William Joseph Deboe

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Official Congressional portrait

William Joseph Deboe (June 30, 1849 - June 15, 1927) was a U.S. Senator representing Kentucky from 1897 to 1903.

Born in Crittenden County, Kentucky, Deboe attended Ewing College in Illinois, studying both law and medicine. He graduated from the medical department of the University of Louisville and practiced for a few years. The then renewed the study of law and was admitted to the bar in 1889. He practiced law in Marion, Kentucky (Crittenden County).

Deboe served as superintendent of schools of Crittenden County. He then ran an unsuccessful candidacy for election in 1892 to Congress. He served as a member of the Kentucky State Senate from 1893 to 1898. He was afterward elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1897 to March 3, 1903. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1902.

While in the Senate, Deboe served as chairman to the Committee on Indian Depredations and the Committee to Establish the University of the United States. He was a delegate to Republican National Convention from Kentucky in 1912. Ten years later he served as the postmaster of Marion, Kentucky from 1923 to 1927. He died in Marion and was interred in Maple View Cemetery.