BAILEY, Joseph Weldon, 1862-1929

Years of Service: 1901-1913

Party: Democrat

BAILEY, Joseph Weldon, (father of Joseph Weldon Bailey, Jr.), a Representative and a Senator from Texas; born near Crystal Springs, Copiah County, Miss., October 6, 1862; attended the common schools; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1883 and commenced practice in Hazlehurst, Miss.; moved to Gainesville, Tex., in 1885 and continued the practice of law; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-second and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1891-March 3, 1901); was not a candidate for renomination in 1900; elected to the United States Senate in 1901, reelected in 1907, and served from March 4, 1901, until January 3, 1913, when he resigned; chairman, Committee on Revolutionary Claims (Sixty-first Congress), Committee on Woman Suffrage (Sixty-first Congress), Committee on Additional Accommodations for the Library (Sixty-second Congress); resumed the practice of law in Washington, D.C.; subsequently moved to Dallas, Tex., in 1921 and continued the practice of law; was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Texas in 1920; died in a courtroom in Sherman, Tex., on April 13, 1929; interment in Gainesville Cemetery, Gainesville, Tex.

Bibliography

American National Biography; DAB; Acheson, Sam. Joe Bailey, The Last Democrat. 1932. Reprint. Freeport, N.Y.: Books For Libraries Press, 1970; Holcomb, Bob C. ‘Senator Joe Bailey, Two Decades of Controversy.’ Ph.D. dissertation, Texas Tech University, 1968.