Andrieus A. Jones was born near Union City, Tennessee, in 1862. He worked as a teacher in Tennessee before relocating to Las Vegas, New Mexico, in 1885, where he served as a public school principal. While teaching, Jones studied law, passed the bar, and became a practicing attorney. He served as the Democratic mayor of Las Vegas in 1893 and 1894 and as a special U.S. district attorney from 1894 to 1898. In 1912 Jones ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the U.S. Senate. The following year, the Senate confirmed his nomination as assistant secretary of the Interior, a position he held until his election to the U.S. Senate in 1916. Days after Jones took the oath of office on March 4, 1917, Democrats—then the Senate majority—named Jones as chair of the Committee on Woman Suffrage. As pressure rose for passage of a woman suffrage amendment, he accepted the challenge of his chairmanship and scheduled two historic votes, in 1918 and 1919, on what had become known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment to the Constitution. Both times, Jones’s effort to pass the amendment with the required two-thirds majority failed. On June 4, 1919, however, with Republicans in the majority, the Senate finally passed the amendment by a vote of 56 to 25, and Jones cast his vote in favor of the amendment. Andrieus Jones died in office on December 20, 1927, and is interred in New Mexico.
