Senator Andrieus Aristieus Jones

Andrieus Aristieus Jones (May 16, 1862 – December 20, 1927) was an American politician from New Mexico who represented the state in the United States Senate from 1917 until his death in 1927. A member of the Democratic Party, he served two terms in the Senate and contributed to the legislative process during a significant period in American history, representing the interests of his constituents during and after World War I and through the early 1920s.

Jones was born in Obion County, Tennessee, near Union City, on May 16, 1862, the son of the Reverend James Henry Waldo Jones and Hester Ann Augusta (May) Jones. He was educated in local schools and pursued higher education at Bethel College in McKenzie, Tennessee. He later attended Valparaiso University in Indiana, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1884 and a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1885, establishing a foundation in liberal and scientific studies that preceded his legal and political career.

After completing his education, Jones taught school in Tennessee before moving in 1885 to Las Vegas in the New Mexico Territory. There he served as principal of the public schools from 1885 to 1887. While engaged in educational work, he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1888, and commenced legal practice in Las Vegas. He quickly became a prominent figure in local civic and professional life, serving as president of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce and as president of the New Mexico Bar Association from 1893 to 1894. During the same period, from 1893 to 1894, he served as mayor of Las Vegas, New Mexico, and from 1894 to 1898 he held federal office as a special United States Attorney. His growing involvement in Democratic politics was marked by his role as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1896.

Jones’s influence within the Democratic Party expanded in the early twentieth century. He served as chairman of the New Mexico Democratic Party from 1906 to 1908 and again from 1911 to 1912. In 1908 he became New Mexico’s member of the Democratic National Committee, a position he held until 1922, giving him a sustained role in national party affairs. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate in 1912, but that same year he entered the Wilson administration. From 1913 to 1916 he served as the first Assistant Secretary of the Interior, where he gained experience in federal administration and public lands policy that would later inform his Senate work.

Jones was elected to the United States Senate in 1916 and took office on March 4, 1917. He was reelected in 1922 and served continuously until his death in 1927. His tenure in Congress coincided with a transformative era in American politics and society, including U.S. involvement in World War I, the postwar adjustment period, and major domestic reforms. In the Senate he served on the Finance Committee, participating in deliberations over taxation, revenue, and fiscal policy. He was also chairman of the Committee on Woman Suffrage, playing a role in the congressional consideration of the constitutional amendment that ultimately secured voting rights for women. In addition, as a member of the Committee on Public Lands and Surveys, he worked to uncover and publicize the details of the Teapot Dome scandal, one of the most significant corruption cases in early twentieth-century American politics.

On the personal side, Jones married Natalia (often recorded as Natalie) Stoneroad in 1902. Born in 1871, she survived him by several years, dying in 1933. The couple had two sons, Vincent and Andrieus Aristieus Jones Jr. Their family life was centered in New Mexico, where Jones’s legal and political career was based, even as his Senate duties required extended residence in Washington, D.C.

Andrieus Aristieus Jones died in his apartment in Washington, D.C., on December 20, 1927. His cause of death was reported as angina pectoris. At the time of his death he was still serving in the United States Senate, making him one of the members of Congress who died in office in the first half of the twentieth century. He was buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Las Vegas, New Mexico, reflecting his long association with the community where he had first established himself as an educator, lawyer, civic leader, and public official.