Marcus Aurelius SMITH, Congress, AZ (1851-1924)

SMITH, Marcus Aurelius, a Delegate and a Senator from Arizona; born near Cynthiana, Harrison County, Ky., January 24, 1851; attended the common schools; taught school in Bourbon County, Ky.; graduated from Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky., in 1872 and from the law department of the University of Kentucky at Lexington; admitted to the bar and practiced; prosecuting attorney for the city of Lexington; moved to San Francisco and practiced law 1879-1881; moved to Tombstone, Ariz., in 1881 and continued the practice of law; prosecuting attorney for the Tombstone district 1882; elected as a Democrat as Delegate to the Fiftieth and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1887-March 3, 1895); elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1897-March 3, 1899); elected to the Fifty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1901-March 3, 1903); elected to the Fifty-ninth and Sixtieth Congresses (March 4, 1905-March 3, 1909); was not a candidate for election to the Fifty-fourth, Fifty-sixth, and Fifty-eighth Congresses; upon the admission of Arizona as a State into the Union was elected as a Democrat in 1912 to the United States Senate for the term ending March 3, 1915; reelected in 1914 and served from March 27, 1912, to March 3, 1921; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1920; chairman, Committee on Conservation of Natural Resources (Sixty-third Congress), Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation of Arid Lands (Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth Congresses), Committee on Printing (Sixty-fifth Congress), Committee on the Geological Survey (Sixty-sixth Congress); appointed in 1921 by President Woodrow Wilson as a member of the International Joint Commission created to prevent disputes regarding the use of the boundary waters between the United States and Canada, and served until his death in Washington, D.C., April 7, 1924; interment in Battle Grove Cemetery, Cynthiana, Ky.

Bibliography

Fazio, Steven A. “Marcus Aurelius Smith: Arizona Delegate and Senator.” Arizona and the West 12 (Spring 1970): 23-62; Goff, John S. Marcus A. Smith. Cave Creek, AZ: Black Mountain Press, 1989.

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