Charles Richmond Henderson

Background

Charles Henderson was born on December 17, 1848 in Covington, Indiana, United States, the son of Albert and Loranna (Richmond) Henderson.

Education

Charles received his education at the old University of Chicago (Bachelor of Arts, 1870) and at the Baptist Union Theological Seminary (Bachelor of Divinity, 1873). In 1901 he received the degree of A Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Leipzig.

Career

Charles Henderson was ordained to the Baptist ministry and became pastor of the First Baptist Church of Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1873. In 1882 he accepted a call to the pastorate of the Woodward Avenue Baptist Church, Detroit, where he remained until 1892 when he was invited to join the faculty of the new University of Chicago as university chaplain, assistant professor of sociology, and university recorder. From 1894 to 1897 he was associate professor of sociology, and from the latter date to his death, professor of sociology, becoming head of the department of practical sociology in 1904. Throughout these years he remained the chaplain of the University.

As a student Henderson served a small church back to the stockyards in Chicago, and from this experience dates his interest in social problems. At Terre Haute he was the first president of the local charity organization, and on going to Detroit he at once allied himself with the charitable organizations of that city. He took an active interest in labor problems, and when a strike on the Detroit street car lines was imminent he was largely responsible for settling the differences between the contending parties.

At the University of Chicago Henderson found opportunity to give himself more freely to social studies. Besides contributing to sociological and religious journals, served for many years as associate editor of American Journal of Theology, the America Journal of Sociology, and the Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology. He was president of the National Conference of Charities, 1898-1899, and president of the United Charities of Chicago, 1913.

Overwork was responsible for his sudden death, which occurred at Charleston, South Carolina, to which place he had gone with Mrs. Henderson in March 1915, expecting to recover his health.

Achievements

• Charles Henderson was a recognized authority in the field of prisons and prison management. During his career he published sixteen books and more than one hundred articles. Many of these publications are of pioneer importance in the field of penology, industrial insurance, and industrial legislation. His most important work was Modern Prison Systems (1903).

Works

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  • Education With Reference to Sex, Agencies and Methods (Classic Reprint)

    (Chapter I 13 Care of infancy, with particular reference t...)

  • Social programmes in the West; lectures delivered in the Far East

    ( About the Book Books about Demography refer to the stat...)

  • Practical Sociology in the Service of Social Ethics, pp. 27-49

    (Leopold is delighted to publish this classic book as part...)

  • The Eight Yearbook Of The National Society For The Scientific Study Of Education

    (This book an EXACT reproduction of the original book publ...)

  • Introduction to the study of the dependent, defective, and delinquent classes, and of their social t

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • Modern Prison Systems: Their Organization and Regulation in Various Countries of Europe and America 1903

    (Originally published in 1903. This volume from the Cornel...)

  • Correction and Prevention: Prepared for the Eighth International Prison Congress, Ed. By Charles Richmond Henderson V.2 1910

    (Originally published in 1910. This volume from the Cornel...)

Membership

Henderson was serving president of the National Prison Association, 1901-1902.

Personality

Henderson's chief traits as a scholar were open-mindedness and loyalty to truth, and although dealing in his study with the lowest conditions among men, he never lost faith in mankind. He was deeply religious, but broadminded, and was loved and respected by all religious groups. He was characterized, by those who knew him and his work, as both academic and practical, respected both by scientists and men of practical affairs.

Connections

In 1873, Charles Henderson was married to Ella Levering of Lafayette, Indiana.

Father:

Albert Henderson

Mother:

Loranna (Richmond) Henderson

Spouse:

Ella (Levering) Henderson