Eagle, Joe Henry, 1870-1963

Joe Henry Eagle was born in Tompkinsville, Kentucky, on January 23, 1870. He moved to Houston in 1895 and served six terms in Congress as a Democrat from 1913 to 1921 and from 1933 to 1937. While in the House of Representatives, Eagle secured the establishment of Ellington Air Force Base in 1917 and an appropriation of four million dollars to deepen and widen the Houston Ship Channel in 1919. In 1936 he ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for Unites States Senator against Morris Sheppard, then retired from Congress for a second time to practice law in Houston until 1957. Eagle died on January 10, 1963.

From the guide to the Joe H. Eagle Papers MSS 73., 1908-1955, (Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library)