William Robert SMITH, Congress, TX (1863-1924)

SMITH, William Robert, a Representative from Texas; born near Tyler, Smith County, Tex., August 18, 1863; attended the country schools, and was graduated from Sam Houston Normal Institute, Huntsville, Tex., in 1883; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1885 and practiced in Tyler until February 1888; moved to Colorado, Mitchell County, Tex., and continued the practice of law; judge of the thirty-second judicial district of Texas 1897-1903; was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-eighth and to the six succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1903-March 3, 1917); chairman, Committee on Irrigation of Arid Lands (Sixty-second through Sixty-fourth Congresses); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1916; moved to El Paso, Tex., in October 1916 and practiced his profession; appointed United States district judge for the western district of Texas and served from April 12, 1917, until his death in El Paso, Tex., August 16, 1924; interment in Evergreen Cemetery.

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