JONES, George Washington, Congress, TN (1806-1884)

JONES, George Washington, a Representative from Tennessee; born in King and Queen County, Va., March 15, 1806; moved to Tennessee with his parents, who settled in Fayetteville; received a common-school and academical education; apprenticed to the saddler’s trade; justice of the peace 1832-1835; member of the State house of representatives 1835-1839; served in the State senate 1839-1841; clerk of Lincoln County Court 1840-1843; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-eighth and to the seven succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1843-March 3, 1859); chairman, Committee on Rules (Thirty-first and Thirty-second Congresses), Committee on Roads and Canals (Thirty-fifth Congress); delegate to the peace convention of 1861 held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war, but did not attend; elected from Tennessee a Member of the House of Representatives in the First Confederate Congress and served from February 18, 1862, to February 18, 1864; was not a candidate for reelection; delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1870; died in Fayetteville, Lincoln County, Tenn., November 14, 1884; interment in Rose Hill Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present