1925 Biography - Philip H. Jones

Philip Huff Jones, M. D., a representative physician and surgeon in the capital city of Baton Rouge and a prominent exponent of plantation industry in his native commonwealth, was born at Jackson, East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, November 8, 1855, and is a son of John Welsh Jones, M. D., who served with characteristic ability as assistant superintendent of the Louisiana State Insane Asylum at Jackson , and who was known and honored as one of the loyal citizens and representative physicians and surgeons of Louisiana.

William Welsh Jones, grandfather of him whose name initiates this review, was born in Lancaster County, South Carolina, in the year 1799, and a resident of Jackson, Louisiana, at the time of death, in 1871. He was reared and educated in his native county, and eventually moved thence to Opelika, Alabama, whence he came to Louisiana about the year 1832 and established his home ,in Feliciana Parish. The major part of his active career was marked by close alliance with agricultural industry, and he was one of the substantial planters of East Feliciana Parish at the time of his death. His wife, whose maiden name was Edith Hilton, was born in Lancaster County, South Carolina, in 1800, and at Jackson, Louisiana, her death occurred in the same year (1871) as that of her husband.

The original American representatives of this Jones family came from Wales and established residence in Virginia in the early Colonial era, and members of the family were substantial landowners and slaveholder's in South Carolina at the inception of the Revolution. Samuel Jones, great-grandfather of Doctor Jones of this sketch, served as a patriot soldier in the command of Gen. Francis Marion in the great struggle for national independence. Edith (Hilton) Jones, paternal grandmother of the Doctor, was a daughter of Samuel Hilton, who likewise served under General Marion in the War of the Revolution.

John Welsh Jones, M. D., was born in Lancaster County, South Carolina, October 17, 1826, and his preliminary educational advantages were of the best, as gauged by the standards of his day and generation. In 1850 he came to Louisiana, and in 1852 he was graduated from the medical department of Tulane University. He soon gained a large and representative practice in East Baton Rouge and East Feliciana Parishes, and he was unflagging in his earnest ministrations during the yellow fever epidemics of 1853 and 1855. At the initiation of the Civil war Doctor Jones raised a company of 115 men, designated as the Plains Cavalry, and of the same he was chosen the captain. He continued in active command of this gallant Confederate troop until after the battle of Baton Rouge. In 1865 he was on board a steamboat on the Tombigbee River at the time when its boiler exploded, and of the thirty-nine men on board he alone escaped instant death, his injuries having been so severe that he did not recover therefrom for more than two years. The close of the war found him in shattered health and reduced financial condition. The failure of his vision, owing to the injuries he had received in the accident just mentioned, precluded him from continuing the active work of his profession, but with characteristic fortitude and self-reliance he found another avenue of usefulness. He engaged in the retail drug business at Jackson, and in 1869 he was able to resume the practice of his profession, to which he continued to devote his attention until he was elected superintendent of the State Insane Asylum at Jackson. Upon assuming this office, in 1874, be found the institution in a sad state of demoralization and want. The attendants had not been paid for many months, no funds were in the treasury, the patients were lacking in clothing and other necessities, and the credit of the institution was not food for a dollar. Under these depressing conditions Doctor Jones faced the problems with earnest zeal and determination, consulted ways and means, and spared himself no effort in bringing order and service to a noble institution. At his own expense he purchased needed supplies, and for three months he absolutely maintained the asylum through his own funds with no certainty of being renumerated. His next step was to organize the stronger and otherwise available men patients into a body of farm workmen, in order that the institution might provide its own vegetables and field produce. This expedient proved most successful, and after relieving the more strenuous demands the loyal and purposeful superintendent made provision for the ring of brick on the asylum grounds. Even in that trying period Doctor Jones dreamed of and wrought for a time when Louisiana should be able to make proper provision here for every insane person within her jurisdiction, instead of leaving these unfortunate wards in parish jails, where they suffered hardships and privations and failed to receive necessary care and sympathetic helpfulness. After purchasing a cheap brick machine Doctor Jones instituted the manufacture of brick, and soon he had available 3,000,000 brick of excellent quality. This splendid work achieved, he was in a position virtually to force the State Legislature to appropriate sufficient funds for the construction of a high-grade asylum building, the same having soon been followed by four other excellent new buildings. Thus the capacity of the asylum was increased from 166 to more than 600. For all time must Louisiana owe a debt of gratitude and honor to Doctor Jones for the great service which he thus rendered. The Doctor, with the new provisions, opened the doors of the institution to all applicants, and in a single day he received 130 from the City of New Orleans, thereby closing the doors of the notorious bedlam known as the Marine Hospital. After devoting fourteen years to the care and welfare of the sorrow-laden wards of the Louisiana State Asylum for the Insane, Doctor Jones resigned the superintendency, in 1888, and retired to the management of his estate. Though well advanced in years, he was active in the management of his plantation, and until the close of his long, noble and useful life he continued to take deep interest in all things making for human progress and happiness. He had no desire for political preferment, but was a staunch advocate of the principles of the democratic party, and he was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the United Confederate Veterans. He was nearly ninety years of age at the time of his death, which occurred at Jackson. His wife, whose maiden name was Amaryntha Huff, was born in Wilkinson County, Mississippi. in 1835, and died at Jackson, Louisiana, in 1889. Her parents came to Mississippi with one of the earliest colonies from South Carolina. She was a daughter of Philip and Martha (Jackson) Huff, and the latter's father, Thomas Jackson, was a patriot soldier under General Marion in the War of the Revolution. Philip Huff became one of the representative planters and influential Citizens of Wilkinson County, Mississippi. In a family of ten children Dr. Philip Huff Jones, immediate subject of this review, is the eldest of the five now living (1924); George Hilton, M. D., the next younger, is engaged in the practice of his profession at Lutcher, St. James Parish; Pearl is the wife of George G. Keller, a substantial farmer and capitalist residing at Jackson, this state; Miss Lily still resides in the old home town of Jackson; and Judge W. Carruth Jones, presiding on the bench of the Twenty- second Judicial District, at Baton Rouge, is individually represented on other pages of this work.

