Gen. Geo. W. Jones

JONES

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 4/16/2008 at 23:59:58

PIONEER IOWA LAW-MAKERS, 1890

GEORGE WALLACE JONES – Born at Vincennes, Ind., April 12, 1804, and was educated under the guardianship of Henry Clay, at Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky., where he graduated in 1825. He then studied law in the office of John Scott, member of Congress from Missouri. In 1826 he was appointed Clerk of the United States Court at St. Genevieve. In 1827 he removed to Sinsinawa Mound, Wis., but then a part of Michigan Territory. In 1833 he was appointed Judge of the Territorial Court at Mineral Point, and remained on the bench until October, 1835, when he was elected delegate to Congress from Michigan Territory, which then embraced that vast region which now constitutes the States of Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and all the country west to the Rocky mountains. He was re-elected to Congress in 1837, and secured the passage of the bill making Iowa a separate Territory. In 1842 he was appointed by Chief Justice Dunn, of Wisconsin, Clerk of the Court; and in 1845, by appointment of President Pierce, we find him in the Surveyor-General’s office at Dubuque. On the 7th of December, 1848, he was elected to the Senate of the United States from the new State of Iowa, and by a subsequent election continued in the Senate until March 4, 1859. President Buchanan then appointed him Minister to Bogotá, New Grenada, now United States of Columbia. Gen. Jones has been so intimately connected with all that pertains to the early history of Iowa and the west that a brief sketch like this is but a mere glance at a busy and eventful life. He was a man whose influence as a delegate in Congress and as member of the Senate was always potent for the success of any measure he advocated, and as a result he did much in the way of shaping the early history of Iowa as a Territory and as a State. Gen. Jones still resides at Dubuque, active in body and mind, and reverts with pride to the work of a long and busy life.