Albert Bacon FALL, Congress, NM (1861-1944)

FALL, Albert Bacon, a Senator from New Mexico; born in Frankfort, Franklin County, Ky., November 26, 1861; attended the country schools; taught school; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1891 and commenced practice at Las Cruces, N.Mex.; made a specialty of Mexican law; became interested in mines, lumber, land, railroads, farming, and stock raising; member, Territorial house of representatives 1891-1892; appointed judge of the third judicial district 1893; associate justice of the supreme court of New Mexico 1893; Territorial attorney general in 1897 and again in 1907; member of the Territorial council 1897; served as captain of Company H in the First Territorial Infantry during the Spanish-American War; upon the admission of New Mexico as a State into the Union was elected in 1912 as a Republican to the United States Senate for the term ending March 3, 1913; reelected in June 1912, but as the Governor did not sign the credentials, was again elected in January 1913; reelected in 1918, and served from March 27, 1912, until March 4, 1921, when he resigned to accept a Cabinet position; chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce and Labor (Sixty-second Congress), Committee on Geological Survey (Sixty-fifth Congress), Committee on Pacific Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands (Sixty-sixth Congress); appointed Secretary of the Interior by President Warren Harding and served from March 1921, until March 1923, when he resigned; resumed his former business pursuits in Three Rivers, N.Mex.; died in El Paso, Tex., November 30, 1944; interment in Evergreen Cemetery.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Fall, Albert. The Memoirs of Albert B. Fall. Edited by David Stratton. El Paso, Tex.: Texas Western, 1966; Joyce, Davis D. “Before Teapot Dome: Senator Albert B. Fall and Conservation.” Red River Valley Historical Review 4 (Fall 1979): 44-51.

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