May 20, 2025
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her series on Mayflower descendants, with her third special tribute to fallen heroes to commemorate Memorial Day. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
Today I continue my series “Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who,” with a special tribute to fallen heroes to commemorate Memorial Day.
My first subject today are two brothers, Sidney Fulton Henderson (1921-1944) and Robert Adams Henderson (1925-1942), of Nantucket, Massachusetts, who never returned home after serving in the European and Pacific theaters during World War II.
The brothers were born to police officer William Jerome Henderson (1899-1982) and Lillian Theresa (Fulton) Henderson (1899-1932).
The Henderson brothers descend from Mayflower passenger George Soule through one of the nine children born to his daughter Susanna (Soule) West and Francis West.
Lineage:
- George Soule and Mary/Maria Bucket (she arrived on the ship Anne in 1623)
- Susanna Soule and Francis West
- Martha West and Jeremiah Fones
- Mary Fones and Ebenezer Hill
- Ruth Hill and William Boone
- Mary Sarah Boone and Richard M. Jones
- Ephraim Jones and Dorothy Crane
- Martha Jones and Robert Murphy Fulton
- George Washington Fulton and Margaret Adams
- Lillian Theresa Fulton and William Jerome Henderson
- Sidney Fulton Henderson and Robert Adams Henderson
Below is a photo of Mr. and Mrs. William J. Henderson and other attendees taken at the Policeman’s Ball, Sconset Casino, Massachusetts, in 1930.
In the photo below, we see (left to right): Mildred Eldridge, Kenneth Eldridge, Marine Howes, Wendell Howes, Marion Chadwick, Sgt. F. Stuart Chadwick, Mrs. Lillian (Fulton) Henderson, William Jerome Henderson.
There is a Sidney and Robert Henderson Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8608 in Nantucket.
Sidney served in the Army as a Technician Fourth Class in the 712th Tank Battalion and was killed in the battle for the Falaise Gap on 18 August 1944. His name is on the Wall of the Missing in the Brittany American Cemetery in France. He was awarded a Purple Heart.
Robert served in the “H&S Co, 1st Bn, 1st Mar, 1st MARDIV, FMF, Solomon Islands” and was killed in action on 14 October 1942.
A memorial marker for the Henderson brothers’ Pilgrim ancestor George Soule can be found in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in the Myles Standish Burying Ground.
I found a newspaper clip entitled “Soule Kindred Dedicate Memorial for Founder.”
This photo caption reads:
In Memoriam – A wreath is placed on the gravestone of George Soule, one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact, during ceremonies held Saturday at Standish Cemetery, Duxbury, by the Soule Kindred. The gravestone, which was erected this year by the kindred, was dedicated during the ceremonies. Placing the wreath are: W. Fred Soule of Waco, Texas, president of the kindred, left, and the Rev. Robert Merrill Bartlett, D.D., of Plymouth.
This article reports:
A memorial stone was dedicated Saturday by the Soule Kindred to the memory of Pilgrim George Soule, a signer of the Mayflower Compact and one of the earliest settlers of Duxbury.
The black granite stone was placed under the supervision of Laurel Freeman, superintendent of cemeteries, in the Standish Cemetery on Chestnut Street. It bears the inscription: “Nearby rests George Soule, a signer of the Mayflower Compact, Nov. 11, 1620, who died January 1679-80. Erected by the Soule Kindred, 1971.”
On the same day the memorial stone was dedicated, Soule descendants visited the King Caesar House, 120 King Caesar Road, Duxbury, located on George Soule’s original Powder Point land grant.
The house was built in 1809 for America’s largest shipbuilder, Ezra Weston II aka “King Caesar,” and his wife Jerusha Bradford.
A marker is now on the property, placed there by Soule Kindred in 2017. It reads:
“In memory of George Soule and Mary Beckett, granted land Powder Point in 1637. They farmed here and raised nine children. George arrived in the New World in 1620 and Mary arrived three years later on the passenger ship Anne. Plaque dedicated by the Soule Kindred in America September 2017.”
Below is a photo of the King Caesar House and the George Soule and Mary Beckett marker.
Our next subject is 2nd Lt. Harrison “Harry” Ault Gorman of the United States Army Air Forces. He was killed in action while serving as a P-40 fighter pilot. Harrison was in transit from Australia to Java when his transport vessel (USS Edsall DD-219) was attacked by Japanese forces and sunk in the Indian Ocean. His remains were not recovered.
Lt. Gorman is a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley. He appears with other Howland descendants in a photo on a page from the Ellen Ramsdell Scrapbook housed by the Nantucket Historical Association.
In this photo we see (left to right): Lt. Harrison “Harry” Ault Gorman, U.S. Army Air Corps; William Francis Jones Jr. (1923-1946), son of William Francis and Susan Stogden (Morrow) Jones, U.S. Navy Fireman; Frederick Herbert Stetson (1918-1968), son of Frederick Harrison and Rhoda Faye (Barnes) Stetson, a direct descendant of John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley, U. S. Army Corporal who participated in Pearl Harbor; Charles Quincy Norton (1921-1998), son of Nicholas Eldridge and Ruth Harlow (Bird) Norton, a direct descendant of John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley, U. S. Army Corps, took part in many bombing raids.
Here is a newspaper clip reporting Lt. Gorman missing in action, from the Boston Herald.
This article reports:
Lt. Harrison Gorman, or Harry Gorman, as the town knew him, son of the president of the Nantucket Chamber of Commerce, has been officially listed as missing for a year. This young fighter pilot of the U.S. Army air forces was on the Langley when she was sunk in the South Pacific, was picked up at sea, placed on the destroyer Edsall and headed for Java.
Stay tuned for more on Lt. Gorman, his full lineage, and other Mayflower scions.
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Note on the header image: “Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor,” by William Halsall, 1882. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
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