< HENDRICKS HOUSE HISTORY

Jennie Lucy Mathilda Hendricks

The youngest daughter of Charles Louis and Mathilda Olsson Hendricks was born on 25 September 1886. She was the first of the children to be born in the Main Street house. It is said she was born in the upstairs bedroom and all the children (three at the time) were sent to sleep in the parents' downstairs room while the delivery took place.

Jennie also attended the Center Grammar School and attended Holden High School. She graduated from high school in 1904.

After graduating from Worcester Normal School, Jennie taught school in 1909 at Chaffin School (District #3). In 1910 and 1911 she taught at Jefferson School (District #5). From 1911 until 1914 she taught at the Center School (District #1) where she attended as a child.

A graduate of Boston University and Columbia University, Jennie's career took her to Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, CT where she retired as an Associate Professor.


Jennie Lucy Hendricks

It was Jennie, also known as "Aunt Honey" to her nephews and nieces, who was instrumental in making the arrangements with friend and selectman, Lloyd Starbard, to have her house and property preserved and protected as a historic teaching tool. Jennie was the last family member to live in the house before it was turned over to the Town of Holden to be used for historic purposes. In 1977, Jennie moved to the Holden Nursing Home when it became impossible for her to continue living in the house in which she was born.

For the last decade of her life, Jennie provided the Holden Historical Society and the Holden Historical Commission with a wealth of information and recollections about her family and the evolution of the Hendricks House. Jennie died on 27 July 1986, three months short of her one hundredth birthday. The cause of her death was listed as cardiorespiratory arrest secondary to cerebrovascular disease. Jennie willed her body to a medical school for anatomic study. She is buried in Grove Cemetery in Holden, MA.