Joseph E. Ransdell
Joseph Eugene Ransdell | |
|---|---|
Samuel Thomas Baird | |
| Succeeded by | James Walter Elder |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 7, 1858 Alexandria, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | July 27, 1954 (aged 95) Lake Providence, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Resting place | Lake Providence Cemetery |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Olive Irene Powell Ransdell (married 1885-1935, her death) |
| Relations | Francis Xavier Ransdell (brother) Frank Voelker Sr. (nephew by marriage) |
| Occupation | Attorney; farmer; real estate |
Joseph Eugene Ransdell (October 7, 1858 – July 27, 1954) was an attorney and politician from Louisiana. Beginning in 1899, he was elected for seven consecutive terms as
Background
Born in
He practiced from 1883 to 1889 in
Joseph Ransdell served as
House and Senate
In 1899, Ransdell was elected as a
Ransdell served in the House from August 29, 1899, to March 3, 1913. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1912, having instead been elected by the Louisiana State Legislature to the United States Senate, prior to the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In 1918, he defeated future U.S. Senator John H. Overton of Alexandria in a disputed vote. Ransdell won his third term in the Democratic primary election in 1924, having defeated Lee Emmett Thomas, the mayor of Shreveport, 104,312 (54.9 percent) to 85,54 (45.1 percent). Huey Pierce Long Jr., while himself running for a second term on the regulatory Louisiana Public Service Commission spent more time supporting Ransdell for the Senate than he did his own campaign in which he carried all twenty-eight parishes in his district. Long was particularly motivated by his fierce opposition to Mayor Thomas though Long was then a resident of Shreveport.
Ransdell was a US senator from March 4, 1913, to March 3, 1931. But in 1930 Governor Huey Long ran in the Democratic primary against him for the seat and won. With 149,640 votes (57.3 percent), Long toppled Randsell, who polled 111,451 (42.7 percent). Long was elected in the general election without Republican opposition.
Ransdell had appeared in 1927 at a Long political rally in Lake Providence, where his younger brother introduced Long. District Attorney Jefferson B. Snyder, another long-term advocate of planter interests, sat on the stage. Snyder had not really favored Long so much as he was convinced that Long would defeat his chief opponent, U.S. Representative Riley J. Wilson, the favorite of most planter interests, and Snyder wanted to influence the new governor. At the rally, Huey Long began "a harangue that castigated their closest friends and political allies and the old establishment itself, of which these men were a part."[2] Particularly outraged at Long's treatment of the Randsdells was state Senator Norris C. Williamson of East Carroll Parish, the vice-president of the Constitutional League of Louisiana. He would not compromise with the Longs and retired to private life in 1932, rather than face likely defeat by the Long faction.[3]
T. H. Harris, the long-term Louisiana state superintendent of education, called Ransdell "one of the most lovable and distinguished citizens of the United States. [Yet] the people elected Long to the Senate because they believe that he can be of more use to them there. The people trust Long. I find it mighty easy to get on with Governor Long. I have seen the school appropriations increased by $1.9 million during the past two years. .."[4]
Ransdell was chairman of the Committee on Public Health and National Quarantine (Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth Congresses) and a member of the Committee on Mississippi River and Its Tributaries (Sixty-sixth Congress). It was in this capacity that Ransdell sponsored the Ransdell Act, which created the National Institutes of Health.
Later years and legacy
In 1920, Ransdell founded a printing firm in
Ransdell was a great-uncle of
Ransdell's great-great nephew was the
Ransdell named the community of Elmwood southwest of Lake Providence, where he owned much of the land, for his boyhood plantation in Rapides parish. In 1976, more than thirty years after Ransdell's death, St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in Lake Providence moved into a new building on a lot which the former senator had willed to the congregation. The new location at 207 Scarborough Street, is directly across the street from the earlier structure where Ransdell and his family had long worshiped.[5]
A biography of Ransdell was written in 1951 by Adras LaBorde, long-time managing editor of the Alexandria Daily Town Talk.
References
- ^ "S. Doc. 58-1 - Fifty-eighth Congress. (Extraordinary session -- beginning November 9, 1903.) Official Congressional Directory for the use of the United States Congress. Compiled under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing by A.J. Halford. Special edition. Corrections made to November 5, 1903". GovInfo.gov. U.S. Government Printing Office. 9 November 1903. p. 42. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
- dissertation, December 2006. Archived from the original(PDF) on September 21, 2013. Retrieved July 19, 2013.
- ^ Once Proud Princes, pp. 197-198
- ^ Long, Every Man a King, p. 232.
- ^ a b "East Carroll Parish, Louisiana, Genealogy, August 24, 2010". eastcarrollparishlouisianagenealogy.blogspot.com. 24 August 2010. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
- New Orleans Times-Picayune. Archived from the originalon June 20, 2013. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
- ^ "Story Archives: Obama's Louisiana Donors' Reasons Varied". lanewslink.com. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
External links
- United States Congress. "Joseph E. Ransdell (id: R000059)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- Joseph E. Ransdell at Find a Grave
- Cemetery Memorial by La-Cemeteries
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