Joseph Taylor ROBINSON, Congress, AR (1872-1937)

ROBINSON, Joseph Taylor, a Representative and a Senator from Arkansas; born on a farm near Lonoke, Lonoke County, Ark., August 26, 1872; attended the common schools, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, and the law department of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville; admitted to the bar in 1895 and commenced practice in Lonoke, Ark.; member, State general assembly 1895; presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1900; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-eighth and to the four succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1903, to January 14, 1913, when he resigned, having been elected Governor; chairman, Committee on Public Lands (Sixty-second Congress); Governor of Arkansas from January 16 to March 8, 1913, when he resigned, having been elected Senator; elected to the United States Senate in 1913 to fill the seat vacated by the death of Senator Jeff Davis; reelected in 1918, 1924, 1930 and 1936 and served from March 10, 1913, until his death; minority leader 1923-1933; majority leader 1933-1937; chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Treasury Department (Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth Congresses), Committee on Claims (Sixty-fifth Congress); unsuccessful candidate for Vice President of the United States on the Democratic ticket in 1928; died in Washington, D.C., July 14, 1937; funeral services were held in the Chamber of the United States Senate; interment in Roselawn Memorial Park in Little Rock, Ark.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Weller, Cecil E. Jr. Joe T. Robinson: Always a Loyal Democrat. Fayetteville, Ark.: University of Arkansas Press, 1998; Bacon, Donald C. “Joseph Taylor Robinson: The Good Soldier.” In First Among Equals: Outstanding Senate Leaders of the Twentieth Century, edited by Richard A. Baker and Roger H. Davidson, pp. 63-97. Washington: Congressional Quarterly, 1991.

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