Hello se1rosen,
Mark Champion very well could have been the name. My grandmother had said John but she could have gotten this wrong. She had little in the way of family knowledge. She did not know where in NC the family came from. My guess is any number of counties on the SC/NC boarder just above Spartanburg/Greenville SC. I had searched in Rutherfordton because there were other Henson families who had lived there since the early 1800's.

When my grandmother was alive she told me some stories of her childhood. I wrote these down and one of them is about Samantha, Ben (Benton) and one of their daughters. It's nothing extremely helpful in the way of family history, but it may be of interest to you a descendent. Please let me know if your are interested, I can email you my notes from my grandmothers interview.