A former Pike County couple that made significant national contributions is being honored as part of a new historical marker.

John Brooks Henderson and Mary Foote Henderson are recognized on the “Long Roads to Freedom” memorial. It will be dedicated April 18th at Harris-Stowe University in St. Louis.

The Missouri Humanities Council donated the $1,500 tribute, which is three feet wide and two feet tall. Funding came from the council and a grant by the Gertrude and William A. Bernoudy Foundation.

The site once featured a home owned by the Hendersons in the late 1860s and early 1870s.

As a U.S. Senator from Louisiana, Missouri, John Brooks Henderson drafted and introduced the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery. He worked closely with President Abraham Lincoln, crossed party lines to acquit Democrat President Andrew Johnson of impeachment charges and was a special prosecutor in the Whiskey Ring federal tax conspiracy trials.

Mary Foote Henderson wrote books on health and social activities, championed women’s voting rights, became a real estate developer and was a strong temperance advocate. In 1906, she famously poured dozens of bottles of expensive wine from her husband’s decades-long collection into the gutter outside their Washington home. In addition, Mary worked on city beautification efforts and tried unsuccessfully to have a replacement for the White House built in the Meridian Hill neighborhood of the capital.

Also included on the marker is Hiram Reed, a Union soldier who the first slave freed during the Civil War.