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DAVID W. JONES is a native of Great Britain, having been
born in Llandissyl, Cardiganshire, South Wales. He is a son of
William and Rachel Jones, who were natives of the same place,
always lived there and there also died, the father in 1861, at
the age of sixty-four, and the mother in 1874, at the age of
seventy-six. The father was a machinist by trade and a
manufacturer of woolen goods, an upright, industrious, useful
citizen, who devoted his entire energies to those pursuits in
which he was best qualified to succeed both by nature and
training. The mother was an industrious, frugal housewife,
skilled in all the economies of the household and greatly
devoted to her family. These, William and Rachel Jones, were the
parents of twelve children, of whom the subject of this notice
was the second in point of age, the others being John, Thomas,
Mary (who died young), Stephen, an infant that died unnamed,
Evan, Elizabeth, Mary (now wife of George Buck, of Delaware
county), James, William and Ann. Of these, seven are living,
five deceased. Only two are living in the United States, the
subject of this notice and Mrs. Buck, the rest residing in their
native country.
David W. Jones was born September
27, 1821. He was reared in his native place, being brought
up to his father's trade, that of machinist and
manufacturer of woolen goods. He married in 1842 on the
twenty-first anniversary of his birthday. In the spring of
the following year he came to America, he and his young
wife crossing the Atlantic on the sailing vessel,
"Caledonia," and reaching New York city after a sea voyage
of three weeks. After paying his passage and getting his
wife and worldly effects out of the ship Mr. Jones relates
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he had even $73 in money with which to
begin life in the new world. His first step was to seek
employment, and taking his wife he went directly to
Philadelphia, where he placed her in comfortable quarters, and
then went to Montgomery county, near there, where he went to
work as a farm hand by the month. He remained in and about
Philadelphia, mostly engaged at farm labor for about a year.
Then in April, 1844, he started for the further West. He moved
to Newton Falls, Trumbull county, Ohio, where, with the proceeds
of his previous year's labor he bought fifty-seven acres of
land, settled on it and began work at his trade in the woolen
mills at that place. He continued there so engaged for about ten
years varying his labors in the woolen mills with agricultural
pursuits on a small scale. In 1854 having heard much of the
great prairies of the trans Mississippi country, and seeing a
family of children growing up around him for whom he was
desirous of providing in an adequate manner, he joined the
immense tide of home-seekers that was steadily streaming towards
the West and came to Iowa, making his first stop in this,
Delaware county.
Here he entered a tract of three hundred acres of
government land in section 16, now Delaware township. He shortly
afterwards returned to Ohio and resumed work in the woolen mills
at Newton Falls. He worked there and bought horses at intervals
for shipment to different points in Illinois and Wisconsin for
the next two years. Then, in the fall of 1857 he moved
permanently to this county, bringing his family and settling on
his place, two miles north of Manchester. He engaged at once in
agricultural pursuits, and was so engaged for the following
seven or eight years. In the meantime he purchased a tract of
two hundred acres of land near his first purchase and lying on
Honey creek, on part of which, in the spring of 1865, he began
the erection of the Manchester woolen mill. As this mill has
grown to be one of the chief industries of Delaware county, and
the first and only enterprise of the kind ever attempted in the
county, a short notice of it is worth being made in this
connection. The building, located on Honey creek two miles north
of Manchester, was put up in the summer of 1865, and, as
originally erected, was 30x40 feet in size and three stories
high. In it were set up one set of cards, one set of custom
cards and a spinning-jack. In 1867 Mr. Jones added thirty feet
to the length of the building, and more than doubled the
manufacturing capacity of the mill by adding a large set of
cards, and has continued to add new machinery from year to year,
as his business has grown and an increased capacity has been
demanded. In the fall of 1876 Mr. Jones built another factory
about half a mile below his first one, the dimensions of which
are 48x80 feet and three and a half stories high, not including
the basement. The new factory does nothing but spinning and
weaving, the dyeing, fulling and teaseling being done at the
upper factory. The new factory contains three full sets of cards
and three self-acting mules. In these two establishments are
manufactured all kinds of fancy cassimeres, three grades of
beaver for overcoats, tricots, doeskins, jeans, different grades
of blankets and all kinds of yarns. From thirty to forty hands
are employed in the factories, and the goods are sold from
wagons, and occasionally from samples by traveling salesmen,
from six to seven wagons being kept on the road all the time,
and traveling salesmen being sent out at certain seasons of the
year to look after the merchants' trade. These factories, and
the business they have built up, represent long years of patient
toil, and are in every sense the best fruits of Mr. Jones'
intelligent and well directed industry and splendid mechanical
skill during those years. He is a practical workman and
personally superintended the erection of both factories and has
personally superintended the putting in of every piece of
machinery that has entered into the makeup of the mills. What
has been done in this line has been well done, and the
practical efficiency of the mills as well as the superiority of
the goods they turn out are due in no small measure to this
fact. Mr. Jones has been ably assisted in his labors, especially
in the management of the business affairs connected with the
factories, by his two sons, William B. and Josiah S. These
continue with him and give to the details of the two
establishments their strict personal attention.
Mr. Jones not only owns one of the pioneer manufacturing
industries of the county but he is himself, as the dates already
given will show, one of Delaware county's early settlers, and as
such he knows much from actual experience of what befell the
first settlers of the county in the way of hardships and
privations. A single incident, though not happening in strictly
pioneer times but still long enough to be called an early day
incident, may be given to show how the citizens of those times
had to battle even with the aggressive elements of nature to
preserve their lives and property from destruction. It occurred
during the great flood of 1865.
