Background
Folk, Joseph Wingate was born on October 28, 1869 in Brownsville, Tennessee, United States. Son of of Henry B. and Martha (Estes) F.
Folk, Joseph Wingate was born on October 28, 1869 in Brownsville, Tennessee, United States. Son of of Henry B. and Martha (Estes) F.
Bachelor of Laws, Vanderbilt University, 1890. (Doctor of Laws, University of Missouri, 1905, William Jewell College, 1906, Drury College, 1907, Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, 1907, Southwestern Baptist University, Tennessee, 1908, and Baylor University, Texas, 1919).
Admitted to bar 1890. Practiced, Brownsville, 4 years. Moved to Saint Louis, Missouri, 1894.
Circuit attorney, City of Saint Louis, 1900-1904.
Exposed vast amount of political and official corruption and prosecuted numerous bribery cases which attracted wide attention. Governor of Missouri, 1905-1909, carrying the State on Democratic ticket by majority of 30,000, although Republican national ticket, headed by Theodore Roosevelt, carried the State by 25,000.
Author of Missouri anti-lobby law. State-wide primary law.
Initiative and referendum law.
The child labor law. Compulsory education law. Public utility commissions for cities.
Made lecture tour of the United States, 1909-1910.
Appointed solicitor for unites states department of State, September 22, 1913. Chief counsel for Interstate Commerce Commission, 1914-1918. Conducted investigations of New Haven, the L.&North., and Rock Island rys.
Now practicing law in Washington and Saint Louis.
Homes: Saint Louis, Missouri, and Washington, Distric.
Married Gertrude Glass, November 10, 1896.