Senator William Deboe

About eight miles southeast of here, a man was born in eighteen forty-nine who would break a long political streak in Kentucky.

William Joseph Deboe grew up in Crittenden County, studied both law and medicine at a small college in Illinois, and came home to practice. He served as the county school superintendent and was admitted to the bar in eighteen eighty-nine, opening a law office in nearby Marion. He won a seat in the Kentucky State Senate, and then, in eighteen ninety-seven, he won something no member of his party had ever held in this state.

Deboe became the first Republican ever elected to the United States Senate from Kentucky. He served a single term, from eighteen ninety-seven to nineteen oh three. In Washington he chaired the committees on Indian Depredations and on establishing a national university. After Congress, he returned to Marion and his law practice.