Hennenman, which was built as a single railway station, was formerly denoted as Ventersburg Road. In 1927, it was renamed after local Afrikaner P.F. Hennenman, from Swartpan Farm.
In 1944, black South Africans were confined to a segregated enclave in southern Hennenman. During apartheid, this area was cleared by order of the government and nearly all then-residents relocated to a new township some fifteen kilometres away, Vergenoeg (Afrikaans for "contentment", now Phomolong).
Hennenman established a municipality in 1947. The council later assumed a coat of arms, and registered it with the Orange Free State Provincial Administration in January 1958.[2]
The arms were: Vert, three barrulets or between in chief a ripe mealie cob proper between two bezants and in base a cogwheel of the second, i.e. a green shield displaying a mealie cob between two golden discs at the top, three horizontal golden lines across the middle, and a golden cogwheel at the bottom.