Newell Sanders

Newell Sanders
United States Senator from Tennessee
In office April 11, 1912 – January 24, 1913
Preceded by	Robert L. Taylor
Succeeded by	William R. Webb
Personal details
Born	(1850-07-12)July 12, 1850 Bloomington, Indiana
Died	January 26, 1939(1939-01-26) (aged 88) Lookout Mountain, Tennessee
Political party	Republican

Newell Sanders (July 12, 1850 – January 26, 1939) was a Chattanooga businessman who served for a relatively brief time as a United States Senator from Tennessee.

Sanders was born in Owen County, Indiana. He attended Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where he was graduated in 1873 and operated a bookstore until 1877. During that year, he moved to Chattanooga and became involved in the manufacturing of farm implements. He served on the board of education 1881  – 1882 and as an alderman 1882  – 1886. He also served on the board of directors of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway.

When Democratic U.S. Senator Robert Love Taylor died in office, Tennessee Governor Ben W. Hooper, a Republican, appointed Sanders to the vacancy. Sanders was sworn in during April, 1912 and served until January, 1913 when the Tennessee General Assembly elected educator William R. Webb, a Democrat, to succeed him, the process called for in the United States Constitution until the Seventeenth Amendment was ratified later in the decade.^[1] During his somewhat abbreviated service, Sanders nonetheless served as chair of the Senate Committee on National Banks.^[2] Sanders was the last Republican to serve as U.S. Senator from Tennessee until the election of Howard H. Baker, Jr. over five decades later. He was, furthermore, the last Republican U.S. Senator from a former Confederate state prior to the election of John Tower of Texas in 1961 (a gap of 48 years).

After his service in the Senate, Sanders returned to his manufacturing interests until his retirement in 1927. In 1922 he ran for popular election to the United States Senate, and received 32 percent of the vote against Democratic incumbent Kenneth McKellar. Sanders died at his home in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, and was buried in Chattanooga's Forest Hills Cemetery.^{[3] [4]}

Notes

United States Senators from Tennessee
Class 1	Cocke A. Jackson Smith J. Anderson Campbell Eaton Grundy Foster Grundy Nicholson Foster Turney Jones Johnson Patterson Brownlow Johnson Key Bailey H. Jackson Whitthorne Bate Frazier Lea McKellar Gore Sr. Brock III Sasser Frist Corker
Class 2	Blount J. Anderson Cocke Smith Whiteside Campbell Wharton Williams A. Jackson White A. Anderson Jarnagin Bell Nicholson Fowler Cooper Harris Turley Carmack Taylor Sanders Webb Shields Tyson Brock I Hull Bachman Berry Stewart Kefauver Walters Bass Baker Gore Jr. Mathews Thompson Alexander