Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 3287institution, he had made a rather spectacular record in oratory. He enteredevery contest in forensic speaking and without exception won first honorsin all. Ambitious to secure every possible advantage before entering uponhis profession, young Garland Jones next entered Washington and Lee University, where he mastered a post-graduate course in law. Being thus exceptionally well equipped for independent work as a lawyer, he embarked uponhis career.In first locating as a lawyer, Mr. Jones chpse West 'Point, Mississippi, ashis scene of action. There he spent four years, his successes gradually andswiftly increasing, until 1898, when he severed his connection with Messrs.Critz and Beckett, his partners, and went to Kansas City, Missouri, where heentered upon practice alone. During this period of his professional life,Garland Jones gave his time almost exclusively to the cases of western corporations. Among the organizations which his skill has thus served, are theAmerican National Bank of Kansas City; the Central Trust Company ofthe same city; the Webb City Bank of Webb City, Missouri; the CentralAdvertising Company and other western concerns, besides numerous easterncompanies. While in the Missouri city, Mr. Jones was a prominent memberof the Kansas City Bar Association and had a large and desirable socialacquaintance in the city. It was from Newnan, Georgia, however, that hechose his life companion. This young lady was Miss Lucile Thompson,daughter of Berryman T. Thompson, an especially prominent banker of thiscity. Details regarding Mr. Berryman !s career and personality will beadded below.The Thompson-Jones marriage took place on November 14, 1906, at Newnan.Two years later, the young pair took up their residence in Mrs. Jones'native city. In a short time Garland Jones had become one of Newnan'sforemost lawyers and one of the most popular men in this section of the state.Five years after he had become a Georgian and a citizen of Newnan he waschosen to represent the people of his district in the State Legislature. Heserved with distinction during the 1913-1914 term and in the latter year waselected to serve during the term 1915-1916. Independent and forceful inthought and speech, Mr. Jones makes his presence felt in the law-making bodyof the state; not from any vain desire for prominence, but from a combination of clear-sightedness, of conscientiousness and of energy. A recent worthylaw of Georgia's enactment is the result of a bill of which he was the author,namely: that providing for the erection of the Georgia Training School forWayward Girls. The buildings for this institution were erected in 1913,and the school is supported by an appropriation from state funds of $20,000annually. The discussion of this bill was a violent and bitter one, many ofthe legislators refusing to see the seriousness of the need and the sacrednessof the obligation toward unfortunates of the state. The final vote was nott(>if,en until after a senatorial amendment had been made and then stood 115b- to 46 nays. Mr. Jones has been active and efficient as a member of the' ,v ays and means committee. He has also emphatically demonstrated his abilityas a legislative debater in the matter of the Tax Equalization Law, of whichhe was a vigorous champion. So closely raged the contest regarding thatlaw that the legislators tied in voting and the vote of the speaker saved itslife. This keen, close clash of mind upon mind, this use of all one's weaponsof .logic, of legal learning, of verbal effectiveness these constitute the arenain which Mr. Jones is his strongest, most alert, most effective self. His friendslook for greater political honors for him.In his practice as an attorney, Mr. Jones is regularly retained by theNewnan Banking Company and by the Mclntpsh Cotton Mills of Newnan.Since he became a resident of Georgia, Mr. Jones has taken much interestin the raising of cotton and now has full charge of the fine plantation belonging to Mrs. Jones' father, a property of 3,500 acres and not excelled forbeauty and fertility by any in Middle Georgia. Mr. Jones is addicted to