Jones, Jerome B. 1817-1898

JONES, SMART, ASHLEY, MCCLINTOCK

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 5/2/2005 at 16:45:17

The Newton Record Thursday, October 27, 1898
Jerome B. Jones Blind for Many Years Passed Away Last Thursday

Jones, Jerome B.

Father Jones, blind for fifteen years and whose suffering from disease for many long months has elicited the tenderest sympathy of everybody, passed away last Thursday ­ out of the darkness which has so long shadowed his pathway into the glorious light of the eternal city. Rev. Alfred McClintock, his brother-in-law writes the following tribute to the memory of Father Jones.

Jerome B. Jones was born in Ticonderoga, Essex County, N. Y., Dec. 14th, 1817 and died in Newton, Iowa, Oct. 20th, 1898, aged 80 years, 10 months and 6 days. When a lad of sixteen he with his parents came to Ohio in 1833. In 1840 he began the work of life for himself as a ship carpenter in the city of Cleveland and followed up that business for more than 25 years. The same year he began his life work he made a profession of religion and identified himself with the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he has remained a loyal member, until his translation to the church on high, ever believing, “There is a life above unmeasured by the flight of years; and all that life is love.”

In 1843, he was happily married in Cleveland, Ohio, to Miss Mary Smart, and to them were born seven children, four of whom are not, while Reuben, Frank and Mrs. Mary Ashley remain living in Des Moines, Iowa. The wife of his youth died in Newton, July 11th, 1875, in the faith of the Gospel of the Son of God, and now side-by-side they repose upon yonder hillside, awaiting the call to the Judgment. On Aug. 9th, 1876, he was again united in marriage to Miss Sarah A. McClintock, which also proved a harmonious union. One son, Lee, and two daughters, Lenora and Effie, came to gladden their home. The wife and children survive to mourn his departure, yet living with the hope of reunion “some sweet day.”

Mr. Jones in politics has always been a progressive American, not an office seeker, or loud, but loyal and with the procession of progress. His first ballot was cast for William Henry Harrison and his last for William McKinley, a prince among American statesmen.

His family and friends have no occasion to crimson with shame at the thought or mention of the name of Jerome B. Jones. For fifteen years he had been deprived the pleasure of looking upon nature’s beauties or the faces of loved ones, not knowing his own children by sight, yet by faith sometimes rising to the sublime which sustained him to the last hour of consciousness, lighting him up to the heights of Beulah land, and enabling him to “Let patience have her perfect work.” Funeral services were impressively conducted at the home by Rev. C. V. Cowan, his pastor, and the remains interred in the Newton Cemetery, Saturday Oct. 22, ’98. “Farewell till morning.”

Originally submitted on Thu Aug 29 11:08:53 2002