Jones, Isaac W.

JONES, FLAUGH, KNIGHT, SMITH, HICKS

Posted By: Volunteer Transcribers
Date: 1/28/2003 at 13:55:00

ISAAC W. JONES. 

The deserved reward of a well-spent life is an honored retirement from business, in which to enjoy the fruits of former toil. To-day after a useful and beneficial career, Isaac W. Jones is quietly living at his pleasant home in DeWitt, surrounded by the comfort that earnest labor has brought him. In early life he engaged in carpentering and later followed farming with marked success.

Mr. Jones was born in Mount Pleasant, Jefferson county, Ohio, September 4, 1818, and is the son of Jonathan Jones, a native of Brownville, Fayette county, Pennsylvania. His parental grandfather, Jonathan Jones Sr., was of Welsh descent and an early settler of Philadelphia, where as a carpenter he assisted in putting on the first shingle roof in that city. At that time there were about three hundred houses in the town but all were covered with clapboards. From Philadelphia Mr. Jones removed to Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and later to Jefferson county, Ohio, being one of the first white men to locate there. In the midst of the wilderness he cleared and improved a farm.

The farther of our subject grew to manhood in Jefferson county, Ohio, and in that state married Miss Hannah Flaugh, who was born and reared in Uniontown, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, and went to Ohio with a sister. For some years Jonathan Jones, Jr., followed the stone and brick mason’s trade, but later settled on a farm near Freeport, Harrison county, Ohio, and turned his attention to agricultural pursuits. About 1855 he came to Iowa and joined his son in Clinton county, where he spent the remainder of his life. His first wife, who was the mother of our subject, died in this country, and he subsequently returned to Ohio, where he was again married. He continued to make his home here, however, until his death, but while on a visit, died in Cassville, Ohio.

Isaac W. Jones passed his boyhood and youth in Jefferson and Harrison counties, Ohio, where he attended the common schools and also learned the cabinet maker’s trade, at which he worked about eighteen years. Later he followed the carpenter’s and joiner’s trade for some years. He was married near Cassville, Harrison county, December 10, 1840, to Miss Hannah Knight, who was born near Cassville, that county, where her father, John Knight, located in 1806, being one of the first settlers of the county.

Coming west in 1853, Mr. Jones took up his residence in Davenport, Iowa, on the 10th of May, that year, where there he worked at both the cabinet maker’s and carpenter’s trades. The following year he came to DeWitt, clinton county, and as a carpenter aided in building the old court house, doing all the work on the belfry. While living in Davenport he had purchased two hundred and forty acres of land in what is now Welton township, this county, and one hundred and sixty acres in DeWitt township, nine miles west of the village, and after following carpentering here for about five years, he located upon his land and turned his attention to its improvement and cultivation. His first home here was as small residence, which in later years was replaced by a more commodious structure. He also erected a good barn and outbuildings, set up a wind pump, and made other improvements upon the place. He planted both fruit and shade trees, besides a great variety of small fruits, and successfully engaged in farming there for thirty-eight years. In 1897 he bought property in DeWitt and built a large, neat and substantial residence in modern style of architecture, it being one of the best home in the village. Here he now makes his home.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Jones were born ten children but only two are now living, namely: Jennie, who is the wife of Dr. C. W. Smith, of Maquoketa, Iowa, and is herself a physician; and Edwin Stanton, whose sketch appears on another page of  this volume. Those now deceased were as follows: Jonathan Knight, the eldest, was graduated at the medical department of the Michigan University at Ann Arbor, and was engaged in practice at DeWitt, Iowa, for six years. He died at the age of thirty-two. James Albert, who died at the age of twenty-one, was a soldier of the Civil war and being discharged on account of disability returned home, where his death occurred. Mary E. married James Hicks and met death by accident in July, 1897. Josephine died when a young lady. Catherie Melisssa died in infancy. Pearl was a physician and was engaged in practice at Maquoketa for about a year, but died on the home farm. Two sons died in infancy.

In his political views Mr. Jones was originally an old line Whig and cast his first presidential ballot for “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too,” in 1840. In 1856 he voted for John C. Fremont, and has since supported every presidential candidate of the Republican party. He has been a delegate to numerous conventions of his party, has served a number of terms on both the grand and petit juries, and has filled the offices of assessor six years, and township collector two years, and township collector two years. He is an Ancient Odd Fellow, having in former years belonged to the lodge at DeWitt. In 1844, he and his wife united with the Methodist Episcopal church, and were among the original members of the church of the denomination at DeWitt. They are earnest, consistent Christian people and are held in the highest regard by all who know them. They celebrated their golden wedding while living on the farm and quietly spent their sixtieth wedding anniversary in DeWitt, December 10, 1900. At their golden wedding a large number of their friends and neighbors met together to pay their respect to the worth couple and left many tributes of their esteem. For almost half a century they have made their home in this county and they are justly numbered among its most honored pioneers and highly respected citizens.
Source: The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.