Full Name Caroline Boa Children Eleanor Henderson Role Author | Nationality American Name Caroline Henderson | |
Occupation Schoolteacher, farmer, author Spouse(s) Wilhelmine Eugene Henderson Died 1966, Phoenix, Arizona, United States | ||
Caroline Henderson (1877-1966) was an American schoolteacher, farmer and author during the Dust Bowl.
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Early life
Caroline Boa was born on April 7, 1877 in Wisconsin. She grew up on a farm in Iowa. She graduated Mount Holyoke College in 1901.
Career
She taught English and Latin at a high school in Red Oak, Iowa from 1901 to 1903, and then taught in Des Moines until 1907.
From 1907 to her death in 1966, she farmed a land claim in the panhandle region of Oklahoma. After she got married, she farmed with her husband in Eva, Oklahoma. During their years of farming, her family weathered the droughts, dust storms, and blizzards that befell the region.
Her letters about the events of the Dust Bowl period were published in Practical Farmer and in 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
She married Wilhelmine Eugene Henderson in 1908. They raised one daughter, Eleanor, born in 1909.
Death
She died in 1966.
Legacy
In recent years, her letters have been featured prominently in the PBS documentary The Dust Bowl.