Columbus Jones
Reconstruction-era legislator from Madison County, Alabama — a delegate to the 1867 constitutional convention and, from February 1868, the county’s representative in the state house. Born about 1827 in Madison County; a blacksmith by trade.
Life in brief
Columbus Jones was born about 1827 in Madison County, Alabama, and worked as a blacksmith. Documented He lived in Tuscaloosa for about twelve years — roughly 1855 to 1867 — before returning to the Huntsville area. Documented On October 2, 1867, he opened an account at the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company in Huntsville, naming his father Turner Moore, his mother Eliza Jones, his wife Tomietta, and four children. Documented He served as a delegate to Alabama’s 1867 constitutional convention and was elected Madison County’s representative on February 4, 1868; his last appearance in the House Journal is December 9, 1868. Documented He died in January 1869, at about forty-two. Under investigation
Records
Born, Madison County, Alabama Documented
Ages reported in federal censuses and his Freedman’s Bank signature register place his birth around 1827. No birth record names him.
Tuscaloosa years Documented
His bank register remarks: “res Tuscaloosa ca 12 y; rest of time here.” The 1860 federal census for Tuscaloosa places Columbus next door to Shandy Jones’s family in a mostly white neighborhood; both men are listed as blacksmiths (Hoksbergen & DeNeefe, citing the 1860 census — the article’s page citation has not been re-verified against the manuscript).
Voter registration, Madison County Documented
Registered as an African-American voter, Madison County Precinct 1 / District 38, Oath Book 1, p. 109 — the same day and precinct as Turner Jones and “Jones Ruben,” consistent with the bank record’s family group (identity with the bank depositor is not formally proven by this source alone, which lists no age or occupation).
Constitutional convention delegate Documented
Delegate to Alabama’s 1867 constitutional convention.
Freedman’s Bank account opened Documented
Registers of Signatures of Depositors, Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, Huntsville branch (NARA M816, Roll 1) — Rathbun’s extraction numbers it account 29; Hoksbergen and DeNeefe cite it as No. 31. Columbus, age 40, “light brown”; born Madison County, “3 mi nw” of Huntsville; residence “3 mi nw of end of Athens Pike”; occupation blacksmith. Parents: Turner Moore (died March 1867) and Eliza Jones (died fall 1861), both died “at son’s home.” Spouse: Tomietta. Children: Paul (20), Elizabeth (16), Nancy (14), John Wesley (8, in Ohio). Brothers: Reuben and Turner (living with Columbus); Wade, Shandy, and David — deceased. Sisters: Eveline (wife of Lee Jones), Queen Ann (wife of Wesley Clifton), Mary Lee (wife of John Mitchell), Isabella (wife of Jim Scruggs), Elizabeth (wife of Jerry McCauley), and a deceased Elizabeth Jones.
Elected Madison County representative Documented
Elected to the Alabama House of Representatives. His last House Journal entry is dated December 9, 1868.
Death Under investigation
Reported as dying in January 1869, at about forty-two, while in office. The date rests on secondary citation; no primary death record has been located. If correct, the 1870 census should be searched for his widow Tomietta, not for Columbus.
Kinship
Turner Moore
Named in Columbus’s bank register; died March 1867 at his son’s home. His enslaver is unidentified. Documented
Eliza Jones
Named in Columbus’s bank register; died fall 1861 at her son’s home. No age, status, or owner is recorded. She is kept separate from Elizabeth, the woman manumitted in 1820. Documented
Paul, Elizabeth, Nancy, John Wesley
Ages in 1867: Paul 20, Elizabeth 16, Nancy 14, John Wesley 8 (then in Ohio). Documented
Reuben Jones, Turner Jones, Wade, Shandy, David
Reuben and Turner were living; Wade, Shandy, and David were deceased by October 1867. The deceased brother Shandy is not Shandy Wesley Jones, the legislator, who was alive in 1868 — do not merge. Documented
Eveline, Queen Ann, Mary Lee, Isabella, Elizabeth
Married names recorded: Eveline, wife of Lee Jones; Queen Ann, wife of Wesley Clifton; Mary Lee, wife of John Mitchell; Isabella, wife of Jim Scruggs; Elizabeth, wife of Jerry McCauley — plus a deceased Elizabeth Jones. Documented
Places
Three men, one name
Columbus Jones (white)
Son of Alexander P. Jones of the UAH/Jones Plantation case. The 1868-era register evidence rules him out of the colored entries: Contract 1288’s party is marked “All Colored no Charges.” (Identification memo, DB1 5089.)
Columbus Jones of Pensacola
b. 1840, son of Ambrose & Shada Jones of Macon, Georgia; hired out at the Pensacola Navy Yard; escaped by sea May 1, 1859 (the Hyannis kidnapping case). Firewalled, do-not-merge (DB1 5056).
Rep. Columbus Jones of Madison County
Freedman’s Bank register No. 29: son of Turner Moore and Eliza Jones, brother of Reuben; Alabama House 1868–69; died in office (year contested, DB4 1807). His April 27, 1868 letter is dictated, not signed.
What the record doesn’t say
The silence ledger for Columbus
- No record names Columbus before 1860. His enslaver — if he was enslaved, and by whom — is undocumented.
- The 1870 federal census has not been verified through free sources; if he died in January 1869, the search target is his widow Tomietta.
- The account number of his Freedman’s Bank entry is reported as 29 (Rathbun) and 31 (Hoksbergen & DeNeefe) — the same account, opened the same day; the numbering discrepancy is noted, not resolved.
- A second Columbus Jones — brother of Linzey Jones, born about 1856 in Georgia — appears in the bank records and is a different man. The two are kept separate.
- His brother Turner’s age is unknown; the 1867 voter register lists no ages.
Sources
- Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, 1865–1874, Huntsville, Alabama (National Archives Microfilm Publication M816, Roll 1) — Columbus Jones entry, October 2, 1867; extracted in Fred C. Rathbun, Names from Huntsville, Alabama, 1865–1869.
- Alabama Department of Archives and History, 1867 Voter Registration Books, Madison County vol. 1, p. 23 (Columbus Jones, June 24, 1867, Oath Book 1, p. 109).
- Ben Hoksbergen and Jane DeNeefe, “Keeping Up with the Joneses: Tracing the Lives and Legacies of Two Reconstruction-Era Legislators from Madison County,” Alabama Review 79, no. 3 (July 2026).
- 1860 U.S. Federal Census, Tuscaloosa, Alabama (NARA M653), as cited in Hoksbergen and DeNeefe.