Caroline Henderson

Caroline Henderson (1877–1966) was an American school teacher, farmer and author during the Dust Bowl. Born Caroline Boa in Wisconsin and raised in Iowa, she attended Mount Holyoke College, graduating in 1901. After teaching in Iowa until 1907, she relocated to Texas County in the Oklahoma Panhandle. She married local farmer Bill Henderson in 1908, the same year she bought a 160-acre farm near Eva, Oklahoma. Caroline and Bill had one daughter, Eleanor, born in 1909.

When their daughter was old enough for college, Eleanor chose to attend the University of Kansas. She earned both a Bachelor of Arts degree and an M.D. at Kansas. Meanwhile, Caroline helped pay her daughter's educational expenses by moving to Lawrence with her. The two shared an apartment, and Caroline found work teaching school. Caroline also found time to enroll in some graduate courses and earned an M. A. degree from Kansas in 1935.

Biography Early life Caroline Boa was born on April 7, 1877, in Wisconsin. As the eldest daughter of a prosperous Iowa farmer, she grew up on a farm in Iowa, and dreamed of having a farm of her own.

Her letters about the events of the Dust Bowl period were published in The Ladies' World (regular column entitled "Our Homestead Lady"), Practical Farmer, and The Atlantic Monthly. Her letters detail both the prosperity of the period before the disaster, and the loss of crops, animals and other amenities during the Dust Bowl years.

Personal life Caroline married Wilhelmine Eugene (Bill) Henderson in 1908.