Charles William Jones | |
---|---|
United States Senator from Florida | |
In office March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1887 | |
Preceded by | Abijah Gilbert |
Succeeded by | Samuel Pasco |
Member of the Florida House of Representatives | |
In office 1874–1875 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Balbriggan, Ireland | December 24, 1834
Died | October 11, 1897 Dearborn, Michigan, U.S. | (aged 62)
Resting place | St. Michael's Cemetery, Pensacola, Florida, U.S. |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | Mary Ada Quigley (m. 1861–1880, her death) |
Children | 4 |
Profession | Attorney |
Charles William Jones (December 24, 1834 – October 11, 1897) was an American attorney and politician. A Democrat, he served as a United States Senator from Florida from 1875 to 1887. Jones abandoned his seat near the end of his second term, and it remained vacant for a year until a successor was elected. Jones was later diagnosed as mentally ill, and was hospitalized at a Dearborn, Michigan asylum for seven years before his death.
Jones was born in Balbriggan, Ireland on December 24, 1834. [1] His father was a British army surgeon who died when Jones was a child. [1] In 1844, Jones and his mother immigrated to New York City. [1] After attending school in New York City and St. Louis, Missouri, Jones moved to Louisiana and later to Mississippi. [1] He settled in Santa Rosa County, Florida in 1854, where he worked as a carpenter. [1]
After his arrival in Florida, Jones studied law, attained admission to the bar in 1857, and moved to Pensacola. [1] In addition to practicing law, Jones was appointed tax assessor for Santa Rosa and Escambia Counties. [2] He married Mary Ada Quigley of Mobile, Alabama in 1861; they were the parents of eight children, four of whom lived to adulthood. [1] Mary Quigley Jones died in 1880, and Jones did not remarry. [1]
A Democrat, Jones was a delegate to the 1872 Democratic National Convention. [1] Later in 1872 ran for the U.S. House of Representatives and was defeated by William Purman. [2] In 1874, Jones won a seat on the Florida House of Representatives, an election that was notable because his margin of victory was only five votes. [2]
In early 1875, the state legislature elected Jones to the U.S. Senate. [2] He was reelected in 1881 and served from March 4, 1875, to March 3, 1887. [2] Jones represented the conservative faction Democrats, which saw his election as "overthrowing of the Carpet-Bag rule in Florida." [2] He soon proved his party loyalty by condemning Louisiana for its continuation of Republican-led Reconstruction. [2] During the dispute that followed the 1876 United States presidential election, he objected to counting Florida's electoral votes for Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. [2]
During his senate career, Jones served as chairman of the Joint Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds (1879–1881) and the Committee on Revolutionary Claims (1883–1887). [3] In addition, he served on the Naval Affairs and Commerce committees. [4]
In the spring of 1885, Jones announced he was taking a vacation in Canada and Detroit, Michigan, including a visit with former Detroit mayor William G. Thompson, a relative by marriage. [2] When the vacation extended into early 1886, rumors suggested that Jones was pursuing a wealthy woman named Clotilde Palms, daughter of Francis Palms, and that he was refusing to leave Detroit without her. [2] [5] By April 1886, rumors suggested that Jones had become obsessed with Palms and had become insane. [2]
When Jones failed to appear for the 1886–1887 congressional session, senate leaders removed him from his committee assignments and appointed replacements. [2] Although this drew vocal ire from Jones, he continued to live at a Detroit hotel. [2] Florida newspapers began campaigning for Jones to be replaced, but Governor Edward A. Perry refused to act, citing the lack of rules or precedent regarding a senator who would not work but had not been officially declared physically or mentally impaired. [2] Instead, Jones' seat went vacant until his term expired in March 1887. [2]
After Jones' term ended in 1887, his life quickly spiraled downward. [2] Newspapers provided coverage of his decline nationally. "Senator Jones of Florida, of whom there was so much sensational newspaper talk last year, is now a mental wreck and penniless in Detroit, and dependent upon a friend for food," said one Kentucky paper in early December 1887. [6] By year's end, he had been evicted from his hotel room and was reportedly destitute. [2] In the spring of 1888, Jones had reportedly been reduced to common vagrancy. [2] Palms married a Detroit surgeon in 1889. [5] In May 1890, Jones' son was granted permission to have him restrained and a probate court determined conclusively that he had monomania. [7] Jones was then taken into custody and brought to an asylum for the insane in Dearborn, Michigan where he stayed until his death. [2]
Jones died in Dearborn on October 11, 1897. [8] He was buried at St. Michael's Cemetery in Pensacola. [9] In 1977, his Pensacola home, the Charles William Jones House, was added to the National Register of Historic Places. [10]