Alfred D. Jones (1902)

DANFORTH, JONES, REEVES

Posted By: Kent Transier
Date: 11/8/2023 at 18:04:40

Transcriber's note: There is only brief mention herein of Alfred Jones being associated with Madison County. However, for the six years (1846 to 1852) that he was in Madison County, he was a major player in its founding and settlement. More can be found about Alfred D. Jones in our "Biographies" pages.
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The Omaha Daily Bee
Omaha, Nebraska
Sunday, August 31, 1902
Page 7, Columns 2 & 3

ALFRED D. JONES IS DEAD

Succumbs to Congestion of Lungs, Brought on by Close Confinement

FIRST WHITE MAN TO SETTLE IN OMAHA

Paddled Across Big Muddy in a Canoe in 1853 – Half Century of His Life as Resident of Omaha

Alfred D. Jones died at his residence, 2018 Wirt street, yesterday morning at 1:45 o’clock, death being the result of congestion of the lungs, consequent upon close confinement which followed injury received two months ago. At that time Mr. Jones was attempting to walk upstairs when he fell and broke his shoulder blade. It was feared that this injury would cause his death, but he rallied from it and was believed to be progressing toward recovery when his lungs became congested.

The funeral will occur at the family residence, 2018 Wirt street, at 2:30 o’clock Tuesday afternoon, after which the remains will be interred at Forest Lawn cemetery. Rev. Luther M. Kuhns, pastor of the Grace Lutheran church, will officiate.

Mr. Jones had for a number of years been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and representatives of this organization will be invited to be among the active pallbearers, though the Lodge as an organization will take no part in the funeral services.

The pallbearers have not yet been chosen, but will be among the close personal friends of the deceased. Rev. Kuhns has charge of the funeral arrangements.

Sketch of His Career.

A. D. Jones was born on a farm which is now incorporated within the limits of the city of Philadelphia eighty-nine years ago, within 4 miles of Independence Hall. The early years of his life were spent upon the farm, and from there, after more than the average amount of study generally secured by a farmer’s son, he entered the ranks of the pedagogues as a schoolteacher, keeping ahead of the permanent settlements of the west, teaching frontier schools and trading with the pioneers, of which he was so excellent a type.

While teaching school he studied surveying, and when he arrived in the state of Iowa in the early 50s he began to practice that profession. He made a survey of the original townsite of Des Moines and surveyed the proposed town of Winterset before coming to Council Bluffs, in which place he arrived in 1852. At that time there was little of the town of Council Bluffs. It was known to the residents of the frontier counties of Iowa as Kanesville and consisted of a settlement of persons more or less nomadic in their habits, who had constructed in irregular form a number of houses, where they engaged principally in
trading with the Indians, who then held undisputed sway on the prairies of Nebraska and made life hazardous for the early settlers in the northern part of the state, the massacre at Spirit Lake taking place several years after Mr. Jones came to Western Iowa.

The first regular survey of the town of Council Bluffs was made by him and he suggested the present name of the place, which was at that time used to designate a community long since dispersed, which maintained a small settlement on the Iowa bluffs opposite Bellevue, Neb. The suggestion of the surveyor was almost immediately adopted and the town of Council Bluffs became the post office of that name.

The grass covered prairies lying beyond the morass along the Missouri river west of that stream had an attraction for many of the residents of western Iowa, and from time to time at various points along the river they made unsuccessful attempts to establish homes, but they were foredoomed to failure, as the title to the land was in the Indian tribes, and until the Indian title could be extinguished by treaty the government look with jealous eye upon the white squatters, who were regarded as interlopers by the aborigines, the Indians making loud clamors for their removal.

First Settlers in Omaha.

In 1853 a number of residents of Council Bluffs determined to brave not only the dangers of trouble with the Indians, but the displeasure of the government and to settle themselves as squatters upon the Indian lands within what is now the borders of the city of Omaha. The three men to make the first attempt at locating land upon the present site of the city were A. D. Jones and two brothers by the name of Brown. In November, 1853, they paddled in a dilapidated canoe across the river, landing near the foot of Davenport street, and made a rapid survey of the land. Mr. Jones shortly after this “squatted” upon a tract of 160 acres of land, the eastern border of which included the well-known Willow springs, the land in Forest Hill addition being part of that tract. This claim he called Park Wild, by which it was known until it passed into other hands and was platted as additions to the city. One piece of the track he designated as “Purgatory”, a name by which it was known for many years. The reason for this name, as told by Mr. Jones, was that while running the first survey of the land he found himself in the bottom of a rather deep ravine, clothed with a heavy growth of trees, so that the only direction in which he could look was upward. With thoughts of Indians ever in his mind, a danger from ambush not being impossible, he said that between that place and Purgatory there would be little choice.

In 1854 the Omaha Town the company was formed and under the direction of the board of directors Mr. Jones made the original survey of the city. It is not generally known that the baseline of this survey was taken at what is now Davenport street. A year ago Mr. Jones said that one of the cornerstones, placed by him at that time could be found at or near the present Union Pacific headquarters.

