Samuel Henderson (c.1800 –1883) was the first mayor of

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

. The first mayoral election was held on April 24, 1847, and Henderson, a member of the Whig Party, took office on May 1. He served a two-year term.

Biography

Henderson was a native of Kentucky and was one of the first settlers of Indianapolis. He was appointed the post master from March 1822 to February 1831. By 1835 he was one of the wealthiest people in the town, owning not only a farm, but also lots within the Mile Square and elsewhere in the state. When Indianapolis was incorporated as a town in 1832, he was chosen to serve as the first president of the town board of trustees, serving for one year. He became one of the eight directors of the first bank in Indianapolis opened in 1834. The directors arranged large loans to themselves, leaving Henderson and the others in a precarious financial position during the

Panic of 1837 The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major depression, which lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages went down, westward expansion was stalled, unemployment went up, and pessimism abound ...

. The advent of the railroads in Indiana prompted the town to obtain a city charter from the Indiana legislature in 1847. Henderson was elected as the mayor on April 24, 1847, for a two-year term. However, he became convinced that Indianapolis would become merely a way station on the railroad lines, and after his term as mayor, he sold his real estate holdings at reduced prices and headed for

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

to join the

Gold Rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New ...

. He died there in 1883.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Samuel 1800 births 1883 deaths Mayors of Indianapolis Indiana Whigs 19th-century American politicians