Joseph L. Bristow
American politician (1861-1944)
Joseph Little Bristow (July 22, 1861 – July 14, 1944) was a Republican politician from the American state of Kansas. Elected in 1908, Bristow served a single term in the United States Senate where he gained recognition for his support of several political causes of the Progressive Era. In retirement, Bristow was a farmer in Annandale, Virginia.
Bristow is a part of American political folklore when his Senate speech on "what the country needs" moved a bored Vice President Thomas R. Marshall, the presiding officer, to stage whisper "What this country really needs is a good five-cent cigar."
Early life
Joseph Little Bristow was born just outside the hamlet of Hazel Green, Kentucky on July 22, 1861, the son of William Bristow and Savannah (Little) Bristow. William Bristow was the son of a Methodist minister who had become a Methodist minister, taught school, and was a Union Army veteran of the American Civil War. Following the 1868 death of his mother, Bristow was raised and educated in his grandfather's devoutly religious household.
William Bristow moved to Kansas in 1876, and Joseph Bristow followed. After briefly working as a farmer, Bristow decided to pursue a career as a Methodist minister, and in 1882, his wife and he moved to Baldwin, Kansas so Bristow could enroll at Baker University.
Start of career
After deciding not to become a member of the clergy, Bristow's political career began while still a student, when he organized a Blaine and Logan club to support the Republican nominees for president and vice president in the 1884 United States presidential election. He graduated from Baker University in 1886, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1707449. VIAF identifies the subject as 33743004. The Library of Congress control number is n97067539. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1861, 1944, 1908 and 1868.
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This entry incorporates text from “Joseph L. Bristow” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.