Biographies from Historical and Biographical Annals by Morton Montgomery
p. 439
Surnames: JONES, KELLY, DEININGER, LEE, GOOD, HAMMER
Alfred Schroeder Jones was born at Fisher's Ferry, Susquehanna
river, a few miles below Sunbury, Aug. 18, 1835. When he was six
years old his father, Thomas Jones, who was a farmer and the
proprietor of a tannery, died, and his widow with three children
returned to Reading, her native place.
The subject of this sketch received his
education in the public schools of Reading; in the classical school
of John Kelly, Court street below Sixth, who had been educated for
a priest, in Trinity Lutheran Parochial school, southwest corner of
Sixth and Washington streets, taught by Constantine Deininger, a
linguist, and in the Reading Institute, No. 225 South Fifth street,
a classical school of which Prof. James S. Lee and Rev. Dr. William
A. Good were the principals. In the spring of 1857 he became an
assistant teacher in the latter school, which position he held for
several years. Subsequently he taught a select school at
Snydertown, Northumberland county, and public schools in
Maidencreek, Bern and Cumru townships, and at Rehrersburg and
Strausstown, Berks county, and during the summers read law in the
office of Amos B. Warmer, but that being too sedentary for Mr.
Jones be turned his attention to the newspaper publishing business.
In April, 1864, he started the Reading Daily
Reporter, the publication office being located at No. 517 Penn
street, having previously personally canvassed a portion of the
city for subscribers, which gave him needed outdoor exercise. He
bid for the city printing, which was awarded to him, and the
newspaper was so successful that the receipts from its circulation
and advertising paid all the expenses from the beginning until the
paper was enlarged at the suggestion of a candidate for office who
promised financial aid, but did not give it, when the expenses
became greater then the receipts, and the publication was suspended
after being in existence six months.
A number of years before he published the Daily
Reporter he did his first newspaper work when he contributed to and
edited the Educational Department of the Berks County Press which
was specially intended to be read by the school teachers of Berks
and surrounding counties. He was then a teacher himself.
When the Civil war was in progress Mr. Jones
spent three years in the employ of the Ordnance Department of the
United States Navy, drawing his pay, nearly $4,000, from the
paymaster located at the Navy Yard, Philadelphia. After spending
two years at Scott Foundry, Reading, he was sent to Fort Pitt
Foundry, Pittsburg, where he remained a year, until the manufacture
of cannon ceased there, the war having closed. His duty was to be
in the foundry when the naval guns were cast, note the different
stages of their fabrication in the machine shop, and be at the
proving ground when they were tested with powder and shot, and
prepare weekly reports, which were signed by the Naval Ordnance
Inspector, and sent to the Navy Ordnance department at Washington,
D. C.
Mr. Jones had begun the study of shorthand when
he was a school boy, and he put it to practical use when he was one
of the official reporters in the Pennsylvania State Senate during
the session of 1867-68. When he returned to Reading at the close of
the session the Reading Daily Eagle had just been started, and he
accepted a position on it, which he has retained ever since, a
period of forty years. He has done all kinds of reportorial work up
to and including the reporting in shorthand of the proceedings of
political State conventions. When he first became connected with
the Daily Eagle he was for some time the only newspaper reporter in
Reading. Later he occupied the position of city editor, and he now
edits the manuscript of correspondents of the paper, of which there
are over 300 in Berks and adjoining counties. Every week he
prepares special articles for the Sunday Eagle, and he has written
more historical articles about aged persons and occurrences in
Reading and Berks county, in olden times for publication in the
daily and weekly press than any other person in eastern
Pennsylvania. When he first became connected with the Eagle in 1868
he began interviewing for publication the oldest residents,
veterans of the War of 1812, persons prominent in politics,
business and other pursuits, and he has continued this ever since.
He is a member of the Historical Society of the County of Berks,
and has prepared historical sketches for the archives of this
organization. Mr. Jones is proud of the fact that he is the oldest
reporter in Reading, and has been continuously connected for over
forty years with such a wide-awake and progressive journal as the
Eagle.
