Newell Sanders

Sanders was born in Owen County, Indiana, the son of Miriam (Coffey) and John Sanders.[1] He attended Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where he was graduated in 1873[2] 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 in April 1911 and served until February 1913[2] 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. During his somewhat abbreviated service, Sanders nonetheless served as chair of the Senate Committee on National Banks. 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]