Joseph Irwin FRANCE, Congress, MD (1873-1939)

FRANCE, Joseph Irwin, a Senator from Maryland; born in Cameron, Clinton County, Mo., October 11, 1873; attended the common schools and Canandaigua Academy, Canandaigua, N.Y.; graduated from Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y., in 1895; attended the University of Leipzig, Germany; graduated from the medical department of Clark University, Worcester, Mass., 1897; taught natural science, Jacob Tome Institute, Port Deposit, Md., in 1897; resigned to enter the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore, Md., from which he was graduated in 1903; commenced the practice of medicine in Baltimore in 1903; member, State senate 1906-1908; engaged in finance in 1908; secretary to the medical and surgical faculty of Maryland 1916-1917; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1916 and served from March 4, 1917, until March 3, 1923; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1922; chairman, Committee on Public Health and National Quarantine (Sixty-fifth Congress); president of the Republic International Corporation; resumed the practice of medicine in Port Deposit, Cecil County, Md.; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1934 to the United States Senate; died in Port Deposit on January 26, 1939; interment in Hopewell Cemetery, near Port Deposit.

Bibliography

France, Royal W. My Native Grounds. New York: Cameron Associates, 1957; Geohegan, Sally Ingram. “The Political Career of Joseph I. France of Maryland.” Master’s thesis, University of Maryland, 1955.

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