William Edward BARTON, Congress, MO (1868-1955)

BARTON, William Edward, (cousin of Courtney Walker Hamlin), a Representative from Missouri; born in Pickens District (now County), S.C., April 11, 1868; in 1869 moved to Missouri with his parents, who settled in Crawford County, near Bourbon; attended the public schools and the Steelville Normal and Business Institute, Steelville, Mo.; employed as a farm hand, miner, and in a railroad office; taught school near Bourbon, Mo., 1889-1892; graduated from the law department of the Missouri University at Columbia in 1894; was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Houston, Mo.; delegate to the State judicial conventions in 1896 and 1906; during the Spanish-American War served as a sergeant in Company M, Second Regiment, Missouri Volunteer Infantry; prosecuting attorney of Texas County in 1901 and 1902; judge of the nineteenth judicial circuit 1923-1928; elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-second Congress (March 4, 1931-March 3, 1933); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1932 to the Seventy-third Congress; again elected judge of the nineteenth judicial circuit of Missouri and served from 1934 to 1946; resumed the private practice of law; died in Houston, Mo., July 29, 1955; interment in Houston Cemetery.

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