David Bremner HENDERSON, Congress, IA (1840-1906)

HENDERSON, David Bremner, a Representative from Iowa; born in Old Deer, Scotland, March 14, 1840; immigrated to the United States with his parents, who settled in Winnebago County, Ill., in 1846; moved to Fayette County, Iowa, in 1849; attended the common schools and the Upper Iowa University at Fayette; enlisted in the Union Army September 15, 1861, as a private in Company C, Twelfth Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry; was elected and commissioned first lieutenant of that company and served with it until discharged, owing to the loss of a leg, February 26, 1863; commissioner of the board of enrollment of the third district of Iowa from May 1863 to June 1864; entered the Army as colonel of the Forty-sixth Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and served until the close of the war; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1865 and commenced practice in Dubuque, Iowa; collector of internal revenue for the third district of Iowa from November 1865 to June 1869 when he resigned; assistant United States district attorney for the northern district of Iowa 1869-1871; elected as a Republican to the Forty-eighth and to the nine succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1883-March 3, 1903); chairman, Committee on Militia (Fifty-first Congress), Committee on the Judiciary (Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses), Committee on Rules (Fifty-sixth and Fifty-seventh Congresses); Speaker of the House of Representatives (Fifty-sixth and Fifty-seventh Congresses); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1902; died in Dubuque, Iowa, February 25, 1906; interment in Linwood Cemetery.

Bibliography

Finocchiaro, Charles J., and David W. Rohde, “Speaker David Henderson and the Partisan Era of the U. S. House,” in David W. Brady and Mathew D. McCubbins, eds., Party, Process, and Political Change in Congress, Volume 2. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007: 259-270.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present