Joseph Benson FORAKER, Congress, OH (1846-1917)

FORAKER Joseph Benson , a Senator from Ohio; born near Rainsboro, Highland County, Ohio, on July 5, 1846; pursued preparatory studies; during the Civil War served in the Eighty-ninth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, attaining the rank of brevet captain; graduated from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., in 1869; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1869 and commenced practice in Cincinnati, Ohio; judge of the superior court of Cincinnati 1879-1882; unsuccessful Republican candidate for Governor of Ohio in 1883; Governor of Ohio 1885-1889; unsuccessful candidate for Governor in 1889; elected in 1896 as a Republican to the United States Senate; reelected in 1902 and served from March 4, 1897, to March 3, 1909; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1908; chairman, Committee to Examine Branches of the Civil Service (Fifty-fifth Congress), Committee on Pacific Islands and Puerto Rico (Fifty-sixth through Sixtieth Congresses); resumed the practice of law in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he died May 10, 1917; interment in Spring Grove Cemetery.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Foraker, Joseph B. Notes of a Busy Life. 2 vols. Cincinnati: Stewart and Kidd Co., 1916; Walters, Everett. Joseph Benson Foraker: An Uncompromising Republican. Columbus: Ohio History Press, 1948; Lembeck, Harry. Taking on Theodore Roosevelt: How One Senator Defied the President on Brownsville and Shook American Politics. New York: Prometheus Books, 2015.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present