Charles B. Henderson

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For other people named Charles Henderson, see Charles Henderson (disambiguation)

Charles Belknap Henderson (June 8, 1873 - November 8, 1954) was a United States Senator from Nevada. Born in San Jose, California, he moved with his parents to Nevada in 1876, and attended the public schools in Elko, Nevada, the University of the Pacific, and Leland Stanford Junior University in California. He graduated in law from the University of Michigan in 1895, and was admitted to the bar in 1896, commencing practice in Elko. He served as lieutenant in Torrey’s Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War, and was district attorney of Elko County from 1901 to 1905. He was a member of the Nevada Assembly from 1905 to 1907, and a regent of the University of Nevada from 1907 to 1917.

Henderson was appointed on January 12, 1918, and subsequently elected on November 5, 1918, as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Francis G. Newlands and served from January 12, 1918, to March 3, 1921. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1920. While in the Senate, Henderson was chairman of the Committee on Industrial Expositions (Sixty-fifth Congress) and a member of the Committee on Mines and Mining (Sixty-fifth Congress). In 1934, he was appointed a member of the board of directors of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, elected chairman in 1941 and resigned in 1947; he retired from political activities, and was president and director of the Elko Telephone & Telegraph Co. and a director of the Western Pacific Railroad.

Charles Henderson died in San Francisco, California in 1954 and was interred in Elko Cemetery, Nevada.