On April 11, 1861, Mr. Jones was married to
Catharine Hammer, daughter of the late judge Jacob Hammer, of
Orwigsburg. She died March 29, 1906. Two children were born to
them, Thomas H. and Lilian H.
p. 1095
Surnames: JONES, PHILIPS, DAVIS
Amanda G. Jones, for many years principal of the Bingaman and
Orange street school, in Reading, was one of a family in which many
members have distinguished themselves by their intellectual
attainments, either as teachers or ministers, a distinct scholarly
trait appearing through several generations. Miss Jones, herself,
was particularly successful in her work, in which she was engaged
from the time of her graduation from the Reading high school in
1863, until her death March 16, 1908. She was a member of Berks
County Chapter, D. A. R., by virtue of her descent from Lieut.
Josiah Philips, her great-grandfather. Miss Jones was the daughter
of Jonathan and Joanna (Philips) Jones, the latter of whom moved to
Reading in the spring of 1860, after the death of her husband.
Jonathan Jones, a resident of Chester county, was the son of Samuel
and Rachel (Davis) Jones, and grandson of Joseph and Lydia Jones of
Pikeland township, Chester county. His mother, as Rachel Davis,
taught in the township long before the days of public schools, and
was a very learned woman for her day. In religious faith she was a
Baptist, and for fifty-nine years was a devoted member of the Great
Valley Church.
On the maternal side Miss Jones traced her
descent from Joseph and Mary Philips, who came from Wales to
Chester county in 1755, and whose remains are interred there in the
Vincent Burying Ground. One of their sons, Lieut. Josiah Philips,
was a personal friend of George Washington, and served in the
Revolution, three of his brothers being in the same company. One of
Lieut. Philips's sons, Rev. Josiah, at one time pastor of the
Windsor Baptist Church, in Chester county, was the father of Joanna
Philips, who married Jonathan Jones.
Jonathan and Joanna Jones. were the parents of
eight children, four sons and four daughters: Samuel, Josiah, Ann
Jane, Rachel D., Mary S., A. Judson, Amanda G. and Jonathan. Both
parents are now deceased, and are interred in the Great Valley
Baptist burying ground. Of the children there are two living: Miss
Rachel D. lives in Reading; and A. Judson, of Minneapolis, was in
early life a teacher, teaching his first term in Cumru township,
Berks county. During the Civil war he served in the army, for more
than three years, in Company B, 24th Wis. V. I., and afterward
settled permanently in Minnesota. Samuel was a soldier in the Civil
War. Ann Jane died aged six years. Jonathan, the youngest, was
graduated from the Reading high school in 1863, served some time in
the army and then entered Bucknell College, receiving a degree
therefrom, and became principal of the Young Ladies' Seminary
connected with his Alma Mater, a position he was ably filling when
he died in Lewisburg, in 1882. Mary. S. graduated from Bucknell
College, and was a teacher in the Reading schools.
p.
754
Surnames: JONES, RODMAN
Charles Henry Jones, son of Hon. J. Glancy Jones, of Reading, Pa.,
was born Sept. 13, 1837. He was educated as a civil engineer in the
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, N. Y., and served in the
engineer corps in the location and construction of the East
Pennsylvania railroad. In 1859 he accompanied his father, who had
been appointed United States Minister to Austria, and served as
attache to the legation until November 1861. Having returned to
America, he studied law under his father's instruc-tion, and was
admitted to the Reading Bar in April 1863. In the same year he
removed to Philadelphia, where he has since actively practiced his
profession. He was solicitor to the park commissioners during the
laying out of Fairmount Park, from 1869 to 1874; was the candidate
of the Democratic party for city solicitor of Philadelphia in 1874;
counsel for the De-partment of Protection, Centennial Exposition of
1876; and special deputy collector of the port of Philadelphia
under President Cleveland from 1885 to 1889. In 1890 he organized
The Trust Company of North America, and served for many years as
vice-president of that corporation. For twenty-one years he has
been one of the managers and for the past ten years chairman of the
board of managers of Christ Church Hospital. He is an able lawyer
and was prominent as counsel in many of the notable contested
election cases in the Philadelphia courts and made a great
reputation for the thoroughness and ability with which he sifted
out the frauds of a number of municipal elections and unseated the
wrongful holders of many important offices.
