Elmer A. Jones (1870-1929)

JONES

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 9/3/2023 at 20:07:46

Elmer A. Jones, M.D.
(January 18, 1870 – September 17, 1929)

The world instinctively pays deference to the man whose success is worthily achieved, whose efforts in the electrical world of business has enabled him to meet competition while his ability has gained for him respect, admiration and prosperity. Dr. Jones is one of the skilled physicians of Calhoun County and in his chosen calling he has long since left the ranks of mediocrity to stand among the most successful and capable physicians and surgeons of the locality, although he is yet a young man. A native of Iowa, he was born in Waukon, January 18, 1870, a son of William J. and Susan R. (Smith) Jones, the former a native of Wales and the latter of Indiana. He was the youngest of the family of thirteen children born to Isaac O. Jones and wife, who came to America when their son William was only four years of age, leaving the little rock-ribbed country which was their native land in 1841. They settled in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where they spent their remaining days and the grandfather of the
Doctor followed farming, although he was also a carpenter in trade. William J. Jones was reared in Wisconsin and after arriving at years of maturity he married Susan R. Smith, who was descended from ancestors who came over in the Mayflower. Her grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary war and about the time Daniel Boone was carrying on his exploration in Kentucky he went to that state, where Reuben Smith, the father of Mrs. Jones, was born. He afterward became a resident of Indiana, and in 1830 he came to Iowa, locating in Allamakee County before the land was developed and even placed upon the market. He marked out and settled upon twenty-five hundred acres of land, which he subsequently purchased when it was surveyed by the government and offered for sale. He was accidentally shot in 1882, when he was eighty-four years of age. Mr. and Mrs.
William J. Jones became residents of Waukon, Iowa, and when our subject was only three years old they removed to Sioux Falls,
South Dakota. Although the Doctor was so young he has a very distinct remembrance of many events and of conditions of those
times. The father followed farming in South Dakota and later turned his attention to merchandising, while subsequently he conducted a grain elevator. About 1894 he retired from active business. He now owns about fifteen hundred acres of land and his property returns to him a good income. In his familv were five children, of whom four are still living, namely: the Doctor; E. D., a lawyer of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Lova L.. who is connected with the Art Institute of Chicago: and Frank W., who is a graduate of the State University of South Dakota, and is now at home with his father. Dr. Jones, whose name introduces this review, having obtained his elementary education in the public schools, at the age of sixteen entered the State Normal school at Madison, South Dakota, where he remained for two years, when he matriculated in the State Agricultural College at Brooking, taking the scientific course through two years. Later he became a student in the Metropolitan Business College, of Sioux City, Iowa, after which he entered upon the study of medicine in the Kentucky School of Medicine, at the same time taking the literary course in the Western University of Tennessee. In the former institution he won the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy and
was graduated in 1897. He was also graduated in the Medical College, University of Louisville with the degree of Medical Doctor, March 27, 1898, but entered the State Hospital for the Insane at Independence, Iowa, between his first and second year in college, and after remaining there for fifteen months returned and finished his course. In 1898 the Doctor went to South Dakota, where he was engaged in practice for nine months and then removed to Fort Dodge, where he remained for a short time, coming to Lake City in the fall of 1899. Here he has since engaged in practice and is deeply interested in everything that tends to furnish man with a key to the mystery which we call life. He is an earnest and discriminating student, is thoroughly informed concerning the most advanced methods of the day and has already gained a liberal and lucrative patronage.
In July, 1899, the Doctor was married to Miss Mary M. Stahl, of Pipestone, Minnesota, who for several years was a most successful teacher in some of the highest educational institutions of Wisconsin and Minnesota. But one child was born to them, Elmer Everett, who died at the age of six months and twenty-three days. Socially the Doctor is connected with the Knights of Pythias fraternity and with the Knights of the Maccabees. His review of the political questions and issues of the day had caused him to give his support to the men and measures of the Republican party, and he strongly endorses its principles, but has never sought office as a reward for party fealty. He belongs to the Presbyterian church and is respected for his hearty cooperation in all measures for the general good. In the line of his profession he is connected with the Fort Dodge District Medical Society, the Central District Medical Society, and the Western District Medical Society, and thus keeps in touch with the advanced thought of the times, his knowledge of medicine and his use of remedial agencies making him one of the most capable physicians of the town and county. [Source - Biographical Record of Calhoun County, Iowa, by S. J. Clarke, 1902, p.567]