Burton, Joseph Ralph, United States senator, was born on the old Burton homestead, near Mitchell, Ind., Nov. 16, 1851, the son of Allen C. and Elizabeth (Holmes) Burton. He is descended from English ancestors, who came to America to escape the reign of Cromwell, and settled near Richmond, Va. His great-grandfather, John P. Burton, removed from Virginia to North Carolina during the Revolutionary war, and in 1820 went to Indiana, where he founded the Indiana line of Burtons. Elizabeth Holmes was of Scotch-German descent. Joseph R. Burton was reared on his father's farm, attended the district school and the academy at Mitchell, and at the age of sixteen received an appointment as cadet at the United States naval academy at Annapolis, but failed to pass the physical examination. He taught school for a time, spent three years in Franklin College, Franklin, Ind., and one year at DePauw University at Greencastle. In 1874 he began to read law in the office of Gordon, Brown & Lamb, at Indianapolis, and in 1875 was admitted to the bar. In the spring of that year he married Mrs. Carrie (Mitchell) Webster of Princeton, Ind. In 1876 Mr. Burton was nominated by the Republicans for presidential elector and made many speeches during the campaign. In 1878 he removed to Kansas and located at Abilene, where he formed a partnership with Judge John H. Mahan for the practice of law. He was elected to the Kansas legislature in 1882; was reëlected in 1884 and again in 1888; was commissioner to the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago in 1893; and in 1895 lacked but one vote of being the Republican nominee for United States senator. In Jan., 1901, he was elected United States senator, but two years later was indicted by a Federal grand jury at St. Louis on the charge of accepting money from a corporation of questionable integrity of that city to use his influence with the postoffice department to prevent the company being denied the use of the mails. Burton claimed that the money was paid him as attorney's fees, and that he had done nothing more than other senators were doing every day, but the pressure became so strong that on June 4, 1906, he resigned his seat in the senate. (See Bailey's Administration.) Since retiring from the senate, Mr. Burton has given his entire attention to his law practice, extensive operations in real estate, etc.