Joseph W. Babcock

Who was Joseph W. Babcock?

Joseph Weeks Babcock was a seven-term Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Wisconsin.

Born in Swanton, Vermont. Babcock was the grandson of Joseph Weeks, a Congressman from Vermont. He grew up in Butler County, Iowa, where he started his lumber career working at his father's lumberyard. In 1881 he moved to Necedah, Wisconsin, where he amassed a fortune during his 17 years as manager and secretary of the Necedah Lumber Company, and served in the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1888-1892.

In 1892, Babcock was elected to the 53rd United States Congress from Wisconsin's 3rd congressional district and was reelected to the six subsequent congresses as well serving from March 4, 1893 till March 3, 1907. In 1893, he helped organize the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee; he was credited with helping achieve Republican successes in the 1894 House elections, and was chairman of the committee for the next ten years. He was a candidate for Speaker of the House in 1902, but lost to Joseph Cannon. He was defeated for reelection in 1906 by Democrat James William Murphy.

He continued to live in Washington D.C., where in 1909 he died at the age of 59 after suffering for several weeks from liver and kidney problems.