Born near Bethany, Illinois, days after the death of his father, who was serving in the Union Army during the American Civil War, Jones grew up working on farms.

[3] The town developed near the Yakama Indian Reservation, where several related peoples had been settled since the mid-nineteenth century, when they signed a treaty ceding millions of acres of land to the United States.

After moving to Washington state, Jones became was active in the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.

[1] Beginning in 1890, Jones was a sought-after campaign speaker in Washington, and took part in Republican rallies throughout the state.

[6] In 1917, Jones moved from Yakima to Seattle, the state's major city and port, located on Puget Sound on the west side of the Cascade Mountains.

He secured funding for several irrigation projects, which particularly aided farmers in the more arid eastern part of the state.

In 1906 he proposed a bill requiring the Yakama Nation to give up three-quarters of their land in order to gain any irrigation rights.

[9] This was opposed not only by the confederated tribes but by their allied European-American advocates, such as Lucullus Virgil McWhorter, a prominent rancher in Yakima who worked to support Native American rights and culture.

[13] More importantly, the Great Depression had set in, and many Republicans lost to Democrats in this election, as voters sought other solutions to growing unemployment.

Jones died in Seattle on November 19, 1932, shortly after losing reelection to his Senate seat, but before his final term had expired.