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When I first learned about this new organization, I was very excited and am happy that it is being formed.
I am Bill Henderson, son of GW Henderson and Leoda (Colebaugh), of Bedford. BHS Class of 1970,I married Mary McGinnis, and have to daughters, Mindy and Molly. I worked since the age of fifteen starting at Calhoun's Atlantic Station in Bedford, then the Hedstrom Corporation for thirty-four years, suffered a severe Stroke. Recovering to about 90%, and came out of it with a severe short term memory loss. Very lucky, although I had to quit working and I now have many hobbies that I skip around doing. After the Stroke, I volunteered at the Pioneer Historical Society for a number of years and presently am not involved there anymore. I can honestly say that I love to read old family history, especially our family's of Bedford County.
My father and uncle were the owners of Henderson's Market in Bedford and as a young boy, I hung around there when I could, helping put prices on the stock, stocking the shelves and helping the delivery man, Ross Fisher, deliver groceries to the patrons. I would also follow my father to the basement where the furnace was. He showed me the entrance to a tunnel that led across the ally to Village Lounge located in the basement of the Penn Bedford Hotel. The tunnel led from the furnace room of Henderson,s Market to an enterence door at the Villiage Lounge under the alley. It was sort of scarcely and very dark. He told me that there were other tunnels through out the town that led to different buildings in Bedford. Must have be a Prohibition thing. I really thought this story was false, but I saw and was in one of them and I now know it is true. When time allows, I am working on a history of businesses in downtown Bedford, including when and where they occupied there businesses, and what is still left original in the buildings from that era.
My family history is mostly inside Bedford County, Pennsylvania. I have been working on my family's Genealogy since 1979, when a cousin, Helen Creighton a retired school teacher in Bedford School District, ask me if I would be interested in our family history. I told her that I would and started out with a hand full of papers she had kept, along with some other items, telling me very little. To present, I have a rather extensive genealogy of about 22,000 relatives.
Growing up in the Bedford School District, I met many of my cousin's which I did not realize that I was related to. Later in life I would occasionally bump into one that I remembered as a relative, and would converse with them. I did not realize that many of my classmates and a handful of teachers were all related. My father and mother would tell me early in life, that we were related to half the people in our county. I really did not believe it , but I sure do now. Attending the Claycomb reunion and other family reunions, I met more and more of my Kin.
When I started this journey, I thought that Pleasant Hill or Pleasant Valley was in the Wolfsburg area. I was really off course with this one.
Some of my Dutch Corner surnames are: Claycomb, Biddle, Imler, Ickes, Bowser, Earnest, Zimmers, along with many that I am not certain where they lived in the corner.
I am a born Bedford County Native and want to preserve the history of our ancestors.
I would be interested in what I can do for the History Group.
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