After the survey of the town site immigrants began to arrive from the eastern states and for some time there was considerable trouble over the conflicting claims of persons who had endeavored to settle upon the same tracts of land. All of the residents were squatters, without rights which could be enforced in any court, and, in fact, there was no court of competent jurisdiction to hear and determine causes. With this condition confronting the settlers they decided to form a Court of Claims to adjudicate between the conflicting interest of the squatters. Of that court Mr. Jones was made judge and a clerk and sheriff were selected to enforce the decrees. This court continued only until the land was made subject to entry under the land laws of the United States, when it was formally dissolved, but out of it grew the claim clubs which flourished for several years afterward.

First Postmaster of Omaha.

In 1854 after the town had been surveyed there was an attempt made to have a post office established at Omaha. Through the efforts of Bernard Henn of Iowa this was done, but no arrangements were made for the transmission of mail between the new post office and the outside world, the most western route at that time in this part of the country being Council Bluffs. In this contingency Mr. Jones acted as mail carrier, he having been appointed postmaster May 6, 1854. The carrying of the mail by the postmaster without a contract with the government resulted in a claim for a comparatively small amount, which has never been paid. When the late J. Sterling Morton was a member of the cabinet of Grover Cleveland he looked over some old records relating to the territory of Nebraska in the archives in Washington and wrote to Mr. Jones, complimenting him upon the correctness and lucidity of his reports as postmaster at Omaha, and referred to the claim for compensation as mail carrier, which at that time had fallen into oblivion.

In December, 1854, Governor Cuming called for an election of territorial officers and Mr. Jones was chosen as a member of the council, or upper house of the assembly, December 20 of that year. He served for one term and then resigned. In 1858 he was elected as a member of the city council, but resigned that position a short time afterward.

Always Had Faith in Omaha.

Mr. Jones was always enthusiastic over the future of Omaha and at the first celebration of the Fourth of July which was ever held upon the soil of Douglas County he proposed the toast which has since become a fact, “Omaha, the Future Metropolis of Nebraska,” but then Mr. Jones has since said, he had no idea that he would ever see the town which was then only so on paper have more than 10,000 inhabitants, which was the ultima thule of the sanguine hopes of the founders.

Aside from his work in laying the foundations of the city which outgrew his warmest hopes, Mr. Jones took an active interest in the affairs of the state. In 1855 he was elected secretary and treasurer of the Old Settler’s society, which office he held as long as the organization continued active. He was one of the first members of the Nebraska Agricultural society and until very recently continued to take considerable interest in the work of the State Historical society. He was one of the first residents of the state to take prominent part in the work of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, but in later years was not prominently identified with the organization. When Capital Lodge No. 3, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, was organized in Omaha he was the second man to receive the Blue lodge degree in the city. The lodge then met on Dodge street near the home of George Armstrong.

After the admission of Nebraska is a state of the union Mr. Jones retired from political life, and for a time conducted a general store on Twelfth street near Dodge. He was a man of varied business experience, not content with the slow gains of ordinary commercial life and traveled much, trading and handling property. These trips took them over much of the great west and even to the republic of Mexico, but from the time he arrived on the western bank of the Missouri, Omaha was his home.

In 1847, in Jackson county, Missouri, he married Sophronia Reeves of Virginia, who survives him. They had no children, Mrs. Mackey, a foster child, resides at the home with the widow.
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The Winterset News
Winterset, Iowa
Thursday, December 13, 1928
Page 6, Columns 4, 5, 6 & 7

Excerpted from an article titled “Alfred D. Jones – A Town Builder”. The article starts on page 1, covering the early settlement of Madison County and doesn’t get to the details of Alfred D. Jones until the article continues on page 4…

The surveyor, Alfred D, Jones, who laid out the town of Winterset and by his insistence gave it the name was a remarkable man. He was a town builder. He was born in Philadelphia in 1814. He was a newsboy in Cincinnati, and learned the trade of bricklayer there. He was a student in Marietta College and taught school in Ohio. He came to Brighton, Iowa, where he taught school and laid brick in Oskaloosa and was elected to several offices. He went to Fort Des Moines in 1846 and the day he arrived was nominated county surveyor and elected. He acted as county clerk for the commissioners when Polk county was organized. He was admitted to the bar at the first term of court ever held in Des Moines. Jones surveyed and platted the city of Des Moines. In 1848 he came to Madison county with his sister who was the first school teacher in Madison county and the mother of Challen and William Danforth. They settled at “The Narrows” at Tileville and opened a store there.

Jones helped the first sheriff Bilderbeck, organize Madison county and was elected county surveyor and prosecuting attorney. He was the first postmaster in the county and called his office “Montpelier”. After he laid out and named Winterset he was active in every public affair of the county. He delivered the first Fourth of July oration ever made in Madison county at Guye’s grove.

But Jones evidently was a border man. Winterset was west but the wagon trail led on. He west and in 1852 he laid out and named the town of Council Bluffs. He surveyed the first line of railroad across the state “The Air Line” and located a depot site in the north part of Winterset. It was never built. He helped organize Dallas county and survey and plat the town of Adel which was then called Penoach. In 1853 Iowa lost him for he went across the river to Nebraska and was made a postmaster in May 1854 while the Territory was yet Indian country. In June 1854 he laid out the town of Omaha and was elected judge. Jones served several terms in the Nebraska legislature and was elected speaker of the House of Representatives. He was the first mayor of Omaha. He was the first Mason initiated in Omaha and was active in several lodges. Jones made a fortune in Omaha. He died in 1902 and his death marked the passing of one of the most remarkable pioneers of the great west.

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