Joseph F. Guffey

Joseph Finch Guffey (December 29, 1870March 6, 1959) was an American business executive and Democratic Party politician from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Elected from Pennsylvania to the United States Senate, he served two terms, from 1935 until 1947. Early life Joseph Finch Guffey was born on December 29, 1870, at Guffey Station in Sewickley Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania to John and Barbaretta (Hough) Guffey. Guffey's Scots-Irish ancestors had owned land along the Youghiogheny River since the 1780s, and prospered when railroads were constructed there. His mother was of English ancestry (Hough is a common surname in Lancashire.) Joseph Guffey was the last born of eight children: brothers James C. and Alexander S, and sisters Ida Virginia, Pauletta, Mary Emma, Jane Campbell, and Elizabet Irwin. He attended but did not graduate from Princeton University. As a Princeton student, he became a disciple of Professor Woodrow Wilson. During Wilson's tenure as Princeton president, Guffey and other former students became supporters of Wilson's Quad Plan for developing the university. Later Guffey became active in the Democratic Party and worked to help Wilson secure the Democratic presidential nomination in 1912 and gain election. In 1901–1918, Guffy was a general manager of the Philadelphia Company in Pittsburgh, a public utilities company, taking part in some other business enterprises. In September 1918, he incorporated a new firm, Guffey Gillespie Oil Company with E. N. Gillespie. It leased 220,000 acres in the Mid-Continent and Texas oil fields and was valued around $3,500,000 in 1921.