Greatest Charles County explorer hailed

Friday, May 9, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photo Pictured with the commissioners, Gary V. Hodge, left, Samuel N. Graves, Edith J. Patterson,Reuben B. Collins II and commissioners president F. Wayne Cooper, is James E. Henson Sr., the great-nephew of Matthew Henson. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Matthew Henson, an African-American, was born in Charles County around 1866. After being orphaned at an early age, he traveled to Baltimore to begin his life at sea where he became friends with the famed explorer Robert E. Peary. Henson traveled with Peary on his explorations of Central and South America, and he accompanied him on all eight attempts to find the North Pole Henson was the cousin of Josiah Henson (also born in Charles County), who was the inspiration for the Harriett Beecher Stowe novel ‘‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”