James C. Jones, for thirty-six years a representative of the St. Louis bar, was born in St. Louis, March 23, 1866, a son of William C. and Mary A. (Chester) Jones. His father was a well known attorney and jurist of the latter half of the nineteenth century. He served as a major in the Union army during the Civil war, from 1861 until 1865, and afterward entered upon law practice in St. Louis, where he served as judge of the circuit court from 1874 until 1878. His son, James C. Jones, turning to the same profession as a life work, was admitted to the St. Louis bar in 1885 and in a profession where advancement depends entirely upon individual merit and ability he has advanced steadily until he has gained a most creditable and enviable position among the representatives of the legal profession in St. Louis. He has always specialized in insurance law and is a member of the Association of Insurance Lawyers of New York and of the legal section of the American Life, and is and has been for many years senior member of the firm of Jones, Hocker, Sullivan and Angert. He has twice been honored with the presidency of the St. Louis Bar Association and twice with the presidency of the Missouri Bar Association. While his private practice has been extensive and of an important character he has rendered much valuable public service and for twenty-five years has been largely engaged in ameliorating the condition of the blind. He was secretary of the Missouri commission for the blind and drafted the law for the commission. For years he was a member of the board of managers of the Missouri School for the Blind and his labors in behalf of that unfortunate class have been definite, practical, far-reaching and resultant. He also organized the Legal Advisory Board, an adjunct to the draft boards in the late war and was the chairman of the draft board of the twenty-eighth ward. He was also one of the early and persistent advocates of voluntary enlistments prior to the draft. In a word he has ever stood for the one hundred per cent American principles and believes that when America affords shelter, protection and a living to the foreign born they owe their allegiance and loyalty to this land.
Mr. Jones has a son, James C. Jones, Jr., thirty-five years of age, who is associated with him in the practice of law, also specializing in insurance law. In politics Mr. Jones has always been a democrat, but never an office seeker and is well known as a valued member of the City Club, Missouri Athletic Club and the Normandie Golf Club.