Mr. Jones for many years has been identified
with the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolution, of
which he is chairman of the board of managers and treasurer, and
the Colonial Society, of which he is president. Several of the
papers he has read before these societies, notably those relating
to the encampment of Washington and his army on the banks of the
Neshaminy and at Whitemarsh during the year 1777, are replete with
the most interesting information and charming descriptions of the
thrilling events of that wonderful year, and have attracted
universal attention as the best history of the immortal days of the
Revolution covered by the period of that narrative. He is the
author of a number of works of history and fiction, among them the
"History of the Campaign for the Conquest of Canada in
1776," in which several companies from Berks county figured
conspicuously, under the command of his great-grandfather, Col.
Jonathan Jones, a lieutenant-colonel in the Continental army;
"Genealogy of the Rodman Family from 1620 to 1886,"
containing 2,892 names of the descendants of his maternal
ancestors, among them being William Rodman, who served as an
officer on the staff of General Lacey during the war of
Independ-ence and was a member of Congress in 1812; "Davaults
Mills"; "Recollections of Venice"; "A Pedestrian Tour
Through Switzerland"; and "The Life and Memoirs of J. Glancy
Jones."
p. 354
Surnames: JONES, MORRIS, EVANS, JAMES, LLOYD, REES, DAVIS,
NICHOLAS, EDWARDS, THOMAS, HARRY, LEWIS, BROOMFIELD, SPICER,
CORNOG, GEIGER, KUHN, CLARK, HUEY, VAN REED, SEITZINGER, GETZ,
HOFFMAN, CLEMENS, DARRAH
The Jones family was founded in this country by Rev. Thomas Jones,
who was born in the year 1702, in Newtonottage, Glamorganshire,
Wales. In 1729 he married Martha Morris, and in 1737, they came to
America with several children, arriving at Philadelphia on July 22d
of that year.
Rev. Thomas Jones first settled in the Great
Valley of Chester county, Pa., where he took up lands, and where
his neighbors included a number of Baptists, mostly of his own
nationality, some of whom had crossed the Atlantic over thirty-five
years earlier. In 1711 they had organized the Great Valley Baptist
Church, and in 1719 the Montgomery Church. In 1738 a number of
these people, all of Welsh extraction, members of the Great Valley
and Montgomery Baptist Churches, removed to Lancaster county, Pa.,
settling along the Tulpehocken creek, near its junction with the
Schuylkill river, and also southwardly along that river, opposite
what is now the city of Reading. The adults of this little company
were as follows: Thomas Jones and wife; David Evans and wife; James
James and wife; Evan Lloyd and wife; George Rees and wife; John
Davis and wife; Thomas Nicholas and wife; James Edwards and wife;
Rees Thomas and wife; Henry Harry; David Lewis and Thomas Lloyd.
These twenty-one persons, finding themselves to
be too far from their respective churches, requested leave to be
constituted into a distinct society, which accordingly was done
Aug. 19, 1738, and the same year the new church joined the
Philadelphia Association of Baptist Churches. In the year 1740
Thomas Jones was ordained a minister and became pastor of this
church. which was called the Tulpehocken Baptist Church, after the
river which runs through the neighborhood. For two years services
were held in a small log cabin erected on the property of Hugh
Jones, but in 1740 the congregation built two meeting houses on
lands presented to it, one about six miles from the Schuylkill
river at Sinking Spring and the other several miles nearer the
river. The church continued to prosper for a time, but became
extinct sixty years later, "owing to the departure of Baptist
families to other parts, and the coming of Germans in their stead."
The lands owned by the church passed into the possession of the
Philadelphia Baptist Association. Those parts on which the ancient
graveyards are located are still held by the Philadelphia Baptist
Association, but are at present under the care of the First Baptist
Church of Reading.
Rev. Thomas Jones died March 22, 1788, in his
eighty-seventh year, and his wife Martha (Morris) died June 9,
1799, in her ninety-third year. They are buried in the graveyard of
the Great Valley Baptist Church in Chester county, where their
graves are suitably marked. Their children were: Thomas, Samuel,
Griffith, Elizabeth and Sarah. They became allied by marriage with
the Davis, Broomfield, Spicer, Lloyd and Cornog families, and from
them sprang a host of descendants, many of whom still live in the
vicinity of the homes of their fore-fathers, though the majority
are widely scattered over the United States.
