samuel HENDRY _|_Mehitabel HALL _
                               _Alonzo W. HENDRY __|
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                              |                    |_Eunice FOOTE __|_________________
 _Frank Truman HENDRY ________|
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|                             |_Jane Ann PENFIELD _|
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|--George Whiting HENDRY 
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|_Fairy Estelle Lent WHITING _|
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INDEX

Notes

Line in Record @I0037@ (RIN 37) from GEDCOM file not recognized: _FA2 This is my father. There will be many notes before this project is finished. George Whiting Hendry (My Father) My father was born January 22, 1885 in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father was Frank Truman Hendry and his mother Fairy Estelle Whiting Hendry. His father worked for the Acheson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. He had an older brother, James Rowley Hendry. His early life was spent variously in Indianapolis, Cleveland and Detroit. His summers were spent at Lake Wawasee, Indiana where his parents had a cottage. He attended Michigan Agricultural College which later became Michigan State University. He spent some time in the U.S. Forest Service and then went on to Cornell University in New York where he studied agronomy. He graduated in 1913 and went to work that fall as a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley. He continued at the university for 31 years. He traveled around the world in 1923. He did not marry until he was 47. His first child, George, was born in 1937. He was 52. I was born in 1939. He had just turned 54. George Whiting Hendry had dark brown, short, curly hair, parted in the middle. He wore round, horn rim glasses. He wore a thin moustache. He was probably 5' 6" to 5" 8" tall and weighed 165 to 180. He dressed conservatively and carefully. In the faculty club at Berkeley, he was called "The Duke." It is said he was somewhat of a black sheep and a little wild in his youth. I don't know. Some pictures suggest he was overweight by 1940. Mother said he had high blood pressure. He was old fashioned only in that he believed raising children was the mother's job. He was a traveller, a photographer. He was sometimes one track minded and not really aware of what was going on around him or what affect his actions had on others. Apparently, he was thorough and detailed, given to studying a problem or project very carefully before undertaking it. He planned carefully. He was an idea man. He had dreams. He was an historian. He was a collector of the unusual. I have written about him in more detail in my work on the Hendry Genealogy. In truth, I do not remember him as a person. I have images imprinted on my mind but they are largely inanimate. There is much that needs still to be said. George, my brother remembers much more than I do. George Whiting Hendry died very suddenly the evening of April 15, 1944. I have a memory of that night. He was 59. I had just turned 5. His death benefit after 31 years at the University of California was $1000. George Whiting Hendry's legacy to his children was a debt free 140 acre "ranch" on Redwood Road in Napa, California. For further information see Andrew Hendry's Ever a New Horizon, Volume I which talks about the "ranch" in the early years and all George Hendry did to make it what it became and, what his son, George Hendry did to bring it to full production. Additional Notes George Whiting Hendry (My Father) Word from my cousins, his brother's children, from my mother, his wife, and from my correspondence in search of records, it seems George was not a particularly dutiful son although it is clear he was very much loved by his mother. Pictures taken of his mother when she was a child, of him when he was a child and of my brother when he was a child are strikingly similar. His family resemblence to his mother and my brother's to him is uncommonly strong. Although records are still scanty, it appears his mother was German in origin and his father Scotch-Irish-English. It seems he was known as being a bit wild and fun-loving as opposed to his brother's more settled in nature. His life at the University of California which lasted 31 years until the date of his death, was both noteworthy and stormy. He was apparently a very good and much liked instructor. His willingness to do the things that professors do to advance in the university community was aparently lacking and it is unlikely he would have kept his employment were it not for his early friendship with Robert Gordon Sprowl who granted him "presidents tenure" when that tenure was denied by the College of Agriculture. His primary interests were in field, cereal crops including milo, barley and wheat. His interest in history led him to map the sites of Spanish and Mexican abobes in California and to a study of the plant contents of the adobe of those buildings. In time this interest led to his developing a rust resistant strain of wheat that he gave to the State of California and which led to the establishment of the California Pure Seed Bureau. This is not the way the University and the College of Agriculture would have wished him to use his research. At least twice during his time at the university, he had sabaticals of a year, the first being in 1923. Instead of returning to study toward an advanced degree, which no doubt the university recommended, he elected to take a trip around the world. His extensive photograph album is in the possession of George Orr Hendry, his first son. Later, he would build first a cottage and then a house at Pt. Richmond, California. He was widely published, particularly in respect to his research with adobe. He is also credited with the rediscovery of the original boundary