Martin D. JONES

JONES, BLAKNEY, MENDELL, SHEELER, SWENSON, COLLINS

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 10/29/2006 at 18:17:46

Mason City Globe Gazette
Copyright
2 October 1999

DOWS - Funeral services for Martin D. Jones, 95, of Dows, will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at the First Presbyterian Church, in Dows with the Rev. James Turner officiating. Burial will be in Mt. Hope Cemetery, Dows. Visitation will be held from 5 until 7 p.m. Sunday at the Elledge Funeral Home, in Dows. Martin died Wednesday (Sept. 29, 1999) at the Franklin General Hospital, in Hampton at the age of 95 years.

Martin was born July 6, 1904, in Hinckley, Ill., the son of Hugh Michael and Mary Nell Blakney Jones. He started farming with his father at the age of 10 and attended country school in Ventura. The family farmed north of Ventura, south of Ventura, southwest of Burchinal, west of Mason City and near Thornton. On March 10, 1938, he was united in marriage to LaMoyne E. Mendell in Hampton. They moved to their present home east of Dows after their marriage and farmed until retiring in 1972. Martin had an uncanny ability handling horses and being mechanically inclined. Martin and LaMoyne had been married 52 years when she died Feb. 1, 1990. He remained on the farm until entering Franklin General Hospital in August of this year.

Survivors include two daughters, Ardis and husband, Lynn Sheeler, of Hampton, and Arlene Swenson, of Scandia, Minn.; four grandsons, Charlie and Andy Sheeler and Erik and Kyle Swenson; one brother, Robert Jones, of Mason City; and one sister, Mary Ellen Collins, of Mason City. He was preceded in death by his parents, wife, four brothers, Hugh, James, Charles and William; and three sisters, Flossie, Martha and Sarah; and one grandson in infancy. Elledge Funeral Home, in Dows, is in charge of arrangements.