Joseph Wingate Folk was born in Brownsville, attended Vanderbilt School of Law in 1890, and practiced law in Brownsville before moving to St. Louis, Missouri. He became Circuit Attorney for St. Louis in 1900, and his anti-corruption successes led to his election as Governor of Missouri, serving from 1905 to 1909. In 1912 he became Solicitor General of the U.S. State Department, in 1914 Chief Counsel for the Interstate Commerce Commission, and he later served as counsel for Peru and the Egyptian National Committee. He was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Brownsville.