Joshua W. Alexander


Joshua Willis Alexander was United States Secretary of Commerce from December 16, 1919 - March 4, 1921 in the administration of President Woodrow Wilson.

Biography

Born on January 22, 1852 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Thomas Willis Alexander and Jane. Alexander attended Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri and later moved to Gallatin, Missouri, where he served as mayor and then as a state representative in the Missouri General Assembly. He served as a judge on Missouri's 17th Circuit until 1905.
Alexander, a member of the United States Democratic Party, served as a United States Representative from Missouri from 1907 until his resignation to become Commerce Secretary in 1919. He served as chairman of the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries and took a lead role in shaping wartime shipping legislation, which drew him to the attention of President Wilson. He also gained prominence for his service as Chairman of the United States Commission to the international conference on the safety of life at sea in London in 1913.
After his tenure as Secretary of Commerce, Alexander returned to the practice of law in Missouri. He served as a delegate to the state's constitutional convention in 1922-23.
He died there on February 27, 1936, at the age of 84, eighteen years later, after retiring in Gallatin. Alexander was interred in Brown Cemetery in Gallatin, Missouri.
Joshua W. Alexander was a brother of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

Family

Alexander married, the former Roe Ann Richardson, the daughter of a judge, on February 3, 1876. The couple had eight children.
Alexander's son, aviator Walter Alexander, was killed in a propellor accident at Bolling Field in 1920. Another son, George Forrest Alexander, became a federal judge in Juneau, Alaska.