Leaving Tennessee in 1866, young Jones came to Austin, Nevada, on January 26, 1868, and has made his home here ever since. For a year or so he was a clerk, and was then a cowboy and rancher. In 1871 he was committee clerk, and in 1881, assistant chief clerk of the assembly of Nevada. He was elected district attorney of Lander county in 1886. He was then thirty-six years old, and without any school education, having lived the rough uncultured life of a cowboy for many years. He had begun the reading of law at such intervals as he could find, and then began the practice of law at Austin without any equipment or books. By his great industry and keen judgment he at once attracted public notice, and was immediately recognized as a formidable opponent at the bar. He filled the office of district attorney for ten years with marked ability until he was elected attorney general of Nevada in 1898. In December of that year he moved his family to Carson City, and was installed in the office on the first Monday in January of the following year. He continued in that position for two years, and his success is indicated by the large number of state and other cases which were tried by him and which are given in the Nevada reports. In 1901 Governor Sadler, recognizing Judge Jones's ability, tendered him the office of judge of the third judicial district of Nevada, composed of Lander, Nye and Eureka counties. Judge Jones resigned his other position, and, removing back to his old home in Austin, served as district judge during the term, refusing to be a candidate for election in 1902. He then resumed his successful practice, and since his retirement from the bench has enjoyed a splendid private clientage and is one of the leading lawyers of the Nevada bar. While he was attorney for the state he won the celebrated tax cases against the C. P. Company; the boundary line case between Eureka and Lander counties; convicted A. Vaughan of the murder of the two Litster boys, three times in succession, after two years of almost constant labor; was senior counsel for Senator Ernst in the tax case in the district and supreme courts, which was finally decided in favor of Ernst on the very point first raised by his senior counsel.

January 3, 1876, Judge Jones married Miss Laforga F. Birchim, the adopted (daughter of John G. and Adaline C. Birchim, who were pioneers to Nevada from California, living on Reese river near Austin from 1864 till their death. Mrs. Jones was but twelve years old when her foster parents made the trip from California, and she helped drive the cattle from Sacramento county, often times on foot. Mrs. Jones, who is a native of Ohio and but two months younger than her husband, was two years of age when her parents, whose name was Allison, died of the cholera. They were on the plains on the way to the west, and her uncle cared for her until she arrived in Placerville, California, when he gave her to the Birchims. Mr. and Mrs. Jones have a son and two daughters, all born in Lander county and all grown. The son is Dr. J. B. Jones, a graduate from the University of Nevada and from the dental department of the University of California; he is a model young man, and is now located in a successful dental practice at Reno, Nevada. The two daughters, Addie J. and Edna T., are bright, handsome young women, and are popular with all who know them. There is a grave in the Austin cemetery that marks the spot of a lovely daughter's resting place, and if living she would now be twenty years of age.

Mr. and Mrs. Jones are both pioneers of Nevada, and each possesses in a marked degree the strongest attributes of good citizenship, being leaders in every charitable, social and public movement. Mrs. Jones is a lady of great force of character and ability to do things, and is one of the pillars of strength in the Methodist church, of which she has long been a devoted member, and she is a noble wife and mother.

Judge Jones is a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of the Eastern Star, is past grand chancellor of the order of Knights of Pythias of Nevada, and is the supreme representative of the Grand Domain of Nevada to the Knights of Pythias supreme lodge of the world, and is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, of the Elks, and the Rathbone Sisters. He has as wide and favorable acquaintance in Nevada as any man in the state, and his neighbors say that he is one of the best politicians in the state. As a life-long Democrat he has done all in his power to promote the interests of the party; he has frequently stumped the state during the campaigns, and was with Hon. George W. Cassidy in the latter's last compaign for Congress. He is a supporter of the silver cause, and has done effective work in the organization of party lines. For nine years he was editor of the People's Advocate and of the Reveille.

Mr. and Mrs. Jones are the highest type of the kind of material used to make the high standard of citizenship found throughout the state of Nevada. Judge Jones has had a remarkable career. Only wonderful will power and tenacity of purpose combined with a strong mentality and fine-grained character could effect a rise from a poor, hard-working orphan at the age of eight, through subsequent years when he had no opportunity for gaining education and the equipment with which most boys start their careers, carry him through the hard struggles for a living at the rough work of rancher and cowboy, then give him courage for the unaccustomed digging necessary for the mastery of the jealous mistress of the law, and thence to the courts, to higher offices and one of the most important judicial positions in the commonwealth, from which he has retired with wealth of honor and the esteem of all his fellow citizens.

Source:
A History of the State of Nevada: Its Resources and People
By Thomas Wren, Lewis Publishing Company
Published by The Lewis publishing company, 1904