Thomas Jones, son of Rev. Thomas and Martha
(Morris) Jones, was born in Wales in 1733. On Oct. 6, 1762, he
married Mary Broomfield, and to them were born the following named
children: Martha, Susanna, Sarah, Mary and Samuel. Of these, Martha
m. Llewellyn Davis; Sarah m. Roger Davis; Mary m. Mr. Geiger;
Susanna m. Dr. Kuhn, of Lancaster, Pa. The father of this family
was a large land holder in Heidelberg township, Berks county, and
was a farmer by occupation. "At the very beginning of the
Revolution he assisted in organizing the Associators of Berks
county, and was in active service for a time as Major of one of the
battalions of this county." He was one of the eight delegates from
Berks county to the Provincial Convention which met at Philadelphia
July 15, 1776, "for the express purpose of forming a new government
in this Province on the authority of the people only." The
convention appointed a committee of Safety, approved the
Declaration of Independence, and prescribed for justices of the
peace, oaths of renunciation of the authority of George III., and
oaths of allegiance to the State of Pennsylvania. Dr. Benjamin
Franklin was president of the convention. Thomas Jones was
commissioner of Berks county from 1779 to 1786. He died in March,
1800, and is buried in the Baptist graveyard at Sinking Spring. He
was the last surviving male member of the Tulpehocken Baptist
Church. His wife, who survived him several years, was buried at his
side, and their graves were marked, but the stones were removed.
Samuel Jones, son of Thomas and grandson of Rev.
Thomas, was born on the homestead in Heidelberg township where his
father erected a house in 1775. This house is still standing. He
was a farmer by occupation, owned a large and valuable tract of
land in Heidelberg township, and had slaves, whom, however, he set
free. The most noted of these slaves was Dinah Clark, a well known
character in Reading in her day. The negro quarters occupied by the
slaves on the Heidelberg farm are still standing. Samuel Jones
donated the land upon which the eight-cornered building at Sinking
Spring, used first as a Baptist meeting house, later as a school
house, now as a dwelling -- was erected. The original deed of this
property is held by the First Baptist Church of Reading. Samuel
Jones married Elizabeth Huey, and to them were born four children,
Thomas H., John H., Margaret and Mary C.
(1) Thomas H. Jones was engaged in the iron business at Leesport,
this county, and at the Windsor Furnace at Hamburg. He married
Elizabeth Van Reed Evans, and their children, Mary E. and Elizabeth
E. Jones, are living in Reading.
(2) John H. Jones married Margaret (Seitzinger) Van Reed, widow of
Joshua Van Reed, and to them were born four children, namely: M.
Agnes, wife of Hon. James K. Getz, at one time mayor of Reading;
Ellen A., widow of Dr. Christian N. Hoffman; Elizabeth, widow of
Dr. S. H. Clemens, of Allentown, Pa.; and William W., deceased, who
lived at Robesonia.
(3) Margaret Jones m. Dr. Darrah.
(4) Mary C. Jones m. Jacob Van Reed.
Samuel Jones, D. D., son of Rev. Thomas Jones,
was born Jan. 14, 1735. In his youth he was baptized into the
membership of the Tulpehocken Baptist Church. He was educated in
the College of Philadelphia, graduating in 1762, was ordained to
the ministry in 1763, and became pastor of the Pennepek Baptist
Church, which was organized in 1688, and is now known as the Lower
Dublin Church of Philadelphia. He retained that pastorate for fifty
years, and he was known as one of the most scholarly Baptists of
his day, being the most influential minister of his denomination in
the Middle Colonies. The Philadelphia Baptist Association in 1764,
sent him to Rhode Island to assist in founding Rhode Island
College, now Brown University. He remodeled the rough draft of the
college charter, which then received the sanction of the Colony of
Rhode Island. Later he was offered the presidency of the college
but did not accept it. "He exerted a vast and useful influence over
the rising Baptist Churches of our country, and himself educated
many young men for the Christian ministry. He was a large and
firmly built man, his face was the image of intelligence, and good
nature, which, with the air of dignity that pervaded his movements,
rendered his appearance uncommonly attractive." He died Feb. 7,
1814, and is buried in the Lower Dublin Church.
p. 806
Surnames: JONES, MILLER, SPANG, HEISTER, HERTZOG, WICKLEIN, LUTZ
George M. Jones, a member of the faculty of the Boys' High School
of Reading, is connected on both sides of the family with some of
the first settlers of the county and State. His paternal ancestors
are traced in direct line to Nils Jones, who came from Sweden in
1638, and settled in the northern part of what is now Delaware, not
far from the site afterward selected by William Penn for
Philadelphia. The original settler in Berks county was Mounce
Jones, who built the. first house in Berks county at Douglassville,
in 1716, which historic structure is still standing. He was our
subject's great-grandfather's grandfather. Nicholas Jones,
grandfather of George M., was a forgemaster at Hecla, Schuylkill
county. He was born in Amity township, and during his lifetime was
prominent in public affairs having been a member of the Legislature
from Schuylkill county in the year 1850. He lived to the advanced
age of eighty-six.
