DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — William Jefferson Jones, Galveston County. Now, some men spend a whole lifetime scraping together one good chapter. William Jefferson Jones had several, and most of them would've been enough for anybody else.
Born on September 27, 1810, Jones was a Virginia native who didn't waste much time getting started. By age nineteen, he already had his license to practice law. Nineteen years old.
Most young men are still figurin' out which direction is north. But Jones had bigger horizons in mind, and he found the man who could point him toward them. That man was Mirabeau B.
Lamar. Jones and Lamar became associates in a Georgia newspaper enterprise — and Lamar, as history would record, was destined to become president of the Republic of Texas. It was Lamar himself who urged Jones to make the move.
So in 1837, Jones traveled to Galveston. New republic, new coastline, new possibilities stretching out across the Gulf. He didn't sit still long.
In 1839, Jones joined Lamar's military campaign to remove the Cherokee Indians from East Texas. And then, around 1840, came an appointment that would mark him in the books: associate justice to the Texas Republic's first Supreme Court. First Supreme Court.
He would go on to render the court's second decision — a quiet, permanent kind of distinction. In 1841, he married Elizabeth Giberson, and the couple moved to Columbus in Colorado County, where Jones served as district judge. He kept building.
He kept deciding. Then, about 1852, he retired and came to Virginia Point. And here is where William Jefferson Jones did something nobody had managed before him.
He became the first person to successfully harvest valuable sea-island cotton in Texas — and to make use of its cottonseed oil. First. On that coastal stretch of land, he pulled something out of the soil that nobody else had.
But Jones was never quite finished dreaming. In 1853, working with a man named William R. Smith, he produced plans for a city at Virginia Point.
The proposals failed. Then in 1885, he tried again — this time with his son, Walter C. Jones — and produced new plans for that same city.
That didn't come to pass either. Still, the marker is careful to say he is credited with being among the first to envision the potential for a deep water port city on Galveston's mainland. Some visions, it turns out, don't need to be fulfilled by the man who first held them.
And there's one more thing this marker won't let you forget. Jones's generous land terms led to the development of the African American Highland Station community at La Marque, in the years after the Civil War. A community that found its footing, in part, because of the terms one man chose to offer.
William Jefferson Jones died on May 5, 1897, and he is buried in Galveston's Lakeview Cemetery. Lawyer at nineteen, justice on the first Supreme Court of the Republic, first to harvest sea-island cotton in Texas, a man who drew city plans twice over — and whose land terms helped a community put down roots. Some chapters don't make the headline.
But they hold the story together just the same.
What the marker says
(September 27, 1810 - May 5, 1897) Virginia native William Jefferson Jones received his license to practice law at age 19. He was an associate of Mirabeau B. Lamar, future president of the Republic of Texas, in a Georgia newspaper enterprise. Urged by Lamar to move to Texas, Jones traveled to Galveston in 1837 and in 1839 joined Lamar's military campaign to remove the Cherokee Indians from East Texas. Chosen as associate justice to the Texas Republic's first Supreme Court about 1840, Jones would later render the court's second decision. He married Elizabeth Giberson in 1841 and moved to Columbus in Colorado County to serve as district judge. He retired about 1852 and came to Virginia Point where he became the first person to successfully harvest valuable sea-island cotton in Texas and make use of its cottonseed oil. With William R. Smith in 1853, and again with his son, Walter C., in 1885, Jones produced plans for a city at Virginia Point. Although his proposals failed he is nevertheless credited with being among the first to envision the potential for a deep water port city on Galveston's mainland. Jones, whose generous land terms led to the development of La Marque's post-Civil War African American Highland Station community, is buried in Galveston's Lakeview Cemetery.