Carroll County IAGenWeb

HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY IOWA

A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement

VOLUME II ILLUSTRATED

CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1912

Transcribed and donated by Vance Tigges & Kathy Weaver.

The well established family physician obtains an influence in any community which is more far-reaching than that of any man sustaining other relations to the public, but if his life is actuated by honorable principles and lofty ideals he becomes a notable force for good in support of those measures and movements which are calculated to benefit the community at large.  Such a physician is Dr. U. C. Jones, who is also serving as mayor of Breda.

He was born in Kirkland, Clinton County, Indiana, on the 30th of December, 1842 [sic corr= 1843], a son of Uriah and Elizabeth (Boyle) Jones, natives of Virginia.  His ancestors on the paternal side were of Welsh extraction, while the Boyle family is of German descent.  His great-grandmother was Irish and engaged in teaching school in Ireland.  As a rule the members of the Jones family followed various trades, although some engaged in farming and a few others were identified with the professions.  Uriah Jones on leaving the Old Dominion went first to Ohio, thence to Indiana and later to Poweshiek County, Iowa, locating near the present site of the town of Brooklyn.  He was a carpenter by trade and also engaged to some extent on farming, being thus employed until his death, passing away at the age of seventy-five years.  He was a bright, scholarly gentleman, with a broad general knowledge, and was held in the highest respect and esteem by all who knew him.  In his family were twelve children, as follows:  John, a retired farmer, who served throughout the period of the Civil war as a member of Company E, Fourth Iowa Cavalry, and is now residing at Des Moines, Iowa, for the purpose of educating his two daughters; Timothy, engaging in the lumber business at Greeley, Kansas; Henry, conducting a music store at Spencer, Iowa; David, the proprietor of a furniture and undertaking establishment at Berkeley, California; George W, a physician and owner of a hospital at Lawrence, Kansas; Jacob, a farmer of Poweshiek County, residing near Brooklyn, Iowa; Martha, the wife of S.M. Winshel, of Malcom, Iowa; Eldora, residing in Oklahoma; and Robert and Martin, both now deceased.

In the district schools of Poweshiek County, Dr. U. C. Jones acquired his early education, which he later supplemented by a course of study in the high school at Brooklyn.  For a time thereafter he assisted his father at the carpenter's trade, being thus engaged until the outbreak of the Civil war, when he enlisted, in the fall of 1861, from Grinnell, as a member of Company E, Fourth Iowa Cavalry.  After a faithful service of about one year he was honorably discharged on account of physical disability occasioned by an attack of typhoid fever, after which he returned home and for seven or eight years was engaged in teaching school.

Then, thinking to find congenial work in the medical field, he took up the study of medicine and surgery in 1875, and was graduated from the medical department of Drake University at Des Moines in 1885.  In the meantime he had attended medical classes at Iowa City and had begun practicing his profession in the spring of 1881.  After finally completing his preparation he opened an office at Breda and this has since remained the field of his activity.  In the fall of 1881 he established a drug business in this city and in 1895 suffered the loss of his store through fire, while six months later he was again burned out.  He now owns his own store building in addition to a fine residence, and at one time owned other valuable real-estate holdings, which he has since sold.  From the first Dr. Jones was successful, impressing all with whom he came in contact with his trustworthy character, his earnestness, zeal and scrupulous regard for the ethics of his profession.  He has ever kept in touch with the trend of general progress in professional lines and by his investigation and research has added much to his knowledge and ability.

In 1867 Dr. Jones was united in marriage to Miss Emma L Holmes, a native of New York, and to them have been born six children, namely: Belle, who is the wife of George B Frazier, a banker of Muskogee, Oklahoma, and has three children, Alma, Margaret and Wright; Mrs. Ida Wilson, a twin sister of Belle, who without any capital whatever started in business ten years ago and now owns the largest dry-goods store in Breda, and through her own efforts entirely is educating her two daughters, Hazel and Ruth, the former studying music in Breda and the latter attending college at Lake View, Iowa; Laura, a professional kindergarten teacher, who is now living at home; Charles B, a professional musician of Omaha, who directs a band of his own in the summer seasons and plays in the orchestra at the Orpheum, of that city, in the winter months, who married Elizabeth Coffey and has three children, Charles B Jr, Utley D and Margaret; Lottie, who reside at home and assists her father in the drug store; and one who did in infancy.

Dr. Jones is well known in fraternal circles, holding membership with the Masonic order at Carroll; the Independent Order of Odd Fellow, No. 114, at Brooklyn, Iowa, and with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Woodmen of the World, both at Breda.  He is also a member of the Northwestern Medical Society, the Central Medical Society and the Iowa State Medical Association, and is now serving as a member of the board of health in Wheatland and East townships and also in the town of Breda.  In politics he is a staunch Bryan democrat, and although he has repeatedly refused all other official positions, he has now served for two years as mayor of Breda, his fellow citizens honoring him by election to the highest office in their power to bestow in recognition of his personal worth and ability.  Fully realizing the obligations that devolve upon him in his professional and official capacity, he has ever performed his public duties with the same sense of conscientious obligation that has characterized his labor in the sick room, and he is now recognized as one of the eminent physicians and influential citizens of Wheatland township and Carroll county.

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