George Philip Jones (September 22, 1877 – December 9, 1954)[1] [2] was a judge of the United States District Court of the Virgin Islands from 1936 to 1937.[2]
Born in a log house on a farm about a mile from Luverne, Minnesota, his father was a Welsh farmer who came to America in 1868. Jones was raised on the Minnesota frontier, attending school in Luverne in the winters and working on the farm in the summers.[1] A year before completing high school work he became a schoolteacher, which he continued until the Spanish–American War broke out. He was then "instrumental in raising a company for the Thirteenth Minnesota; became quartermaster of the company and served with the regiment until it was mustered out".[1] The following winter he enrolled at Hamline University and at once "became a leader in athletics and played on the football team".[1] [2]
A candidate for clerk of the supreme court at age 24, he was one of the youngest candidates ever nominated for a statewide office by a major party in the state. Jones "leaped into political prominence" at the Democratic state convention of 1900,[1] with one account stating:
After the convention he stumped the state for Lind. In January 1901, he travelled to the Philippines at his own expense "to study the much mooted Philippine question".[1] He served for some period as county attorney for Clearwater, Beltrami and Stearns counties.[2]
Appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt to the United States District Court of the Virgin Islands in 1936, his service ended due to the expiration of his recess appointment.[3] Jones later served as hearing commissioner for the National Production Authority (NPA) in the Los Angeles, California, area.[2]
Jones died at his home in Santa Ana, California, at the age of 76.[2] He was thought to have been "the last living delegate to the 1904 convention of the Democratic party".[2]