George Washington (G. W.) Jones was born in King and Queen County, Virginia on March 15, 1806. His family migrated to Fayetteville, Tennessee in 1816 where Jones was apprenticed to a saddler as a young man. He briefly operated his own shop before entering politics. Jones was appointed Justice of the Peace in Lincoln County in 1832 and held that position until being elected to the Tennessee State House of Representatives in 1835, where he served until 1839. In 1839, he was elected to the Tennessee State Senate, where he served a single term. Jones became the clerk of the Lincoln County Court in 1840, where he worked until being elected to the U. S. House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1843. During his fourteen years in the House, Jones was devoted to limited government and a strict interpretation of the Constitution. As a slaveholder, he defended the right to own slaves but believed that the expansion of slavery was a lesser threat than the rise of large corporations. These beliefs eventually put him out of step with his party, and he declined to run for re-election in 1859 when faced with a strong challenge from another candidate. When the Civil War broke out, Jones opposed secession until after the assault on Fort Sumter. He was elected to the first Confederate Congress, where he served until the end of the war. Jones went on to represent Lincoln County at the 1870 Constitutional Convention but lost favor when he voted against the proposed constitution because it included a poll tax. George Jones died of pneumonia in Fayetteville, Tennessee on November 14, 1884 and is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery.