Albert B. Fall

Albert Bacon Fall (November 26, 1861November 30, 1944) was a United States senator from New Mexico and Secretary of the Interior under President Warren G. Harding who became infamous for his involvement in the Teapot Dome scandal; he was the only person convicted as a result of the affair. As a captain in the United States Army, he supported a military invasion of Mexico in 1916 as a means of ending Pancho Villa's raids. Early life and family Albert Fall was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, to William R. and Edmonia Taylor Fall. He attended schools as a child in Nashville, Tennessee, but was primarily self-educated. By age eleven Fall was employed in a cotton factory. This is most likely the cause of respiratory health problems he suffered throughout his life. Due to his illnesses, Fall moved west as a young man to seek a better climate. He tried Oklahoma and Texas, but eventually he settled in Las Cruces, New Mexico Territory, where he practiced law. Between 1879 and 1881, Fall worked as a teacher while he studied law. On May 7, 1883, he married Emma Garland Morgan in Clarksville, Texas. They had four children: a son, Jack Morgan Fall, and daughters Alexina Chase, Caroline Everhart and Jouett Elliott. Jack and Caroline died within a week of each other during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. The Fall family lived at the Three Rivers Ranch in the Tularosa Basin. Fall also had a home in El Paso. Career Fall was admitted to the bar in 1891. He served in the New Mexico House of Representatives from 1891 to 1892, and served on the territorial council from 1892 until 1893. Fall was appointed judge of the third judicial district in 1893, and associate justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court later the same year. Fall served on the Territorial Council again from 1896 to 1897, and as the territory's attorney general in 1897. He again served on the Territorial Council from 1902 to 1904.