Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen 1869-1948

Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen was the fourth and last U.S. Senator in the Frelinghuysen political dynasty that represented New Jersey in the U.S. Senate. He was a nephew of U.S. Senator Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen [1817-1885], and directly related to U.S. Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen [1787-1862] and U.S. Senator Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen [1817-1885].

Joseph S. Frelinghuysen was born in Raritan, Somerset County, New Jersey on March 12, 1869. He attended the public schools there and became interested in the insurance business. He served in the Spanish American War in 1898 as a second Lieutenant, first Lieutenant and an ordinance officer. He was elected to the New Jersey State Senate and served as a State Senator from 1906 to 1912. While in the New Jersey Senate he served as Senate President from 1909 to 1910 and was also Acting Governor of New Jersey ad interim during that time. He was President of the New Jersey State Board of Agriculture from 1912 to 1925 and President of the New Jersey State Board of Education from 1915 to 1919.

In the 1916 federal election, he was elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate and served as a U.S. Senator from 1917 to 1923. He was unsuccessful in his reelection bid in 1922. Joseph S. Frelinghuysen was New Jersey’s first directly elected U.S. Senator following ratification of the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1913.

Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen passed away in his winter home in Tucson, Arizona on February 8, 1948. He is interred in St. Bernard’s Cemetery in Bernardsville, New Jersey.