Miles POINDEXTER, Congress, WA (1868-1946)

POINDEXTER Miles , a Representative and a Senator from Washington; born in Memphis, Tenn., April 22, 1868; attended the Fancy Hill Academy, Rockbridge County, Va., and Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va., graduating in law from that university in 1891; settled in Walla Walla, Wash., in 1891; admitted to the bar and began the practice of law; prosecuting attorney of Walla Walla County in 1892; moved to Spokane, Wash., in 1897 and continued the practice of law; assistant prosecuting attorney for Spokane County 1898-1904; judge of the superior court 1904-1908; elected as a Republican to the Sixty-first Congress (March 4, 1909-March 3, 1911); elected to the United States Senate in 1910; reelected in 1916 and served from March 4, 1911, to March 3, 1923; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1922; chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Interior Department (Sixty-second Congress), Committee on Mines and Mining (Sixty-second, Sixty-sixth and Sixty-seventh Congresses), Committee on Pacific Islands and Puerto Rico (Sixty-second Congress), Committee on Expenditures in the War Department (Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth Congresses), Committee on Indian Depredations (Sixty-fifth Congress); appointed by President Warren Harding as Ambassador to Peru 1923-1928; unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate in 1928; returned to his home, 'Elk Cliff,' Greenlee, Rockbridge County, Va., where he died September 21, 1946; interment in Fairmount Memorial Park, Spokane, Spokane County, Wash.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Allen, Howard W. Poindexter of Washington: A Study in Progressive Politics. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1981; Poindexter, Miles. The Ayar-Incas. 2 vols. New York: H. Liveright, 1930.

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