Son of Daniel S. and Lillie Ripley Henderson, Peronneau Finley Henderson graduated from the Aiken Institute and received an A.B. from Davidson College in 1897. He attended Harvard University and was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in 1899. He thereafter became the senior member of the firm of Henderson, Salley, Cushman and Summeral.
He served as an Acting Associate Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court, as a Special Circuit Court Judge, as President of both the South Carolina and Aiken Bar Associations and as a member of the American Bar Association.
He was a moderator of the Presbyterian Synod of South Carolina, Grand Chancellor of the South Carolina Knights of Pythias, Delegate to the Democratic National Convention, District Director of the Liberty Loan Campaign of World War I, President of the Board of the Aiken Institute, and Treasurer of the Aiken Hospital Association. He served as President of the Carolina Light and Power Company, Vice President of the Georgia-Carolina Electric Company, and a Director of the South Carolina Power Company and other manufacturing and business corporations.
He was married first to Grace Adelaide Powell and they had two daughters, and then to June Rainsford Butler. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Beta Theta Pi, the Masons, the Fermata Club, the Kiwanis and several Outing Clubs.
He often wrote and spoke on legal, religious, Pythian and historical subjects. Studious, energetic, public spirited, he served God and his fellow man.