Burlingame was the first town established in Osage County. The main street of Burlingame, in the beginning, was part of the Santa Fe Trail. In the year 1827, the United States Government opened a mail route from Independence, Mo., to Santa Fe, N. M., on the route that had been selected some time before by the freighters, and known as the Santa Fe Trail. This was the finest natural road in the world, and the immense freighting business over it continually increased, until by 1854, millions of dollars worth of freight was transported over it annually. This road entered the present Osage County from the east, about on the lines between Township 14 and 15, extended west, crossing One Hundred and Ten Creek, and continuing in nearly a direct line to where Burlingame now is, [approx. 1883] and up what is now Santa Fe Avenue in that town, and thence west crossing the western boundary of the county.2

Phillip C. Schuyler of New York was the founder of Burlingame. Families began to settle in the area and it began to mature and prosper. However, the gains were short lived.

Burlingame and Osage County were devastated by a serious of natural disasters from 1859 through 1874. A severe wind and rain storm in 1859 severely damaged Osage County. The property damage in the county was extensive: Burlingame lost several buildings and Superior, a nearby town, was virtually destroyed. Most of the claim holders depended on the production from their land to pay off their claims, and many were forced to sell. The great drought of 1860 finished many more farmers who had managed to hold on to their claims. Eventually a large percentage of claim holders who remained lost their land, unable to pay the mortgage or produce crops. In January of 1861, Osage County suffered another setback in the form of a severe snow storm. In 1866 and again in 1874, Osage County was plagued by grasshoppers that ate everything green. It was during these years that Osage County residents were forced to accept aid from Eastern Aid Societies to survive. By 1876, the harvest was good, and fifteen years of episodic severe deprivation ended.3

In 1865, the town of Burlingame secured passage of bonds for a railroad. In the fall of 1869, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad reached Burlingame and Burlingame was linked by rail to the east. Burlingame expanded rapidly 1869-1870, and continued to improve steadily over the next ten years, entering another phase of expansion in 1880 when the Manhattan, Alma & Burlingame Railroad was completed.4

Like many farmers in Kansas, Paris Henderson arrived in Burlingame during the 1869/70 expansion years, and owned a farm in Burlingame, Burlingame Township, Osage County, Kansas (exact location unknown) when Georgie was born. Paris was a wheat farmer. The early history of the formation of Kansas, first as a territory in 1854 and later a state frames the historical context of Georgie's early years. By 1876, Paris had married Mary Johnson. They had four children over the next 8 years, William, Alva, James, and Mary Ann. Mary died giving birth to Mary Ann in September, 1883. Paris gave the infant Mary Ann to neighbors, Mr. & Mrs. Writhley, who offered to care for her, while he and the boys remained on the farm. When Mary Ann was three, Paris remarried.

Mary Alice Potts married Paris in 1886. Paris went to reclaim Mary Ann from the Writhley's and they refused. Paris did not insist, and the Writhley's raised Mary Ann.

"I remember my first day of school when I was 6 years old. My Dad had bought me a new pair of copper toed shoes ëspecially for school. The teacher told us to be very quiet so we could hear a pin drop. She should have known I couldn't stand to be that quiet so I jumped out of my seat and ran as fast as I could out of the room. The teacher tried to stop me but I ran home and hid. When my mother found me, she spanked me and made me go back to school. I was humiliated. I hated the teacher and school and every chance I got I played hooky."

Georgie's recollections may have been somewhat romanticized, as she was 82 when she was recalling the details of her childhood. Her recollections illustrate that life in Kansas was primarily a happy time for Georgie until the death of her mother. The discovery of Mary Ann when she was seven would continue to comfort Georgie throughout her lifelong sadness over her mother's death. As adults, Georgie and Mary Ann enjoyed a close and loving relationship.

Paris, a birthright Quaker, embraced the Methodist Episcopal faith in his early adulthood, acquired a license to preach, but, never chose to preach to make his living. He was a stern man, and Georgie's childhood was serious and religious. Georgie's happiest moments came in the context of her father's devotion to music. Gifted musically, Georgie taught herself to play the organ at age seven. She sang in church at age four and continued to sing in the church choir until her marriage. She sang solos at weddings and funerals, but she was not allowed to sing outside the auspices of the church environment. Georgie notes that unlike Mary Ann, who sang for pleasure, she was not allowed to sing for fun. As an adult, Mary Ann played the piano and left-handed guitar, accompanied on many occasions by her husband playing the violin. Mary Ann's dancing and free spirit impressed Georgie the most.

The turn of the century marked many changes in Georgie's life. By 1903, her mother had died, and by 1905 her father remarried and she embarked on a journey that would shape the rest of her life. With his new wife, Laura Carol Reed, a widow with adult children, Paris decided to relocate his family, and Georgie's life, already marred with sadness, took another jolt. Leaving Kansas by train, the Henderson family took only the essentials: "I loved my dolls and if I hadn't had so many doll friends my childhood would have been even lonelier that it was. My brothers slept in a small house behind our big house and they allowed me to have a small corner of their sleeping quarters for a play house. I played with corn cob dolls, clothes pin dolls, and store bought dolls. When we left Kansas I remember being very sad. I had to say goodbye to my twenty one dolls and leave them all there."

