William J. Jones family

JONES, SMITH, LEWIS, STAHL

Posted By: Sharyl Ferrall - IAGenWeb volunteer
Date: 7/29/2008 at 19:49:32

WILLIAM J. JONES

More than forty years have passed since William J. Jones became a resident of South Dakota and throughout the intervening period to the present he has been identified with business interests in Minnehaha county, where he still owns the old homestead which he secured in 1873, as well as much other property.

He was born in Breconshire, Wales, December 14, 1838, and in 1842 was brought to the United States by his parents, who, making their way to the middle west, settled upon a farm in Kenosha county, Wisconsin. Remaining under the parental roof until seventeen years of age, William J. Jones divided his time between the acquirement of a common-school education and the work of the fields.

In the spring of 1856 he started out to make his own way in the world and was employed as a farm hand through the summer, while in the succeeding winter he worked in the pine woods near Green Bay, Wisconsin. The summer of 1857 witnessed his removal to Allamakec county, Iowa, where he again resumed farm work, being thus engaged until the spring of 1859, when he joined with the Argonauts who made their way to Pike's Peak in search of the Golden Fleece. The success that he had wished for did not crown his efforts there, however, and in the fall of the same year he returned to Allamakee county.

Subsequently he went to the north Wisconsin pine woods on the Chippewa river and in the spring of 1800 he proceeded down the Mississippi on a raft. Finally, however, he returned to Iowa, locating at Clarinda, Page county, where he was employed on a farm,, remaning there until the spring of 1861, when he contracted to drive an ox team to Colorado, and return.

When that task was completed, Mr. Jones offered his services to the government, enlisting as a member of Company I, First Nebraska Infantry, with which he went to the front. He was on active duty for a time in the south and later on the plains fighting Indians, for the regiment had been transferred to the cavalry branch of the service. Mr. Jones was mustered out as commissary sergeant at Omaha, Nebraska, on the 1st of July, 1866, and returned to his home with a most creditable military record, having fearlessly and faithfully defended the interests of his country, both in the south and upon the frontier.

He then returned to Allamakee county and purchased a farm. About that time he was united in marriage to Miss Susan R. Smith, a native of Indiana and a daughter of Reuben and Martha (Lewis) Smith. On the maternal side she is of Welsh extraction. Her paternal grandfather served for seven years in the Revolutionary war. Mrs. Jones was a girl of seven years on the removal of the family to northeastern Iowa, where she grew to womanhood and was married. She and her husband began their domestic life upon his farm in Allamakee county, where they resided for about seven years. Within that period Mr. Jones was very active in the public life of the community and served on town boards as county commissioner, as tax collector and on school boards, proving most capable and faithful in the discharge of the many duties devolving upon him.

In 1873 Mr. Jones left his home in Iowa and came to South Dakota, taking up a homestead in Brandon township, Minnehaha county, which is still in his possession. He went back and forth to his old home in Iowa until the spring of 1875, when his family removed to this state, and they have since been residents here.

Mr. Jones is an extensive landowner, his holdings comprising seven hundred and twenty acres in Brandon township, four hundred and eighty acres in Clear Lake township and one hundred and sixty acres in Red Rock township, Minnehaha county; three hundred and twenty acres in Meade county; and four hundred and eighty acres in Stanley county, this state, with an equity in another four hundred and eighty acre tract in the same county. He also owns three hundred and twenty acres in Montana and a quarter section in Wyoming.

To our subject and his wife have been born four children, as follows: E.O. Jones, who is a prominent attorney of Sioux Falls; Frank W., an agriculturist residing in Fort Bennett, Stanley county; Dr. E.A.D. Jones, a leading physician and surgeon of Garretson, South Dakota; and Lena Lova, who is a noted artist of Long Beach, California. The last named is a graduate of the Chicago School of Art and studied under private tutors in New York city and California.

With the exception of one term's service as county commissioner, Mr. Jones has held no public offices in South Dakota, but has concentrated his energies upon his private business affairs, which capably and intelligently directed, have brought to him a gratifying measure of success. He is persistent and determined in conducting his business interests and energy and enterprise have carried him into important relations.

ELMER A. D. JONES, M. D.

Among the able and learned members of the medical profession in eastern South Dakota
is Dr. Elmer A. D. Jones, now successfully practicing both medicine and surgery in Garret-
son.

