Spencer C. Jones (7/3/1836-4/1/1915)
MSA SC 3520-1549
Biography:
Born Spencer Cone Jones, July 3, 1836, Rockville, Maryland. Son of Rev. Joseph H. (1798-1871) and Elizabeth (Clagett) Jones. Attended Rockville Academy; Frederick College. Baptist. Married Ellen Brewer (7/22/1845-7/21/1876), December 21, 1871. One daughter, Elizabeth (m. Thomas R. Falvy). Died April 1,1915, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery, Frederick, Maryland.
Spencer Cone Jones was born on July 3, 1836, at Rockville, Montgomery County. He was the son of Rev. Joseph H. Jones (1798-1871), a Baptist minister, and Elizabeth (Clagett) Jones, a native of Montgomery County. Jones was educated at Rockville Academy. His family later moved to Frederick County, where he attended public schools and Frederick College. Upon graduation, he read the law with William J. Ross of Frederick, and was admitted to the Frederick County bar in 1860.
He began to practice law, but the Civil War overturned his plans. A Confederate sympathizer, Jones was arrested and imprisoned for eight months, being held at various periods in the city jail at Baltimore, Fort McHenry, and Fort Delaware. When released, he enlisted as a private in Company D of the First Maryland Confederate Cavalry, and served until the end of the war. During the February court term 1864, Jones was charged in the Frederick County Circuit Court for levying war. The state dropped the charges in March 1866. After the war he taught school near Huntsville, Texas, not returning to Maryland until after the adoption of the state constitution of 1867.
Upon returning to Maryland in 1868, Jones established a law practice in Rockville. On December 21, 1871, he married Ellen, daughter of John and Elizabeth Stewart (Buchanan) Brewer. Ellen's father was an influential Montgomery County lawyer, who had been a member of the state constitutional convention in 1850. Spencer and Ellen had one daughter, Elizabeth, who married Thomas R. Falvy of New Orleans.
A Democrat, Jones was elected State's Attorney of Montgomery County in 1871 and re-elected in 1875. He was clerk of the Court of Appeals, elected in 1879 and 1885, serving a total of twelve years in that office. The Maryland legislature elected him Treasurer of the State of Maryland in 1892. He was re-elected in 1894, but lost the 1896 election due to a Republican majority in the General Assembly. Rockville elected him mayor in 1898, and again in 1900. He resigned in 1901 upon being elected to the state Senate. During the session of 1902 he was chairman of the Finance Committee, and in 1904 he served as president of the Senate.
In addition to his legal practice, Jones served as director, and later president, of the Montgomery County National Bank of Rockville. Socially active, he was a Mason and Knight of Pythias, holding high offices in both organizations. He also served as vice president of the Board of Visitors of the State School for the Deaf at Frederick. Spencer Cone Jones died April 1, 1915, in New Orleans, at the home of his daughter. His body was brought back to Frederick and buried beside his wife, Ellen.
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