William (27), was already married and settled and did not accompany them. They joined Paris' sister Rhuhamia Thomas, and her husband who owned a candy store in San Luis Obispo. The family did not settle in one location but, moved around in search of work and a stable place of employment. Paris' move to California may have not been completely voluntary. Paris did not seem to have resources from the sale of the farm, and it is possible that he may have lost it. Unlike the large influx of emigrants who arrived with means to start a new life, Paris and his family came to California in search of establishing a new life. Alva (26), married soon after their arrival and settled in San Luis Obispo. Jimmy, John , and Georgie (aged 24, 18, and 12 respectively) moved with their father, as he and Jimmy found work in a variety of occupations until they settled on a farm in Kingsburg. By 1910, Mary Ann (27) and her husband, Oney Wilkins, moved to Fresno, California, and Georgie was reunited with her sister. It was while living on the farm in Kingsburg, in 1910, that Georgie met her future husband, John Chris Miller.

John Chris Miller was the son of Danish immigrants who immigrated to the United States in the 1870s. John's father Chris first obtained work in the coal mines of Iowa. By 1899, the Miller family migrated to California and settled in Laton. John had never been fond of school and did not return to school after they arrived in California. It is likely that his parents were also seeking a better lifestyle in California. John went to work as a ranch hand, and, by 1910, was driving a truck for a creamery in Laton. Kingsburg was on his route, he met Georgie on her way to school early one morning. Georgie said it was love at first sight. She and John were married six months later in Hanford, on April 29, 1910. Georgie was 17 and John was 23.

Georgie's marriage to John marked the next stage of her life, her role as wife and mother, which defined the rest of her life as a traditional woman. On April 5, 1911 Georgie gave birth to her first child, Hazel Dell. When Hazel was small, n early morning fire in Laton destroyed their small home and the Miller family moved in with John's brother Charley while their new house was built in Laton. On July 28, 1915 their second child Dorothy (Dot) was born; their third child Laura Carol, was born on December 23, 1921. By that time, John and Georgie were living on the Short Ranch near Minkler. John was a ranch hand and Georgie took care of her house, husband, and their three daughters. She did not work outside the home and remained a traditional Victorian wife and subscribed to the tenets of domestic ideology like the majority of mid-western women who emigrated to California from 1880 to 1920.

Interestingly, Georgie did not follow the typical time frame of births every two years, typical for rural women, like her mother before her. These gaps may have been due to the young couple's poverty as they moved around, or to unmentioned deaths, miscarriages, or stillborn children. Evidence for this may be surmised from the rate of birth defects, disease, and death among Georgie's grandchildren. John, Hazel's son, contracted polio in 1935, at the age of 4. Georgie cared for him during his long convalescence, but he was left with a permanent weakness. He narrowly escaped death once again in 1937 when he and Hazel contracted scarlet fever and were hospitalized for several weeks. Frank, Jr., Dot's son, was born in 1937 with a rare tumor in his head, that prevented him from living a normal life. Patti Ann, Hazel's daughter was born in 1938 and died of leukemia, in 1941, 2 months before the birth of Hazel's last child, William. The Depression years were characterized by battles with childhood ailments and diseases as Georgie helped her daughters with their children.

Georgie and John moved their family to Kerman in 1925. They owned a small ranch near Georgie's father, and John practiced farming full time. The family eked out a meager existence until 1944 when they relocated to Tranquillity and John went to work for the James Mutual Telephone Company. By 1944, the children were all married, and John and Georgie maintained a comfortable existence. In 1960, the year after John retired from the James Mutual Telephone Company, they celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

They spent their retirement years in Tranquillity and Fowler. John's illness and Georgie's exhaustion led to their staying with Hazel in Fowler for periods of time, until John died in 1971 after a lingering illness. Georgie was greatly saddened by the loss of her John, and never fully recovered from his death. On April 8, 1976, at age 83, Georgie passed away.

Georgie's memory lives on in her three daughters, nine grandchildren, and thirteen great-grandchildren. These children were her legacy, she devoted her life to them. Georgie always had a smile for her family and maintained a positive outlook on her life until her death. Her life story is interesting because she saw herself, like many women, from the perspective of the men in her life. As her story began, she talked about her father, who died in 1936, then her husband, and finally her children. Quiet and unassuming, she nevertheless managed her family with care and grace. Georgie rarely had a harsh word for anyone and was a truly lovely lady. The thirties were a hard decade for the nation and especially hard for Georgie as she battled death and disease in her family. She never spoke much of this period; the death of her father and her granddaughter Patti Ann remained a source of deep sadness for her.

Her place in history represents the rural woman of the 1890s as she moved through the decades. She did not participate actively in the changing roles of women. For Georgie her life was always defined by her identity as daughter, wife and mother. In the 1910s, as young women began to agitate strongly for the vote, Georgie began her married life. California women received the vote in 1913 as part of the progressive reform package, but she and John, neither very well educated, did not notice the politics of the time. They were immersed in maintaining a living and raising their family. In contrast to the middle-class and upper-class women who were making gains nationally through women's suffrage, Georgie was relatively untouched by the changing roles of women. The best analysis of Georgie's life suggests that she remained a 19th Century woman amidst the changes in women's roles in the 20th Century.

World War I affected Georgie by the loss of her brother John. The Depression years affected Georgie by the death of her stepmother in 1935, her father in 1936, and the battles with disease by her grandchildren. World War II added more losses to Georgie as she lost more family members. The Korean War saw two of her grandsons, Hazel's sons, join the military: the oldest, Robert Van Hoosan, served a short period of time, but remained stateside. John, her special grandson, who had survived the bout with polio, made a career of the US Army and retired in the 1970s. William, Hazel's youngest son, joined the Air Force in 1959, but was discharged after 29 days due to bad knees, thus preventing him from benefits as a GI. This habit of military service was followed again in the next generation. William's eldest daughter, Tiffany, who joined the Air Force in 1982, and by his second daughter, Shannon, who married a Navy man in 1983.