David B. Henderson

David B. Henderson

David Bremner Henderson (born March 14, 1840 in Old Deer , Aberdeenshire , Scotland , †  February 25, 1906 in Dubuque , Iowa ) was an American politician . Between 1883 and 1903 he represented the state of Iowa in the US House of Representatives , as its speaker he served from 1899 to 1903.

Career

In 1846, David Henderson came to the United States with his parents. The family initially settled in Winnebago County , Illinois . In 1849 they moved to Fayette County , Iowa. There David Henderson attended public schools and then Upper Iowa University . In September 1861, he joined the Union Army during the Civil War . He was a soldier in an Iowa infantry regiment and was promoted to first lieutenant. Henderson was wounded several times and lost a leg in February 1863. He was then between May 1863 and June 1864 a member of the draft board in the 3rd Military District of Iowa. Despite his injury, he returned to the army as a colonel in 1864 and served until the end of the war.

After studying law and being admitted to the bar in 1865, he began practicing his new profession in Dubuque. Henderson also worked for the tax authority between 1865 and 1869. From 1869 to 1871 he was assistant federal attorney for northern Iowa.

Henderson was a member of the Republican Party . In the congressional elections of 1882 he was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the third constituency of Iowa , where he succeeded Thomas Updegraff on March 4, 1883 . After nine re-elections, he was able to complete ten consecutive terms in Congress by March 3, 1903 . During this time the Spanish-American War of 1898 fell . In the same year the Philippines and the former Kingdom of Hawaii came under American administration.

From 1889 to 1891 Henderson was chairman of the committee that dealt with the militias. He also sat on the Legal Affairs Committee between 1895 and 1899 and on the Committee on Rules from 1899 . From 1899 David Henderson was President of the US House of Representatives as Speaker . In 1902 he turned down another candidacy. David Henderson died on February 25, 1906 in his hometown Dubuque and was buried there.

Web links

• David B. Henderson in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• David B. Henderson in the database of Find a Grave (English)