Mr. Jones was called from his bed about midnight on that
well remembered night in June, when the Quaker Mills were washed
away, to look after his horses, which from their exposed
position were in momentary danger of being swept away by the
fast rising waters. In the thick of the darkness and facing
blinding sheets of water he made his way to where his horses
were confined. He loosened them and placed them beyond the reach
of danger, and then attempted to regain his house; but the
rapidly rising waters cut off his retreat by land and in
attempting to swim back he was carried out into the current of
the river and kept out in a hand to hand struggle with the
waters for more than three hours, during which time, having on
no clothes, he was chilled through and more than once came near
being forced to succumb. He finally made his way, however, to a
neighbor's, Mr. William DeLong's, reaching there about 3 o'clock
in the morning, where he secured clothes and received aid which
enabled him to get back home. The long seasons of toil, doubts
and disappointments which Mr. Jones passed through it is not
necessary to recapitulate here; for he endured them in common
with all the old settlers. But it is believed that no one ever
came so near giving up his life to the fury of the storms from
which this country has suffered greatly as he did on the
occasion above mentioned.
As already noted, Mr. Jones married before he left his
native country. The lady whom he took to share his fortunes, now
nearly half a century ago, still abides with him, having borne
him a faithful and affectionate companionship during all these
years. She, too, was a native of South Wales, born in the same
town as himself, her maiden name being Margaret Davis, a
daughter of Dr. Benjamin Davis, for many years a physician and
surgeon in the employment of his country. Mr. and Mrs. Jones
have had born to them a family of eight children, five of whom
are living, all being grown, and most of them married and
themselves the heads of families.
His eldest child is William B., now a member of the firm
of D. W. Jones & Co., and the manager of one of the factories
above mentioned. He was born in Philadelphia, Pa., July 9, 1843.
He married Miss Jennie Tarbox, of Manchester, Iowa, and by that
marriage has had eight children: Lettie, Lester, Charlie, Reese,
Ralph and Elsie, living, and Maggie and Stephen, deceased. Mr.
and Mrs. Jones' second child was a daughter, Mary Ann, who was
born at Newton Falls, Ohio, December 15, 1845, and died, at the
same place, December 22,1850. Their third child, John, was born
at Palmyra, Ohio, April 23, 1848, and died at the same place,
October 9, 1849. Their next was an infant, which was born April
17, 1850, and died unnamed. Eliza A. was born at Newton Falls,
Ohio, October 5, 1851, married James R. Russell, and now
resides at Parkersburg, Iowa, the mother of one child, Allie.
The next, Josiah S., now associated with his father in business,
was born at Newton Falls, Ohio, December 16, 1854.
June 6, 1876, he married Miss
Harriet Adell Sly, who was born in Lorain county, Ohio, June 23,
1857, and is a daughter of John D. Sly, a former well known
citizen of this county, a sketch of whom appears in this work.
To this union have been born six children: Irene, John,
Paul, Alice, Lloyd and Margaret. Jo, as he is known to every
one, is secretary and general manager of the business of D. W.
Jones & Co., and is a man who needs no introduction to the
business public of Delaware and surrounding counties; Mr. and
Mrs. Jones' next child, Mary Alice, was born in Manchester,
Iowa, January 27, 1859, and died here April 11, 1886. J. Walter,
the youngest child, was born in Manchester, Iowa, November 15,
1862, and is also a member of the firm of D. W. Jones & Co.
To his business and his family Mr. Jones has always
exhibited that attachment and thoughtful solicitude which have
brought him success with the one and the highest form of all
earthly happiness; with the other. He has never sought public
honors and has never with but a few trifling exceptions held
public office, not that he is lacking in ability or want of
popularity to assure him success in public life. He is a man who
is well read in the history of the country and knows the social,
political and industrial wants of
the country better than nine-tenths of the men who hold office
from one year's end to another; and he has also been frequently
importuned to offer himself for one position and another, but
he has steadily refused every offer of this nature, preferring
the quiet life and the certain rewards of well directed industry
to the uncertain honors and emoluments that come from public
office and political machinations. One thing in Mr. Jones' life
is especially worthy of mention in this connection, and that is
the pains he has taken to inform himself on the history of his
adopted country, its governmental and political tendency and his
great attachment for all its institutions. Many native born
Americans have the impression that no one born and reared in a
foreign land, however ardent his devotion to this country on
coming here, can feel quite as patriotic towards it as towards
that of his nativity. In Mr. Jones' case at least this
supposition finds a signal refutation. He is as thoroughly
American in his way of acting, in his way of thinking and in the
secret purposes of his heart as any man could be, whatever his
lineage or place of birth. He cherishes for this land of
liberty, of free homes and free schools, a patriotic regard that
shows itself in most every overt act of his life, and his
conversations abound in praises of it.
In politics Mr. Jones is a
republican, having cast his political fortunes with that party
on its organization and maintained an unshaken allegiance to
it since. He was in earlier years a Whig, having cast his first
presidential vote for a Whig candidate, and he voted the Whig
ticket as long as the Whig party had an existence. He is a
strong protection man, and has given to the subject of free
trade and protection and their bearings on governmental systems
an unusual amount of study and observation, and he has grown
more in favor of the principles of protection with increasing
years, and the extended observation and maturity of judgment
which they have brought.
Of a kindly disposition and strong social turn, Mr. Jones
has not neglected the warm side of his nature. He is a zealous
Mason and has been for twenty-five years. He is a member of
Manchester Lodge, No. 165, A. F. and A. M. He is a charter
member of Olive Branch Chapter, No. 48, R. A. M., and he is a
charter member also of Nazareth Commandery, No. 33, Knights
Templar. He belongs to the Unitarian church, having been brought
up in the teachings of that church, but he gives a generous
support to all church work and never allows the needy to leave
his door empty handed. |
