Biography

08/09/1848 - 08/09/1944

Doctor Joseph Horace Shull (D22) Carbon, Monroe, Pike Counties, 1887-1890

Early Life: 

Doctor Joseph Horace Shull, born August 17, 1848, Martins Creek, Northampton County, Pennsylvania; son of Elias and Margaret Eakin Shull; public schools, Blair Academy, Blairstown, New Jersey; Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania; University of New York, Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York City, 1873; married, Melissa Virginia Flory, 1873, children, Claude, Samuel, Mary and Lucile Shull O'Neil; teacher, public schools, Pennsylvania;  four years; studied law, admitted bar, 1879; attorney, practice, Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania; editor, Monroe Democrat, 1881-1886; elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania Senate, 1887-1890; elected, Democrat, United States House of Representatives, Fifty-eighth Congress, 1903-1905; resumed, practice of law and medicine; president, Delaware Valley Railroad Company; served, contract surgeon, First World War; died, August 9, 1944 (aged 95) Stroudsburg, Monroe County, Pennsylvania, interment, Stroudsburg Cemetery, Stroudsburg, Monroe County, Pennsylvania. 

Early Career:

Attorney / Physician. 

Pennsylvania Politics:

First President, Monroe County Bar Association.

Elected, Democrat, Pennsylvania Senate, 22nd district, Carbon, Monroe, Pike Counties, 1887-1890; committee assignments, Congressional Apportionment, Corporations, Insurance, Judiciary General, Judiciary Special and Mines and Mining.

Continued Government Service/National Politics:

Elected, Democrat, United States House of Representatives, Pennsylvania 26th congressional district, Fifty-eighth Congress, 1903-1905; unsuccessful candidate, renomination fifty-ninth Congress, 1904. 

Legacy: 

Made headlines, at age 95, on May 22, 1944, became the oldest attorney to ever practice before the United States Supreme Court.

Cited: 

Cox, Harold. "Senate Members S". Wilkes University Election Statistics Project. Wilkes University.

Smull’s Legislative Handbook, (1890). Cochran, T.B., (Editor) Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, pages 696, 702-704, Biographical Sketches of Senators, page 669.

The Wilkes-Barre Record (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) Wednesday August 9, 1944, Page 22.

Joseph Horace Shull (1848-1944) - Find a Grave Memorial