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Joseph Very Quarles, Jr. (December 16, 1843 – October 7, 1911) was an American lawyer and politician of the Republican Party who served as a United States federal judge and as a United States Senator from Wisconsin.
Background
Joseph Quarles was born in Kenosha (then Southport), Wisconsin, the son of Joseph Very Quarles and his wife Caroline (Bullen) Quarles. Both had moved to Wisconsin with their families when they were children. Joseph had one brother, Charles, who would become his law partner. He married Caroline "Carrie" Adelaide Saunders on September 25, 1868, and they had three sons: Joseph Very Quarles III, William Charles Quarles, and Edward Louis Quarles.
Quarles served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, in 1866. He graduated again from the university's law department the next year, was admitted to the bar in 1868, and practiced law in Kenosha. There he served as district attorney for Kenosha County from 1870 to 1876 and as Kenosha's mayor in 1876.
Public office
Quarles made his way into state politics, serving in the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1879 and the Wisconsin State Senate from 1880 to 1882.
He served one term in the U.S. Senate from March 4, 1899, to March 4, 1905; he did not run for reelection.
After his term, Quarles was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt on February 25, 1905, as U.S. district court judge for the eastern district of Wisconsin, to a seat vacated by William H. Seaman. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 6, 1905, and received commission the same day, serving until his death. He died at age 67 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was interred in Kenosha.