John Marvin Jones

Judge John Marvin Jones (February 26, 1882 – March 4, 1976) was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas and Chief Judge of the federal Court of Claims.

Marvin Jones was born to Horace King and Theodocia (Hawkins) Jones on a cotton farm in Cooke County, Texas near the town of Valley View, Texas. His sister Metze was married briefly to the legendary Sam Rayburn.

By the age of 17, he was a teacher in a one-room school, and worked his way through Southwestern University, earning himself a Ph.B. He earned an LL.B. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1907.

He moved to Amarillo, Texas to practice law and after an energetic campaign was elected as a member of the Democratic Party to the 65th United States Congress, handily defeating a 20-year incumbent, John H. Stephens. Jones served Texas's 13th congressional district for 24 years. His vote for the declaration of war against Germany was his first vote as a freshman congressman. He thereupon enlisted as a private in the United States Army in 1918, but hostilities ceased before he was sent overseas.