Annual events in the city of Henderson include the Heritage Syrup Festival in November, celebrating the East Texas tradition of syrup making, and the East Texas Sacred Harp Convention in August featuring shape note music.

After the Civil War, the International and Great Northern Railroad crossed through Rusk County, but bypassed Henderson.

In 1869, a white mob lynched five Black men without trial, including two preachers, in the public square outside the courthouse.

This encouraged the construction of several other brick buildings, including the Howard Dickinson House, now a historical site.

[7] The discovery of oil in October 1930 created a booming economy in the area, with the population of Henderson increasing from 2,000 to over 10,000 in a few months.

The community served as a stand-in for the British for Dunkirk, France, which is the same distance from London, England, as Henderson is from Terrell.

According to the Depot Museum, a man named John Crow recalled the fire as follows: I was about eight years old when Henderson burned.

My father said at the time they thought a fellow named Green Herndon, a union man, had hired a negro woman to burn Henderson.

On the negro woman's testimony, a mob gathered, threw a loop around his neck, tied it to a saddle horse, which went around the public square dragging Herndon to death.

Then they hung the body to a tree and shot it full of holes ... War was in preparation and people were in fits of anger.

When the war broke out, the men got all the files they could find and went to the blacksmith shops and made knives and swords.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 12.0 square miles (31 km2), of which 0.1 sq mi (0.26 km2) of it (0.92%) is covered by water.

The structure of the management and coordination of city services is:[15] (as of 2011) [needs update] Henderson is represented in the Texas Senate by Republican Bryan Hughes, District 1, and in the Texas House of Representatives by Republican Joanne Shofner, District 11.

A 3-A school, the Henderson Lions football team beat Chapel Hill, Texas, to become state champions in 2010.

[18] The City of Henderson is also served by Full Armor Christian Academy, a nondenominational private school.

It features a 15-acre lake, three fishing piers, a disc golf course, gardens, lighted pavilions, playgrounds, the Henderson Civic Center, and a plaza for concerts and events.

[21] The Rusk County Library is located in a historic building at 106 East Main Street in downtown Henderson.

The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters.