Background
Joseph Maull Carey was born on January 19, 1845 at Milton, Delaware, United States; the son of Robert Hood and Susan (Davis) Carey.
Joseph Maull Carey was born on January 19, 1845 at Milton, Delaware, United States; the son of Robert Hood and Susan (Davis) Carey.
Carey attended Union College and the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, and was admitted to the bar in 1867.
Carey practised law in Pennsylvania for two years and then was appointed by President Grant first United States attorney in the newly-created territory of Wyoming, with which he was thenceforth identified, serving on the bench of the supreme court from 1872 to 1876 and thrice as delegate of the territory in Congress. In 1890 he introduced the bill providing for the admission of Wyoming as a state, and he defended ardently and successfully the clause in the constitution which conferred the suffrage on women. He had, indeed, been a consistent supporter of equal suffrage, which had been granted by the territorial legislature by act of 1869. He was chosen first United States senator from Wyoming in 1890, serving one term. During this single term, however, he secured the passage of an act (Aug. 8, 1894) which authorized the secretary of the interior to patent lands to states containing desert areas, provided they would cause such lands to be reclaimed and irrigated. The terms of this act, commonly known as the Carey Act, were accepted by Wyoming in the following year, and large areas were patented to companies. Although most of his constituents favored the free coinage of silver, Carey supported President Cleveland in securing the repeal of the silver-purchase act of 1890, sacrificing thereby his chances of reelection. During President Roosevelt's administration he became a Progressive Republican, and he again paid dearly for his independence, failing to obtain the nomination of the Republicans for governor in 1910. He was then nominated by the Democrats and elected. He became a promoter, with Sir Horace Plunkett, of a development company which by extensive irrigation projects at Wheatland threw open large areas to cultivation. In this undertaking he had in mind not merely financial profit but a great Wyoming with agriculture as its corner-stone.
He died in Cheyenne, Wyoming, aged 79.
He began to enter politics, first as a member of the Centennial Commission from 1872 to 1876, and then as a member of the Republican National Committee from 1876 to 1879. He was subsequently elected as mayor of Cheyenne, Wyoming (from 1881 to 1885) and then was elected to the United States House of Representatives representing the Territory of Wyoming from 1885 to 1890. When the territory became a state, he was elected to the United States Senate from 1890 to 1895. In 1895 however, he failed in a run for re-election and returned to the practice of law. Reentering politics in 1910, Carey won the state's gubernatorial election as the Democratic nominee, having been unable to win the Republican nomination in part due to his rivalry with Sen. Francis E. Warren, who controlled the state party.
In 1912, he became one of the organizers of the Progressive Party, which sought to re-elect Theodore Roosevelt. He also served as the vice president of the Federal Land Bank and a member of the board of trustees of the University of Wyoming at Laramie.
He was a member of the U. S. House of Representatives from Wyoming Territory's at-large district.
Carey married in 1877 Louise David of Cheyenne. The elder of their two sons, Robert D. Carey, served also as governor of Wyoming.
