Joseph Boyd Poindexter

Joseph Boyd Poindexter

Joseph Boyd Poindexter (born April 14, 1869 in Canyon City , Grant County , Oregon , † December 3, 1951 in Honolulu , Hawaii ) was the eighth governor of the Territory of Hawaii and held this office from 1934 to 1942. Prior to his appointment, Poindexter was a federal judge.

Career

Joseph Poindexter attended Ohio Wesleyan University and received his Bachelor of Laws from Washington University in St. Louis , Missouri . He was admitted to the bar in 1892 and was later a county attorney in Beaverhead County , Montana between 1897 and 1903. He was then a district judge in Montana between 1909 and 1915 and Attorney General of the state from 1915 to 1917 .

In 1917 President Woodrow Wilson appointed the Democrat Poindexter to the United States District Judge for Hawaii. Poindexter was in this office from May 14, 1917 to February 16, 1924. He then practiced again as a lawyer in Hawaii until March 1, 1934, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him the eighth Territorial Governor of Hawaii. A Community Congress Committee visited Hawaii in 1937 and submitted in February 1938 a report with the approval of a referendum on Hawaii's statehood (Engl. Statehood ). In the referendum, held on November 5, 1940, the electorate voted for the statehood of Hawaii.

Poindexter was reinstated in the office of governor in March 1938 by President Roosevelt. He was the second governor to hold a second term until then. In the immediate aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Poindexter placed the territory under martial law and allowed the US military to form a military government. The military government existed until 1943. After his term of office was up, Poindexter remained in office until August 24, 1942, when his successor, Ingram M. Stainback , was confirmed.

Poindexter resumed his practice as a lawyer after he had left the governorship. In July 1943, appointed him Hawaii Supreme Court (Engl. The steward trustee ) of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate (now Kamehameha Schools ), a position he held until his death on December 3, 1951 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Bibliography

• Dyer, CY (editor), Biographical Sketches of Hawaii's Rulers , 8th ed. (Honolulu: Bishop National Bank of Hawaii, 1957), p. 34-35.

Web links

• The Political Graveyard (English)
• Portrait on the cover of Time Magazine (English)