Thomas Sambola Jones, E. Feliciana Parish, Louisiana

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Thomas Sambola Jones, M. A., LL. D., is a distinguished member of the

bar of the capital city of Louisiana, and in his active career his qualities as a

statesman and diplomat have caused him to be called to many positions of

high public trust, including that of United States minister to Honduras.  At

the time of this writing.. 1924, he is a member of the House of

Representatives of the Louisiana Legislature, a body in which he had

served also in earlier years.



Judge Jones was born in East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, October 5, 1839. 

His grandfather on the paternal side was William Henry Jones, who passed

his entire life in Alabama, where he was a resident near Russellville at the

time of his death.  William H. Jones became one of the extensive planters in

the vicinity of Russellville, and was a scion of a Welsh family that was

founded in Alabama in the Colonial period of our national history, the

original orthography of the family name having been Jones.  The maiden

name of the wife of William H. Jones was Ann Cox, and she likewise

passed her entire life in Alabama.



Thomas S. Jones, M. D.. father of him whose name initiates this review,

was born near Russellville, Alabama, in the year 1823, and passed the

Closing period of his bug and useful life in the home of his son, T.

Sambola, of this sketch, at Baton Rouge, where his death occurred in

1909.  He received from LaGrange College. in the city of Philadelphia, the

academic degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts, and thereafter was

graduated in its medical department also.  After receiving his degree of

Doctor of Medicine he was for forty-five years engaged in the active and

successful practice of his Profession at Jackson, East Feliciana Parish,

Louisiana, and in the period of the Civil war he was there designated by

both the Confederate and Federal authorities to serve as physician and

surgeon in the care of the ill and wounded soldiers of both the Southern

and Northern armies.  He served not only as Visiting surgeon of the

Louisiana Insane Asylum at Jackson, but was for thirty years in service also

as chairman of the executive board of this institution.  His services as a

skilled surgeon were widely requested in the Civil war period, and he

performed many surgical operations not only in Louisiana but also in

Mississippi.  In 1889 he established his residence in Baton Rouge, and here

he continued in the practice of his profession, as one of the distinguished

physicians and surgeons of Louisiana, for an additional period of twenty

years, his professional services having thus covered a period of more than

thirty years.  As a democrat he served one term in e Senate of the

Louisiana Legislature.  The Doctor was affiliated with the Masonic

fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was identified with

various professional organizations, including the Louisiana State Medical

Society and the American Medical Association, and he and his wife were

zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.  Mrs. Jones,

whose maiden name was Eliza Perkins Perry, was born at Jackson. this

state, and was sixty-six years of age at the time of her death, which

occurred in Baton Rouge, at the home of her son, the immediate subject of

this sketch.  The home of Judge Jones also figured as the place of the death

of his only sister and two of his brothers.  The sister, Annie Leonora, eldest

of the children, was sixty years of age at the time of her death and was the

widow of Rev. David M. Rush, D. D., who was a distinguished clergyman

of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and who was president of

Centenary College at Jackson, this state, at the time of his death.  Dr. Joe

S., next younger of the children, adopted the profession of his father,

served as state quarantine physician of Louisiana, and was forty-four years

of age at the time of his death, in the home of his brother. T. Sambola.  Mr.

Robert R., a successful young physician and surgeon, likewise died at the

home of Judge T. Sambola Jones, his next older brother, he having been

thirty-six years of age at the time of his death.  Robert Perry, the third of

the children, was killed in an accident :it Jackson when seventeen years of

age.



At Jackson, as a member of the class of 1876, Judge T. Sambola Jones was

graduated from Centenary College. from which he received the degrees of

both Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science, this institution being now

established in the city of Shreveport.  In 1879 he received from his alma

mater the supplementary degree of Master of Arts, and in 1920 the same

fine old college conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of

Laws.  For two years after his graduation Judge Jones taught school at

Trinity, Catahoula Parish, and thereafter he attended lectures in both the

medical and law departments of Tulane University, in the latter department

of which he was graduated in 190 , with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. 

From that year to the present time he has continued as a representative

member of the Baton Rouge bar.  His scholastic and executive ability was

shown also in bus for years of constructive service as superintendent of the

public schools of Baton Rouge in the earlier days of his residence in the

capital city.  For more than ten years he here presided on the bench of the

inferior court of the city, and for six years he was private secretary to

Governor M. J. Foster.  His versatility has been shown in divers other

directions, he was for fifteen years, editor of the official journal of the State

of Louisiana, The Daily Advocate.  He represented East Baton Rouge

Parish in the Lower House of the State Legislature in the period from 1912

to 1918, and he resigned his seat to accept the diplomatic office of United

States envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Honduras, a

position to which he was appointed by the late and revered President

Wilson.  He retained this post during 1919-20.  In the period of American

participation in the World war Judge Jones served as chairman and

manager of the Louisiana State Council of Defense.  In the spring f 1924 he

was again elected to the Legislature, in which he is now serving as speaker

of the House of Representatives.  The Judge was a Southern commissioner

at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, and later was an official

representative as Commissioner at large in the United States of the

Panama-Pacific Exposition.



He was for several years owner and editor of the Louisiana Educator,

which he made a power in connection with educational affairs in the state. 

He was associated with Colonel Thomas D. Boyd and Rev. T. K. Fontleroy

in establishing the Louisiana Chautauqua at Ruston, and there served a

number of years as a lecturer.  He has gained wide reputation as a brilliant

public speaker, and in his capacity as commissioner for the two expositions

above referred to he delivered addresses before a majority of state

legislative bodies in the United States.  He has been influential in the

councils and campaign activities of the democratic party for a long period

of years.  The judge has been affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, the

Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent and Protective Order

of Elks and Knights of Pythias.  He is actively identified with the Baton

Rouge Chamber of Commerce, and was a charter member of the Baton

Rouge Golf and Country Club, from which he resigned in 1919.  He is

affiliated with the East Baton Rouge Parish Bar Association and the

Louisiana State Bar Association.  In the practice of his profession he was

for many years associated with K. A. Cross, as junior member of the firm

of Cross & Jones.  He is now virtually retired from the active practice of

his profession.



To the physical advancement of his home city Judge Jones has contributed

by the erection of many homes, and his extensive real-estate holdings in the

capital city include his modern and beautiful home place at 630 Third

Street.



In 1883 Judge Jones wedded Miss Deborah Henrietta Spencer, daughter of

the late Judge W. B. Spencer, who was a justice of the Supreme Court of

Louisiana.  Mrs. Jones was survived by one child, Eliza Perry, who became

the wife of James E. Halligan and who was only thirty years of age at the

time of her death, in New Orleans.  Mr. Halligan, who was for a number of

years chief chemist at the Agricultural Department of the University of

Louisiana and who was also associated with the cotton industry in this

state, is the author of a number of text books presently taught in Louisiana

on stock raising and agricultural subjects.



While serving as minister to Honduras Judge Jones was there united in

marriage to Miss Julia deDuron, daughter of Romula deDuron, who was

then chief justice of Honduras, where he is now (1924) serving as secretary

of state.  Mrs. Jones, a woman of culture and attractive personality, is a

popular figure in the social activities of Baton Rouge.



NOTE:  A signed photograph/painting accompanies this narrative in the

referenced source.



A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 123-124, by Henry E. Chambers. 

Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New

York, 1925.