Benjamin Carroll Henson
HENSON, Benjamin Carroll, M.D.
A general practitioner in Wise County, Virginia, for forty-six years, Dr. Benjamin Carroll Henson was a former president of the Wise County Medical Society. He was also general practitioner for the Stonega Coke and Coal Company, serving two years in Stonega, two years in Imboden, and thirty-eight years in Roda.
Dr. Henson was born in Louisa County, Virginia, on September 9, 1883, the son of Samuel Puryear and Anna Mary (Carroll) Henson. His father, who was born on December 26, 1844, was a lumberman and planter, and during the Civil War, served as a cavalryman with the 45th Battalion of the Virginia Cavalry in General Mosby’s command, from 1863 to 1865. Elected to the Virginia Legislature in 1887, he died on December 15, 1913. Dr. Henson's earliest American ancestor was Samuel Henson, of London, England, who was a pioneer settler in Virginia in 1687. On his mother’s side, Dr. Henson was a descendant of Charles attorney general of Maryland in 1688.
Dr. Henson attended the public schools in Louisa County, Virginia, and graduated from Louisa High School. He then attended the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, for two years, and ultimately received his medical degree at the University College of Medicine in Richmond, Virginia, in 1913.
In June 1914, he became owner and resident physician of the Mountain View Sanitorium in Catawba, Virginia, and from August 1914 until his retirement from active practice in December 1957, he was general practitioner for the Stonega Coke and Coal Company in Stonega, Imboden, and Roda. The last-named was men who could go into those hills, with safety. In addition to his general practice, Dr. Henson specialized in the treatment of tuberculosis.
Holding the rank of colonel, Dr. Henson was assistant surgeon general on the staff of General J. F. Howell, commander-in-chief of the United Confederate Veterans in 1940. Dr. Henson was a member of the College of William and Mary Alumni Association and the University College of Medicine Alumni, of Richmond, Virginia, and he held membership in Kappa Sigma and Phi Chi fraternities. Active in professional organizations, he was a member of the American Medical Association and the Virginia Medical Society. Dr. was a past president and member of the Lonesome Pine Country Club, and fishing, golf, baseball, and ornithology were among his hobbies. He attended religious worship at the Christ Episcopal Church in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, where he had served as vestryman of the church.
Dr. Henson was married at St. Paul’s Church, Norfolk, on May 16, 1914, to Nancy Leigh White, the daughter of William and Elizabeth (Waterfield) White, of Currituck County, North Carolina, Her father was a planter. Dr. and ‘Mrs. Henson had two children: 1. Anna, born on August 19, 1921, now deceased. 2. Nancy, born on July 19, 1924. She was ‘married in St. Paul's Cathedral, Pitts burgh, Pennsylvania, on November 30, 1946, to Mario de la Torre, and now resides in Mexico City, D-F., Mexico. Both daughters were born in Roanoke, Virginia.
‘This long and useful career came to an end with the death of Dr. Benjamin Carroll Henson at Louisa, Virginia, on March 23, 1960, Dedicated to the medical profession, Dr. Henson was beloved as a physician, friend, and adviser, and he contributed much to the betterment of his community.
