Joseph Hooker Shea

From "Lexington" by Mary Wilson and Sharon Y. Asher, published sometime after 1975.

JOSEPH HOOKER SHEA

Scholar, attorney, senator, judge, ambassador--Joseph Hooker Shea was all of these, and his climb to fame began in Scott County during 1863.

He was born in Lexington on the homestead of his parents Patrick and Bridget Shea, Irish immigrants who settled in Scott County. He attended the public school in Lexington and graduated from high school in Lexington with the class of 1883. He pursued his education at Indiana University, graduating in 1889 with an A.B. degree. In January of 1889 he was admitted to the bar at Scottsburg and thus began his active practice of law.

He was elected Prosecuting Attorney of the Sixth Judicial Circuit in 1891, a position he held for four years. In 1896 he was elected State Senator from Scott, Clark and Jennings Counties and was re-elected in the subsequent election.

Still climbing the ladder of political success, he became Judge of the Fortieth Judicial Circuit in Indianapolis in 1906 and administered this office for six years. He was nominated for the position of Judge of the Indiana Appellate Court and was elected in 1912. He remained there until he was appointed Ambassador to Chile in 1916 by President Wilson. His ambassadorship ended in 1921, when he returned to the practice of law in Indianapolis. He died in 1928.

The Shea Home in Lexington

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