Photos by Dianne Saison
The turbulent time following the American Civil War was steeped in political battles and uncertainty. That tumultuous time helped shape the impressionable mind of a burgeoning young politician, with the unlikely result culminating years later in the emancipation of a large and historically significant island country thousands of miles away.
It was March of 1865, when 15-year-old Warsaw, Virginia, native William Atkinson Jones returned from the Virginia Military Institute to find his childhood home in Richmond County burned to the ground and the surrounding town raided. Although relieved to find his mother, Ann Seymour Towbridge, safe and unharmed, Jones’ family legacy was in ashes and his once-rural farming life had devolved into a military-state under Northern Occupation.
The Jones’s deeply established ties to the Northern Neck and Virginia date back to 1655, when Captain Peter Jones assumed command of Ft. Henry on the Appomattox River. His great-grandson, General Joseph Jones, a tobacco planter, lawyer and Postmaster of Petersburg, fought in the American Revolution and was a close friend to Lafayette. The General’s son, Thomas Jones, married Mary Lee of Lee Hall in Westmoreland County, cousin to Light-Horse Harry Lee and General Robert E. Lee. Their son, Thomas Jones, II, a respected soldier, farmer, law practitioner, was father to William Atkinson Jones and originally managed the Lee estate, later settling the family on the plot where the Jones House now stands.
Upon coming home from military school to find the beloved home his father built laid to waste, Jones decided not only to continue the family’s legal tradition, graduating from University of Virginia and practicing law as the Commonwealth’s Attorney in Richmond County, but he also decided to embark on a political career, with freedom as his drive.
In 1880, Jones became a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, which he served again in 1896 and 1900. On March 4, 1891, Jones was elected to the U.S. Congress, where he represented the First District of the Commonwealth of Virginia. During his 27-year career as a member of the House of Representatives, Jones also served as the Chairman of the Committee on Insular Affairs, from 1911 until his death in 1918. It was under those auspices that Jones embarked on the political crusade that would indelibly engrave him into the history books as a leader ahead of his time, a champion of self-governance, and a hero to an entire nation.
Gazebo with hidden 30-foot icehouse beneath it.
As part of his duties in Insular Affairs, a defunct branch of the government that covered lands acquired by the United States after the Spanish-American War — including the Philippine Islands, Puerto Rico and Guam — Jones and his wife extensively traveled throughout the Pacific. During those travels, the Congressman found deep empathy with the Philippine people, who had suffered under Spanish rule, and were living under U.S. occupation. It was a plight he was personally connected to, as much of his youth had been lived under occupation in the Post-Civil War era.
Armed with his personal knowledge, and his passion for self-governance, Jones met with many leaders, statesmen, and crusaders in the Philippines, including Manuel L. Quezon, who would later become the second Philippine president, and Emilio Aguinaldo, a famous Philippine freedom fighter and widely considered as the first Philippine president. As a result of those meetings, Jones introduced what would become known as “The Jones Act,” a bill which would give the Philippines their freedom, and initiated self-rule and an autonomous government.
The law was enacted by the 64th U.S. Congress on Aug. 29, 1916, and that October the newly created Philippine State held its first Senate elections. In the Philippines, Jones was a national hero, lauded by all echelons of its citizens as a true freedom fighter and the impetus behind the end of their political struggles. Bridges were named after him, parades and festivals held in his honor, and ornate plaques and engraved silver cups were bestowed upon him in gratitude — every man, woman and child in the island nation praised Jones’s name.
On Aug. 18, 1916, in front of Congress, Quezon gave a speech on behalf of the newly minted Philippine government, lauding Jones, during which he said: “Mr. Jones, I have witnessed your untiring work on this bill. I have seen your unselfish devotion to the cause of Philippine independence, honestly believing that it was demanded by God’s own law, but also by the interests of your nation and mine. As the Chairman of the Committee on Insular Affairs, you have considered it your paramount duty to write into law the covenant of your fathers and the spirit of America — freedom for all. By this bill — which is the result of your hard labor — labor you have carried out at the risk of your own life, for you have been working in spite of ill health — you are entitled, in my estimation, to a prominent place in the list of advocates of human liberty. Surely your name will be written in the letters of gold in the history of the Philippine Islands. You have earned not only the eternal gratitude, but the love of every individual Filipino. God bless you.”
It was well known to all that passing the Jones Act was a fight in which Jones invested his time, passion, formidable will, unerring sense of duty, and ultimately — his health. Just two short years after the Act’s passage, Jones died. On April 17, 1918, he succumbed after falling ill from attacks of paralysis. He was buried at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Warsaw, and his personal and office papers were donated to the Special Collections Library of the University of Virginia.
A painting of the Jones Bridge in Manila by Celeste Lecaroz. The Jones Bridge connects downtown Manila in the Philippines with the oldest Chinatown in the world. The painting was commissioned by the Philippine Embassy to represent the bridge of friendship between the Philippines and United States. Also pictured is a silver "Loving Cup," a gift to Congressman Jones from Manuel Quezon, former Philippine president and statesman.
