Representative Joseph Baltzell Showalter - Contact Information

Joseph Baltzell Showalter (February 11, 1851 – December 3, 1932) was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania who served three consecutive terms in Congress from 1897 to 1903. Over the course of his public career, he held office at both the state and federal levels and was also active in education, medicine, and the petroleum and natural gas industry.

Showalter was born near Smithfield, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, on February 11, 1851. He attended the local Georges Creek Academy at Smithfield, receiving the education that prepared him for an early career in teaching. Beginning in 1867, he taught school in several states, including West Virginia, Indiana, and Illinois, continuing in this profession until 1873. These early experiences in education and travel outside his native Pennsylvania preceded his return to the state and his entry into business and, later, public life.

In 1873, Showalter moved to Chicora, in Butler County, Pennsylvania, where he engaged in the production of petroleum and natural gas, industries that were expanding rapidly in western Pennsylvania during that period. After several years in this field, he decided to pursue a career in medicine. He studied at Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, in 1883, and subsequently completed his medical education at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore, Maryland, graduating in 1884. (This institution later merged into the University of Maryland School of Medicine, a component of the University of Maryland, Baltimore.) Following his graduation, Showalter returned to Chicora, where he practiced medicine from 1884 to 1890, before once again turning his attention to the production of petroleum and natural gas.

Showalter’s political career began at the state level in Pennsylvania. He was elected as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1887 and 1888, representing his constituents in the lower chamber of the state legislature. Building on this experience, he advanced to the Pennsylvania State Senate, where he served from 1889 to 1892. His tenure in the state legislature coincided with a period of industrial growth and political realignment in Pennsylvania, and it provided him with a foundation in legislative work and Republican Party politics that would later support his election to national office.

Showalter entered the United States Congress as a Republican during a significant period in American history, marked by the nation’s growing industrial power and increasing involvement in international affairs. He was elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Representative James J. Davidson, taking office as a Representative from Pennsylvania in 1897. He was subsequently reelected to the Fifty-sixth and Fifty-seventh Congresses, serving continuously from 1897 to 1903. During these three terms in the House of Representatives, he participated in the legislative process, contributed to debates and committee work, and represented the interests of his Pennsylvania constituents as a member of the Republican Party. He was not a candidate for reelection in 1902, thereby concluding his service in Congress at the end of his third term.

After leaving Congress, Showalter resumed his former business pursuits in the petroleum and natural gas industry and resided in Butler, Pennsylvania. He later moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, reflecting the continued importance of western Pennsylvania’s industrial and commercial centers in his professional life. Eventually he relocated to Washington, D.C., where he remained engaged in business activities, including the development of land in southern Florida, an area that was beginning to attract investment and development in the early twentieth century.

Joseph Baltzell Showalter died in Washington, D.C., on December 3, 1932. He was interred in North Cemetery in Butler, Pennsylvania, returning in death to the region where he had spent much of his professional and political life.