Joseph Very Quarles (December 16, 1843 - October 7, 1911) was an American politician of the Republican Party who served as a United States Senator from Wisconsin. Joseph Quarles was born in Kenosha (then Southport), Wisconsin. Quarles served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, in 1866. He graduated again from the university's law department in 1867, was admitted to the bar in 1868, and practiced law in Kenosha. There he served as district attorney for Kenosha County from 1870 to 1876 and as Kenosha's mayor in 1876.
Quarles made his way into state politics, serving in the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1879 and the Wisconsin State Senate from 1880 to 1882. He served one term in the U.S. Senate from March 4, 1899, to March 3, 1905; he did not run for reelection. After his term, in 1905 Quarles was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt as U.S. district court judge for the eastern district of Wisconsin, serving until his death. He died at age 67 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was interred in Kenosha.
