Joseph L. Bristow
| Joseph Little Bristow | |
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United States Senator from Kansas |
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In office March 4, 1909 – March 3, 1915 |
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| Preceded by | Chester I. Long |
| Succeeded by | Charles Curtis |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
July 22, 1861 Hazel Green, Kentucky |
| Died | July 14, 1944 (aged 82) Fairfax, Virginia |
| Political party | Republican |
Joseph Little Bristow (22 July 1861 – 14 July 1944) was a Republican politician from the American state of Kansas. Elected in 1908, Bristow served a single term in the United States Senate were he gained recognition for his support of a number of political causes of the Progressive era. Following his electoral defeat in the election of November 1914, Bristow spent the rest of his life as a farmer in the state of Virginia.
Bristow was a bit player in a legendary episode in American political folklore when his Senate speech on "what the country needs" is said to have moved a bored Vice President of the United States Thomas R. Marshall to lean forward and stage whisper: "What this country really needs is a good five-cent cigar."
Joseph Little Bristow was born in rural Wolfe County, Kentucky, just outside the hamlet of Hazel Green, on July 22, 1861. His father was the son of a Methodist minister who had become a school teacher who later fought in the American Civil War on behalf of the Union Army. The family was devoutly religious.
In November 1879, Bristow married Margaret A. Hendrix of Fleming County, Kentucky. Soon after marriage, the couple moved west to Elk County, Kansas to make a new life there in farming. This agrarian interlude was brief as in 1882 the Bristows moved to Baldwin, Kansas so that Joseph could enroll at Baker University, with a view to becoming a Methodist minister.
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