Charles William Jones
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| 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 | (1834-12-24)December 24, 1834 Balbriggan, Ireland |
| Died | October 11, 1897(1897-10-11) (aged 62) Dearborn, Michigan, U.S. |
| 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 |
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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]
ADemocrat, 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]
| U.S. Senate | ||
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| Preceded by | U.S. senator (Class 1) from Florida 1875–1887 Served alongside: Simon B. Conover, Wilkinson Call |
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| Public Buildings (1838–1857) |
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| Public Buildings and Grounds (1857–1947) |
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| Public Works (1947–1977) |
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| Environment and Public Works (1977–present) |
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