He was born in Allamakee county, Iowa, on the 18th of June, 1870, and is a son of
William J. and Susan R. (Smith) Jones. The father was a native of Wales and was but
four years of age when brought to the United States by his parents, who settled upon a
farm near Kenosha, Wisconsin. Having arrived at years of maturity, he wedded Susan R. Smith, a native of Indiana and a descendant of one of the Mayflower Pilgrims. Her parents removed to Allamakee county, Iowa, when she was four or five years of age and there she was reared. In early womanhood she engaged in teaching school and was Senator Crawford's first teacher. Following their marriage Mr. and Mrs. William J. Jones began their domestic life in Iowa, where they remained for about nine years. In 1874 they came to South Dakota. Prior to this, in 1872, Mr. Jones had visited this state and had filed on land, securing both a preemption and a tree claim. In 1873 he broke the virgin soil and the
following year removed to his new home. In 1875 he built one of the first houses and barns
in Minnehaha county outside of Sioux Falls. He now resides upon a farm of a quarter section
of land about a half mile north of Brandon and has converted this tract of land into rich and productive fields. He has ever believed in the future greatness of South Dakota and has manifested his faith in the state by adding to his holdings until he now owns seventeen or eighteen hundred acres of land, making further investments in property from time to time. In business affairs his judgment is sound, his discrimination keen, and his energy unfaltering. He has likewise been a prominent and influential factor in the public life of the community, has served as county commissioner for two terms and also represented his district in the territorial legislature before the admission of the state into the Union.

Dr. Elmer A. D. Jones was reared at home and acquired his preliminary education in the
public schools. He also attended the State Normal School at Madison, South Dakota, for
two years and for two years was at the State Agricultural College of Brookings. Later
he became a student in the Sioux City Business College, where he remained for six months,
and in the fall of 1894 he entered the Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville, Kentucky,
in which he remained through the following term.

In January, 1896, he resumed his studies, entering the Kentucky Medical College. In the fall of 1896 he matriculated in the medical college of the State University at Louisville, from which he was graduated on the 29th of March, 1898. While thus preparing for active practice he took special work during the holiday periods, studying particularly along the lines relating to internal medicine, to diseases of children and to diseases of the nose and throat. Since his graduation he has taken post-graduate courses in Chicago at the Chicago Post-Graduate School, at the Chicago-Policlinic and also pursued Pratt's special course in orificial surgery.

After his graduation Dr. Jones located for practice in Iowa, and was also in Nebraska
for a time and thence came to South Dakota. He also has license to practice not only in
those three states but also in Missouri and California. He practiced for a time at Spearfish, South Dakota, but after four years, or in October, 1909, located in Garretson, where he has since made his home. He was appointed railway surgeon for the Great Northern Railroad
Company the week following his arrival in Garretson and has acted in that capacity continuously since. He has a large general practice and manifests particular skill in surgical work.

In 1889 was celebrated the marriage of Dr. Jones and Miss Mary M. Stahl, and unto them has been born a son, who still survives, Donald H. Jones, who is now attending the Sioux Falls high school. Politically Dr. Jones is a republican but while he keeps well informed on the questions and issues of the day he does not seek nor desire office. He belongs to Minnehaha Lodge, No. 5, F. & A. M.; to Sioux Falls Chapter, No. 2, K. A. M.; to Occidental Consistory, No. 2, A. & A. S. K.; to Jasper Chapter, No. 2, O. E. S.; and to El Riad Temple, A. A. 0. N. M. S. He also has membership in Sioux Falls Lodge, No. 262, B. P. O. E., and Dell Rapids Lodge, No. 8, I. 0. O. F.

Along strictly professional lines his connection is with the Seventh District Medical Society of South Dakota, the Missouri Valley Medical Society, the South Dakota State Medical Society, the American Medical Association and the American Society of Orificial Surgeons. He holds to the highest professional standards and is constantly on the alert to gain knowledge which will benefit him in his practice. He is very careful in the diagnosis of his cases, is at all times thorough and painstaking and through his developing ability has reached the enviable place which he now occupies as one of the leading medical and surgical practitioners of his section of the state.

~History of Dakota Territory, George Washington Kingsbury; South Dakota, It's History and It's People; edited by George Martin Smith; S.J. Clark Publishing Company; Vol V; 1915; pg 868-873 & pg 1164-1167
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~photo
top: Wm. J. Jones & his wife Susan, nee Smith, Jones
bottom: their son Elmer A.D. Jones, MD holding his son Donald H.

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