| Joseph Wilson Baines | |
| Term Start: | January 18, 1883 |
| Term End: | January 21, 1887 |
| State House1: | Texas |
| Term Start1: | January 13, 1903 |
| Term End1: | January 10, 1905 |
| Birth Date: | January 24, 1846 |
| Birth Place: | Mount Lebanon, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Fredericksburg, Texas, U.S. |
| Resting Place: | Der Stadt Friedhof, Fredericksburg, Texas, U.S. |
| Mother: | Melissa Ann Butler |
| Relatives: | Samuel Ealy Johnson Jr. (son-in-law) |
| Serviceyears: | 1863–1865 |
| Unit: | Mann's Texas Cavalry Regiment |
| Battles: | |
Joseph Wilson Baines (January 24, 1846 – November 18, 1906) was an American journalist and politician. He was a Secretary of State of Texas and a member of the Texas House of Representatives.[1] He was the maternal grandfather of U.S. president Lyndon Baines Johnson.
Baines was born in Mount Lebanon, Louisiana, and his family moved to Anderson, Texas, when he was four. He was a son of George Washington Baines. He studied at Baylor University, then located in Independence, Texas. He entered the Confederate army "while quite a youth" with W. M. Williamson's cadets, later joining Walter L. Mann's Texas Cavalry Regiment. He served for two years. In 1868 he moved to Collin County, Texas, where he taught school for three years at Hide Out school and at Rowlett. He studied law under James W. Throckmorton and Thomas Jefferson Brown, the former governor and future chief justice of Texas, respectively.[2] Baines began to practice law in Plano, Texas, in 1870, later moving to nearby McKinney the same year. Prior to his appointment as Secretary of State by John Ireland in 1883, Baines was the publisher,[3] editor, and proprietor of the McKinney Advocate.[4] He was re–appointed to the Secretaryship after Ireland's second inauguration.[5] He was involved as owner and publisher of multiple papers in McKinney, Texas. Baines was the Secretary of State of Texas until 1887. Later, beginning in 1903, he was a member of the Texas House of Representatives for one term,[6] and was succeeded by his future son-in-law Samuel Ealy Johnson Jr.[7]
Baines married Ruth Ament Huffman, daughter of John S. Huffman, who was one of the Peter's colonists. Baines moved to Fredericksburg, Texas, after serving in the legislature.[2] Both Baines and his wife are buried together at the Der Stadt Friedhof, on the first row, near the National Museum of the Pacific War. They were the parents of Rebekah Baines Johnson, and the maternal grandparents of Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States.[7]