George Wallace Jones
| George Wallace Jones | |
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United States Senator from Iowa |
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In office December 7, 1848 – March 4, 1859 |
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| Preceded by | (none) |
| Succeeded by | James W. Grimes |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin Territory's at-large district |
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In office January 26, 1837 – January 14, 1839 Delegate |
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| Preceded by | District created |
| Succeeded by | James D. Doty |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan Territory's at-large district |
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In office March 4, 1835 – January 26, 1837 Delegate |
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| Preceded by | Lucius Lyon |
| Succeeded by |
District Abolished Michigan added to the Union |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
April 12, 1804 Vincennes, Indiana, US |
| Died | July 22, 1896 (aged 92) Dubuque, Iowa, US |
| Political party | Jacksonian |
| Alma mater | Transylvania University |
| Profession | Politician, Lawyer, Judge, Miner, Storekeeper |
George Wallace Jones (April 12, 1804 – July 22, 1896), a frontiersman, entrepreneur, attorney, and judge, was among the first two United States Senators to represent the state of Iowa after it was admitted to the Union in 1846. A Democrat who was elected before the birth of the Republican Party, Jones served over ten years in the Senate, from December 7, 1848 to March 4, 1859. During the American Civil War, he was arrested by Federal authorities and briefly jailed on suspicion of having pro-Confederate sympathies.
Jones was born in Vincennes, Indiana. He was the son of John Rice Jones, who became active in efforts directed toward the introduction of slavery to the country north of the Ohio River. When George was six years old, his father moved the family to Missouri Territory, recently acquired from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase. As a child he served as a drummer for a volunteer company in the War of 1812. He later moved to Kentucky where he attended Transylvania University in 1825, and returned to Missouri to study law with his brother. After he was admitted to the bar and had practiced law for a short time, he went to work at Sinsinawa Mound, then in Michigan Territory, where he mined lead and worked and a storekeeper. He returned to Missouri, where he courted and married seventeen-year-old Josephine Gregiore in 1829. In 1831 Jones returned to Sinsinawa with his wife, seven slaves and several French laborers, to resume lead mining.
In 1832, Jones fought the Sauk and Fox Indians in the Black Hawk War, in which his brother-in-law Felix St. Vrain was killed. Jones was a judge in the local county court.
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Wikipedia