In a 1918 special memorial address to the House of Representatives, former Virginia Governor and Congressman Andrew Jackson Montague said of Jones and the Act: “I accompanied him from the House to his committee room after the final passage of that measure. Tired and worn was he, but no word of personal exultation did he utter; only with winsome smile and subdued voice was a simple expression of gratitude that he had helped in his day and generation to extend the frontiers of human freedom. This was the great achievement of his long career, an achievement that will be memorialized in enduring form by the peoples of the Philippine Islands, and worthy of the best tradition of American Statesmanship.”
Upon his death, the Philippine nation erected a beautiful memorial at his grave in St. John’s. To this day, Jones is celebrated in the Philippines as a national treasure. In 2016, during a centennial celebration, Philippine nationals converged in Warsaw for a special festivity at the Jones House to honor his memory. They also have held operas in his honor, reenacted dinners and continued to celebrate his memory through visits with his family, and pilgrimages to his home.
In addition to his legal and political prowess, Jones, his wife Claude Douglas Motley of the Williamsburg Coke family, and their children Anne Seymour Jones Hopkins and William A. Jones, Jr., built a legacy in their hometown of Warsaw that stands to this day. Through hard work and indomitable will, the family prospered, despite the dire economic conditions of that time, rebuilding the farm, starting the first commercial fertilizer factory in the region, as well as a telephone company, newspaper, and helping to fund Northern Neck State Bank, the first bank in the area.
In 1888, Jones built the beautiful, three-story Queen Anne Victorian Home that proudly remains near Warsaw’s main intersection. The gorgeous home, a testament to the construction of that time, boasts pristine white siding, four brick chimneys, a grey-shingled roof, wraparound porches on the ground level and second floor, and many mullioned windows with original panes. The ground floor contains a foyer, parlor, bedroom, dining room, living room and a renovated kitchen. The second floor houses bedrooms, while the third floor is used as storage space.
Although not originally built with electricity, the amenity was added around 1901 by Jones as a surprise gift to his wife. At that time, people would come from miles around to marvel at the lights.
In 1915, the congressman’s daughter, Ann Seymour Jones Hopkins, was married at the Jones House, in what became one of the largest celebrations at that time, with months of planning and hundreds of deliveries received by barge from Baltimore. Sadly, she and her son, Archie, were killed in a 1940 car crash in New York. A portrait of Ann is hung in the home’s west hall.
Presiding over the dining room are portraits (from left) of Congressman William Atkinson Jones, Col. William A. Jones III, who grew up in the house and was a decorated war hero, General Joseph Jones, and Judge Thomas Jones II.
Touring the home itself is reminiscent of a walk through time, with an impressive collection of mementos accumulated during Jones’s extensive travels, as well as portraits of family members, pristine antiques, colorful period furniture, and many gifts, including a wooden statue of Lady Liberty presented by the Philippines.
Amazingly, Jones is not the only noted member of the family. William A. Jones, Jr., who grew up in the house, was a pilot during WWI, Richmond County Commonwealth’s Attorney, and he served in the U.S. Auxiliary during WWII, patrolling the Chesapeake and Tidewater rivers in his boat, the BillDad. Jones, Jr., also owned and operated the old Warsaw Theater, and wonderfully preserved original movie posters adorn the home’s walls as well as examples of Jones Jr.’s photography, where he wonderfully captured anecdotal moments in aviation.
Jones Jr.’s son, Col. William A. Jones III, a U.S. Air Force pilot, was awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest military honor, posthumously in 1970 for his heroic actions during a rescue mission in the Vietnam War. Jones III, another true hero, had a newly constructed building recently named after him at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. The Jones Building is a six-story, state-of-the-art facility, and pictures of the building commemoration, as well as Col. Jones III’s Medal and citations, are also proudly displayed inside the Jones House.
In addition to the main home, a lovely gazebo sits on the property with a hidden, 30-foot deep icehouse beneath it. The icehouse pre-dates the current home, going back to the 1830s, where previous generations kept their ice and goods cool in the summer heat.
The Jones property also extends far back, with just under 300 of the original 400 acres still attached to the house. The Delano family, a well-known agricultural family of the Northern Neck’s Richmond County, has farmed the land for generations, and remains close with the Joneses to this day.
The grounds are meticulously maintained by Jones’s descendants, who continue to use the house as a retreat. The warm and inviting family has meticulously preserved the historically significant furnishings and mementos inside the home, as well as updating the home to meet today’s needs — ensuring that their family legacy will continue to endure and the patriotic lives of six generations of Joneses will be remembered for generations to come.
The Jones House is an intrinsic piece of not only American, but Philippine history. The contents of its walls and the people who lived there have not only shaped the freedom of nations, but also continue to inspire in others the pursuit of — and dedication to — freedom, liberty and honor.
The House & Home Magazine would like to extend its gratitude to Elizabeth Hart Jones, Mary Lee Jones Kuhn, Anne Jones Gilfillan (Col. Jones III’s daughters) and Robert M. “Rusty” Gilfillan, a true wealth of family knowledge who graciously donated their time, knowledge, and documents to this article.