Wesley Livsey JONES, Congress, WA (1863-1932)

JONES, Wesley Livsey, a Representative and a Senator from Washington; born near Bethany, Moultrie County, Ill., October 9, 1863; attended the common schools; taught school; graduated from Southern Illinois College at Enfield in 1885; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1886 and commenced practice in Decatur, Ill.; moved to North Yakima, Wash., in 1889, and continued the practice of his profession; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-sixth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1899-March 3, 1909); did not seek renomination in 1908, having become a candidate for Senator; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1909; reelected in 1914, 1920, and 1926, and served from March 4, 1909, until his death on November 19, 1932; was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1932; Republican whip 1924-1929; chairman, Committee on Industrial Expositions (Sixty-first Congress), Committee on Fisheries (Sixty-second Congress), Committee on Disposition of Useless Executive Papers (Sixty-fourth and Sixty-fifth Congresses), Committee to Investigate Trespassers Upon Indian Land (Sixty-fifth Congress), Committee on Commerce (Sixty-sixth through Seventy-first Congresses), Committee on Appropriations (Seventy-first and Seventy-second Congresses); died in Seattle, Wash., November 19, 1932; remains were cremated and the ashes placed in the Bonney-Watson Mortuary, Seattle, Wash.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Forth, William S. “Wesley L. Jones: A Political Biography.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington, 1962; U.S. Congress. Memorial Addresses. 72nd Cong., 2nd sess., 1932. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1933.

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