Jones, Owen W.

JONES

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 9/23/2019 at 00:14:56

Owen W. Jones

(From the 1891 Biographical History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, p.349)
OWEN W. JONES, a Crescent Township farmer, was born in Dembershire, North Wales, January 18, 1831, son of William and Ann JONES, also natives of the same place, occupants of a farm and the parents of six children: Avon, David, John, Owen W., Ann (wife of Mr. Williams and residing in Wales) and William W., deceased. When 9 years of age, Owen was hired out on a farm by the year, and remained there four years. Then he went to sea on an English vessel hailing from Conway, Wales, and followed a seafaring life for six years, suffering many hardships, and being then laid up for 9 months with a broken leg. In his 20th year, he sailed for America on the ship Orient, landing at New York some two months later, January 3, 1852. After visiting Cincinnati, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, he returned to Cincinnati and was engaged there two years as a machinist in a cabinet factory. Next he went to Illinois and was soon called to Alton, that state, to visit his sick brother, who shortly afterward died. After working in a coal mine for a few years, he removed in the spring of 1859 to the Alma (Illinois) mines, and then went to St. Louis, made several changes, and finally landed at Council Bluffs on July 4, 1861, after a tedious trip up the Missouri River. He visited several points and finally settled at Big Grove on the banks of the river. A flood came and he moved out to higher land in skiffs, going into a house belonging to JOHN BIRD. He began trading and got some livestock together, then moved to Garner Township. There he cut wood and hauled it to town with the oxen that he had raised. Subsequently he sold the oxen and purchased a team of horses, and followed farming and stock-raising on different rented places until in 1866 he bought his present farm of 60 acres on Section 26, land entirely unimproved; and here he has made for himself and companion a comfortable home, with a nice frame house, farm buildings, orchard, shade trees, flowering plants, etc. It is indeed a cozy retreat for him and his companion in their old age. Politically he is a true Democrat, taking great interest in the public affairs of the county. They are zealous adherents to the faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. September 29, 1858, while engaged in the coal mines in Illinois, he married Mrs. Hannah JONES, widow of Samuel JONES, who came to America in the spring of 1855 settling in Schuylkill Co., Pennsylvania, and came thence to Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Jones have had two children, both of whom are deceased.