between Alta and Baja California after weeks of searching the deserts following the old spanish records. In 1932, at the age of 47, he married Margaret Elizabeth Orr Munn who at that time was running a small private school in Berkeley. They moved to Pt. Richmond as soon as he had completed a house built into the steep shores of San Francisco Bay. His first child, George Orr Hendry was born June 23, 1937 at Peralter Hospital, Oakland, Alameda County, California. He was 52 at the time. His second son, Andrew Munn Hendry, was born in the same hospital on February 9, 1939. He was just 54. He and his wife moved with the children to the Napa Valley in April of 1939. It was his dream to have a "ranch" as well as to teach agriculture. Also, the smell of the Standard Oil Refinery just north of the Pt. Richmond house made moving attractive. The ranch, originally established by the Buhmans, probably in the 1860's, was very much run down and the house and outbuildings hardly livable. With two very small children, the development of "The Ranch" was a mighty task. However, by 1944, he and his wife had clear title to the property and had made major repairs and improvements. He died suddenly of a heart attack on April 15, 1944. A more detailed sketch of his life is included in a privately published book "Ever A New Horizon" Volume I. George Whiting Hendry was my father. I was just 5 when he died and, sadly, do not remember him well. By the time it became important for me to know more about him, mother either could not or would not talk about his life Virtually all I know of him I have gathered from researching his past. There are files he left that have never been fully examined and it may be that those files will give further insight into his life and the way he thought and acted. I am given to understand that my brother, George, is very much like him in temperament. He was, I understand a ladies man and had many admirers. Some correspondence I have found would seem to suggest that this was indeed the case. My mother told me that my father had precious little to do with the raising of his children. This is perhaps why my early memories of him are so few. I believe he was methodical. He was a planner. He was thorough. He was active and found his life very full all the time and was content that it be so. He seemed to be very capable and took on projects few would consider. Many of his projects and constructions continue to serve the ranch today, nearly 50 years after his death. Perhaps someday I will write a biography that will do him justice. OBITUARY The Daily Californian. Vol 123 Z28 Berkeley California, Tuesday, April 18, 1944 "Agriculturist, University Staff Member for 20 Years Dies" The University flag flew at half-mast yesterday in memory of George W. Hendry, assistant professor of agronomy, who died Sunday at his home in Napa County. Hendry was born Jan. 22, 1885 in Indianapolis. He came to the University in 1913, the year of his graduation from Cornell university and has held positions on this campus and at Davis. Hendry made many studies of the types of crops and plants grown in the time of the California missions by investigating the remnants of plants and seeds in the adobe bricks used in the missions. He discovered a wooden cross placed by Palou, the Franciscan monk and founder of Missioin Dolores, which originally served as the boundary between California and Lower California. When the United States bought California from Mexico this boundary could not be found and thus some territory which is still part of Mexico was lost to the United States. The Golden Mariout variety of barley which has been made draught resistant, and the Double-Dwarfed Marlo variety resistant to fungus disease causing root rot are some cereal experiments perfected by Hendry. OBITUARY THE NAPA REGISTER (APRIL ?, 1944) "GEORGE HENDRY PROMINENT AS AN EDUCATOR" Professor George W. Hendry, 59 whose death due to a heart attack occurred recently at his country home (The Old Buhman place) in Browns Valley and whose funeral was held from the Webber Funeral Parlors last Monday afternoon, was most prominent as an educator in California for many years. Professor Hendry taught on both the Davis and Berkeley campuses during his long association with the university. He was well known for his research on adobe bricks used to build California missions, by which he discovered the origin of many cereal grains brought to the United States from Spain by priests. Professor Hendry was the discoverer of the original boundary marker between California and Baja California, now part of Mexico. The marker, which had been lost in obscurity for years, proved the old boundary was thirty-three miles further south than the present one. OBITUARY THE NAPA REGISTER (APRIL 17, 1944 ?) "George Hendry Dies Suddenly of Heart Attack" George W. Hendry, a resident of Browns Valley for the past five years and formerly a member of the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley and the University Farm at Davis, passed away suddenly Saturday night at his country home a few miles northwest of this city. Mr. Hendry died on what was known for many years as "the old Buhman home place," a property he purchased some five years ago. He had been apparently in excellenth [sic] health all day Saturday, but had been very busy with farm activities and had probably overexerted. His demise was due to a heart attack. Deceased was 59 years of age and a native of Ohio [sic]. (George Whiting Hendry was born in Indianapolis, Indiana.) He is survived by his wife, Margaret and two sons, George Orr Hendry, and Andrew Hendry, both of Napa. There is also a brother, James R. Hendry, of Detroit. The funeral was held this fore-noon at 11 o'clock from the Webber Parlors in Napa. Rev. H. Thomas Pateman officiated. Cremation followed at Tulocay mausoleum.



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