AN ALS REQUEST TO JUDGE JOHNSTON TO MAKE OUT A COUNTY SCRIPT, to Walker Jones and William Jones for services in holding an election. undated but probably around 1850, written and signed by Jones. Comes with the original envelope.WILLIAM JEFFERSON Jones (1810–1897) was a State Supreme Court judge, newspaperman, and railroad promoter. Jones went to Charleston, South Carolina, where he served as private secretary to the harbor commander, to Baltimore, Maryland, and then to Washington, D.C., where he met William Wirt, who helped him obtain a permit to practice before the United States Supreme Court. While visiting in Georgia he met Mirabeau B. Lamar, in whose newspaper office he became an assistant for a short time. In Mobile, Alabama, Jones founded the Mobile Morning Chronicle and ran it in 1836–37. He arrived at Galveston, Texas, on November 9, 1837. There he acted as Lamar's campaign manager, though he lacked the official title, and maintained correspondence with Nicholas Biddle, former president of the Bank of the United States, and Governor James Hamilton of South Carolina. During 1838 and 1839 he held a commission from Lamar to raise a battalion of three companies for the protection of the frontier. In June 1839 he was ordered to join Col. Edward Burleson for the Cherokee War. After the Indian campaign he was appointed judge of the Second Judicial District, a position he held for several years. He also served for a time as editor of the Houston National Banner. As early as February 1839, Jones wrote Lamar urging a Texas expedition to open trade with Santa Fe. Doubtless his suggestion contributed to the organization of the Texan Santa Fe expedition of 1841. From 1840 to 1846 he served as a judge in the Texas Supreme Court. He promoted the development of the Gulf, Colorado, Santa Fe, Galveston, Houston, and Henderson railroads. After the annexation of Texas, he formed a law partnership with Robert Jones Rivers and in 1852 moved to Virginia Point, his estate. At the close of the Civil War Jones set aside 320 acres of land, divided it into tracts, and sold it to emancipated slaves, from whom he required payment only ten years later. The new farms gave rise to Highland Station, a black community. Jones died at his home on May 10, 1897, and was buried at Virginia Point.