Theodore W. Jones

Theodore Wellington Jones (September 19, 1853 – April 30, 1943) was a Canadian-born American businessman, newspaper editor, and politician. He was a Cook County Commissioner in 1895–1896, and member of the National Negro Business League and the Negro Historical and Industrial Association. Jones played a pivotal early role in African-American political participation in Chicago. He also went by T. W. Jones, and Ted Jones.

Early life and education Theodore Wellington Jones was born on September 19, 1853, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, to parents Hannah Maria (née Tate) and John Jones. He attended public schools in Hamilton. By the age of 15, Jones was driving an express wagon (a type of horse-drawn vehicle).

Jones married Helen C. Lynthecom in 1882, and together they had three children.

In 1895–1896, Jones was a Cook County Commissioner. and the second African-American to be elected to the commission.

Jones worked as the treasurer and managing editor of the Chicago Daily Leader newspaper starting in 1897.

He was a charter member of Angelus University, founded in 1897 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, it was a short-lived institution located in Los Angeles, California. During the Second Annual National Negro in Business Convention in Chicago on August 21, 1901, Jones spoke to the audience and asked the question, "can the Negro succeed as a businessman?" On December 25, 1907 in Topeka, Kansas, Jones married his secretary Marie M. Thomas from Richmond, Virginia. Meanwhile Jones and his second wife Marie had bought expensive property in the all-white neighborhood of Governor's Row (or Governor's Square) in Topeka, Kansas, which was part of a series of ongoing lawsuits with his first wife.

Richmond, Virginia In later life Jones left Chicago, to moved to Richmond, Virginia.

In 1933, William H. Stokes a retired pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Richmond sued Jones for libel. It was regarding something of the "libelous and insulting nature" which was published in the Richmond Planet newspaper, and Jones was the newspapers editor. The club supported Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Vice President Henry A. Wallace. and was interned in Evergreen Cemetery in Richmond.