JOHN HENRY

John Henry was a semi-legendary railroad worker of American folk hero lore. It is believed that a historical John Henry was a slave born in the middle of the 19th century . According to legend, he stood 6 feet tall and weighed 200 pounds - a giant in that day. During the height of railroad construction, steel drivers were hired by the rail companies to use hammers and stakes to pound holes into mountainsides to create pockets for explosives to blast tunnels. According to the folk ballads, some tunnel engineers began using steam drills to hasten the process. Some accounts record that Henry challenged the steam drill to a contest. He won, but died of exhaustion, his life cut short by his own superhuman effort.

MATTHEW A. HENSON

Matthew A. Henson (1866-1955) was born in Maryland and orphaned at age 11. In 1890, Henson joined Admiral Robert E. Peary's first Arctic expedition across the northern tip of Greenland. They spent more than a decade covering 9,000 miles on dogsleds across northern Greenland and Ellesmere Island, in Canada. Setting out in 1906 aboard the schooner Roosevelt, the two men set out with Inuit guides and provisions. With their measurements, they proved that the Pole is over a deep but frozen ocean, reaching their destination on April 6, 1909. No one duplicated the treacherous journey till an airplane flew over it in 1926. In 1988, Matthew Henson and his wife were reinterred at the Arlington National Cemetery alongside Peary. He is honored today by a monument at Arlington National Cemetery, a US Postal stamp, and a U.S. Naval oceanographic survey ship bearing his name. Matt's Inuit descendants have been united with their American relatives. In 2000, the National Geographic Society posthumously awarded Matthew Henson the Hubbard Medal, its highest honor.

References
Hanson, Matthew A. A Negro Explorer at the North Pole. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1912.
Litwin, Laura B. Matthew Henson: Co-Discoverer of the North Pole. African-American Biographies. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 2001.
Robinson, Bradley, with Matthew Henson. Dark Companion: The Story of Matthew Henson. Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett Publications, 1969.