The earlier education of Dr. Philip Huff Jones was acquired at private schools in Jackson, his native place, and thereafter he was for eighteen months a student in the University of Louisiana. In 1876 he was graduated from Centenary College, at Jackson, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He was the honor man and also the valedictorian of his class. In 1878 he was graduated from the medical department of Tulane University, and after thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he was engaged in practice at Port Hudson four years. For the ensuing six years he held, under the regime of his father, the position of assistant superintendent of the State Insane Asylum, and he was actively identified with the work of bringing this institution tip to its present high standard of service and usefulness. The Doctor remained at Jackson until 1898, thereafter was engaged in successful general practice at Lutcher eight years, and since 1907 he has been established in active practice in Baton Rouge, with a substantial clientele of representative order, and with offices in the Masonic Building. He here held from 1914 to 1922, inclusive, the position of city health officer. He is a member of the East Baton Rouge Parish Medical Society and the Louisiana State Medical Society. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party, and in their home city he holds membership in the First Baptist Church, while his wife is a member of the Presbyterian Church. The Doctor is a loyal member of the local Chamber of Commerce, and is affiliated with St. James Lodge No. 47, A. F. and A. M. He is the owner of a large and valuable plantation in West Feliciana Parish and of his pleasant home place in Baton Rouge, at 736 Convention Street.

January 12, 1882, recorded the marriage of Doctor Jones and Miss Annabelle Smith, daughter of the late John Scott Smith and Tullia (Richardson) Smith, the father having been a leading landholder and sugar planter in West Feliciana Parish. Doctor and Mrs. Jones have three children: Anita Dalton is the wife of Prof. Grover C. Huckaby, who is the subject of an individual sketch on other pages of this work, and they have one son, Philip Jones Huckaby. Junius Wallace, until recently a resident of New York City, is an officer in the aerial department of the United States Army, with the rank of major, was transferred to same position at Panama. Major Jones was graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point, and was there an instructor in military tactics during the period of American participation in the World war. Junius Wallace first married Mary Bierne Harmon, who died, leaving one child, Bierne. He later married Josephine Lanier. Philip Harold, youngest of the children, was graduated from Tulane University, medical department, and his ability won for him a Rhodes scholarship. He graduated from Oxford University, England, in 1924.

Concerning Doctor Jones the following estimate has been given by one familiar with his career: "Doctor Jones has not only gained success and prestige in his profession, but has also stood for the highest ideals in citizenship, with deep appreciation of the surpassing value of individual stewardship and of the advanced scholarship and civic loyalty that make human life worth while. He has fully upheld the honors of an honored family name, and his circle of friends is limited only by that of his acquaintances. The Doctor took an active part in the stormy events of 1876, when white supremacy was restored in the fair old Southland."

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, pages 74-76.