Anson Jones was the 4th and final President of the Republic of Texas, helping to secure the territory’s annexation into the United States in 1846.
Jones had been born in Great Barrington, MA in 1798 and arrived in Texas in 1832, where he established a successful medical practice before entering politics.
After Texas entered the US in 1846, Jones hoped that he would be appointed to the US Senate by the Texas legislature, but Sam Houston and Thomas Jefferson Rusk were selected instead, a slight Jones never got over.
After the suicide of Rusk on 29 July 1857, Jones once again hoped he would be elected by the legislature, but he failed to get a single vote.
The 59-year-old Jones spent his days brooding in a hotel room, ruminating over newspaper clippings and old letters that he believed would vindicate him in the eyes of history, waiting for recognition and a office seat that would not come.
After dinner on the night of 9 January 1858, Jones shot himself in the head.
