This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/yNi.2ACEB/5407 Message Board Post: From Ancestry.com's "Biographies of Notable Americans-1904": HENDERSON, John Brooks, senator, was born in Pittsylvania county, Va., Nov. 16, 1826; son of James and Jane (Dawson) Henderson. His parents removed to Lincoln county, Mo., in 1839, and both died before he was ten years old. He gained a good education from the common schools and from classical teadchers; taught in the district school; studied law and was admitted to the bar of Pike County circuit court in 1848, beginning practice in Louisiana, Mo., in 1849. He was a representative in the state legislature in 1849 and 1857, originating the state railroad and banking laws of 1857. He was a Buchanan and Breckinridge presidential elector in 1856. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Democratic national convention at Charleston, S.C., and Baltimore, Md., when he supported the candidacy of Senator Douglas. He was an elector on the Douglas and Johnson ticket in 1860; was defeated by James [p.195] S. Rollins for representative in the 37th congress the same year, and was a delegate to the! state convention of 1861 that determined the state to remain in the union. On the outbreak of the civil war he organized a brigade of state troops and was commissioned brigadier-general of militia. He was appointed in 1862, by Lieut.-Gov. Willard P. Hall, U.S. senator in place of Trusten Polk, expelled, and he was elected by the legislature to fill out the term. In 1863 he was elected for the full term expiring March 4, 1869. In the senate he was chairman of the committee on Indian affairs; organized the Indian peace cornmission in 1867; was the author of the thirteenth amendment to the constitution, and was among the original agitators of the suffrage amendment embodied in the organic law as the fifteenth amendment. He was one of the seven Republican senators who voted for acquittal in the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson. He was married in 1868 to Mary, daughter of Judge Elisha Foote of New York. He resumed his law practice in St. Louis, Mo., in 1869, at the close of ! his senatorial term. He was nominated for governor of Missouri in 1872 , but was defeated by Silas Woodson. He received the Republican nomination for U.S. senator in 1798, but was defeated in the election by Louis Bogy. In 1875 he was appointed by President Grant to assist the U.S. district attorney in the prosecution of the "Whisky ring," violators of the revenue laws, but was removed by the President in December of that year. He was presiding officer of the Republican national convention of 1889. He subsequently resided in Washington, D.C., where he was elected by congress a regent of the Smithsonian Institution in January, 1892, and again in 1898. He was elected a member of the Geological an d National Geographic societies, and was a member of the Pan-American conference of 1889-90. He is the author of many articles on economic subjects, especially finance, contributed to the magazines. The University of Missouri conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1882. Deloris Williams