General George W. Jones, Dubuque

Many years before the Black Hawk war of 1832 the successful lead miners and Indian traders looked with anxiety to the time when they might take possession of the lead mines which had been opened and worked by Julien Dubuque over forty years before. Among such men was George Wallace Jones. He was born at Vincennes, Indiana, on the 12th of April, 1804, and was a son of Hon. John Rice Jones, a native of Merionethshire, Wales. Mr. Jones was educated at the Transylvania University, in Lexington, Kentucky, and on graduating chose the legal profession, which he studied with a relative, Hon. John Scott, at Saint Genevieve, Missouri. He was soon appointed clerk of Judge Peck's court, in which he discharged his duties with commendation. At this time failing health required a more active life, and being of a very enterprising spirit, he determined to seek his fortune in the upper Mississippi lead region. He accordingly removed to the new territory of Michigan, and made a home at Sinsinawa Mound, only six miles from Dubuque. This was in the early part of 1827.

At the close of the Black Hawk war he was elected judge of the court of the western district of Michigan, now the State of Wisconsin. It may be said to his credit in the administration of justice that no appeal was taken from any of his decisions.

Upon the organization of Wisconsin territory, then including Iowa, Minnesota, and even the whole region west to the Pacific, in 1836, he was triumphantly elected over two formidable competitors as a delegate to congress. He then commenced that brilliant political career of civil service and national legislation which continued for more than thirty years, and when a government land office was required for Wisconsin and Iowa he was appointed surveyor-general. This measure had been earnestly advocated by delegate Jones while in congress, and it was mainly through his personal influence that the office was located at Dubuque. He accordingly removed to the city and territory of his adoption, and has remained one of its most distinguished citizens ever since. In the next two years political partisanship became so strong, under a change of Presidential administration, that he was removed from office, but was reappointed under the new political policy of President Polk in 1845. He then discharged the duties of surveyor-general until 1848, when he was selected by the general assembly as one of the two United States senators. Upon the expiration of his first term as senator he was reelected for another term of six years, terminating in 1859.

Under the administration of President Buchanan General Jones was appointed minister to New Grenada. He made his official residence in Bogota for three years, and returned during the first year of the war of the rebellion. Under some misapprehension of facts, involving, also, partisan malice, incident to that lamentable period of our history, he was arrested and imprisoned several months in Fort La Fayette, and discharged without specific charges having been made against him. On reaching Dubuque, he was given the honor of a public reception.

For the last fifteen years General Jones has lived a partially retired life. His present family consists of his wife, whose maiden name was Miss Josephine Gregoire, whom he married at Saint Genevieve, Missouri, in 1829. She was a member of a highly respected French family, a lady of high attainments and distinguished for a marked excellence of womanly and christian virtues. Of his children, there are surviving three sons and two daughters.

In every position which, in his eventful life, he has been called to fill, General Jones has been successful in the highest degree. Few men have more devoted friends. None excel him in unselfish devotion and unswerving fidelity to the worthy recipients of his confidence and friendship. In public enterprises and benevolent societies, and in all the social and business relations of life, few men of Dubuque or Iowa will leave a brighter record of public service or private character than General George W. Jones.