Joseph Lafayette Rawlins

Joseph Lafayette Rawlins
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United States Senator from Utah
In office March 4, 1897 – March 4, 1903
Preceded by	Arthur Brown
Succeeded by	Reed Smoot
Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from Utah
In office March 4, 1893 – March 4, 1895
Preceded by	John Thomas Caine
Succeeded by	Frank J. Cannon
Personal details
Born	(1850-03-28)March 28, 1850 Millcreek, Utah
Died	Salt Lake City, Utah
Resting place	Salt Lake City Cemetery
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Julia Elizabeth Davis
Children	Brent Leda Athol Alta Josephine Lara Boyce
Profession	Lawyer

Joseph Lafayette Rawlins (March 28, 1850 – May 24, 1926) was a delegate from the Territory of Utah and a Senator from Utah.

Rawlins was born at Millcreek, Salt Lake County, Utah on March 28, 1850.

He pursued a classical course at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. He was a professor at the University of Deseret, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1873–1875. He then studied law; he was admitted to the bar in 1875, and he commenced practice in Salt Lake City. Raised a Mormon, young Joseph disliked the practice of plural marriage and was grateful that his father, Joseph Sharp Rawlins, resisted the pressure of the church to take a second wife. However, when the elder Rawlins did succumb to the authorities, his son began questioning the principles and practices of Mormonism. By the time Joseph Lafayette returned to Utah after his first year at college, he was well on the way toward apostacy in his views, and by the time he became Salt Lake's city attorney, he considered himself a non-Mormon. He never went back to the church ("The Unfavored Few": The Auto-biography of Joseph L. Rawlins [ed. and amplified by Alta Rawlins Jensen]. Salt Lake City: privately printed, 1956, pp. 63–65, 125).

He was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-third Congress (March 4, 1893 – March 4, 1895). He was then an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1894 to the Fifty-fourth Congress. He was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1897, to March 4, 1903. He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination.

Afterwards, he continued the practice of law. In 1921, he withdrew from public life and active business, and he died in Salt Lake City on May 24, 1926. He is buried in Salt Lake City Cemetery.

See also

• United States Congress Delegates from Utah Territory

External links

• RAWLINS, Joseph Lafayette at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Joseph Lafayette Rawlins at Find a Grave
• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by John T. Caine	Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from Utah 1893-1895	Succeeded by Frank J. Cannon
United States Senate
Preceded by Arthur Brown	U.S. Senator (Class 1) from Utah 1897–1903	Succeeded by Reed Smoot