Daniel Young Jones, son of Nicholas and father
of George M., was a resident of Reading, but is now deceased,
having died in 1883, at the age of forty-one. He married Elenora S.
Miller, daughter of Daniel and Sarah Miller, whose ancestry is
traced back to John George Spang, who came to America from Germany
in 1751 and settled near Womelsdorf, Berks county.
George M. Jones was born Sept. 8, 1874, in
Reading. He passed through the graded schools of that city,
graduating from the Latin Scientific course of the high school in
1891. He then entered the University of Pennsylvania, where during
1891-92 he studied architecture. During the summer following, and
until February 1893, he was a rodsman for the city engineer of
Reading. Returning to the University he took the course in Finance
and Political Economy. His degree of Bachelor of Philosophy he took
in 1896, receiving honors at graduation.
Upon his return home Mr. Jones selected the law
as a profession, reading under the instruction of Isaac Hiester, of
the Berks County Bar. His certificate of admission bears date of
Nov. 14, 1898, from which time until 1906 he was actively engaged
in practice. Since 1906 he has been a member of the faculty of the
Boys' high school of Reading.
Mr. Jones married April 10, 1901, Mabel
Catherine, daughter of Joseph Hertzog and Anna Mary (Wicklein)
Lutz, of Reading. Their children are: Ruth, born June 28, 1904, and
Frank Nicholas, born Nov. 19, 1906. Mr. Jones is connected
officially with a number of the religious, educational and
charitable societies of his community. He is a member of Trinity
Lutheran Church, having been superintendent of the Sunday-school
from 1900 to 1907, and a deacon from 1906 to 1909. He is a member
of the board of education of the Lutheran Ministerium, of
Pennsylvania, and treasurer of the Beneficial Brotherhood of
Trinity Lutheran Church of Reading. He is a member of the
Pennsylvania German Society, the American Civic Association, the
National Educational Association, the Pennsylvania State
Educational Association, and the College and General Alumni Society
of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Jones is a Life Member of
the Historical Society of Berks County, the Athletic Association of
the Reading Boys' High School and of the Alumni Association of the
Reading high schools. He was Treasurer of the Berks County Bar
Association from 1902 to 1908. At present he is corresponding
secretary of the Historical Society of Berks County, recording
secretary of the Associated Charities of Reading, corresponding
secretary of the Reading Sanitarium for the Treatment of
Tuberculosis, treasurer of the Five-Minute Club, treasurer of the
Reading Teachers Institute, president of the Athletic Association
of the Reading Boys' High School, vice-president of the Teachers'
Nature Study Club of Reading, and of the Alumni Association of the
Reading High Schools. Other local organizations of which Mr. Jones
is a member are the Board of Trade, the Humane Society of Berks
County, Hope Rescue Mission, the Civic League, Young Men's
Christian Association, Trinity Luther League, Berks County Alumni
of the University of Pennsylvania, and Oneonta Camping Club.
p. 323
Surnames: JONES, BANKS, LONGSTRETH, MUHLENBERG, SCHWARTZ, MOTLEY,
RODMAN, ALDEN, WALLACE
J. Glancy Jones was born
Oct. 7, 1811, in Caernarvon township, Berks county. His ancestors
were of Welsh origin. His great-grandfather, David Jones, settled
in 1730 upon the Conestoga creek, near Morgantown, and there he
erected and carried on one of the first forges in that section of
the State. His grandfather, Jonathan Jones, was captain of a
company of troops belonging to the Continental Line, enlisted by
authority of Congress, and rendered distinguished services in the
expedition against Canada in 1776. Afterward he was
lieutenant-colonel. His death was occasioned by the hardships of
that campaign. Jehu Jones, son of Jonathan and father of the
subject of this sketch, was for many years engaged in the
profession of teacher, for which he was qualified by a classical
education. He died in 1864, at an advanced age.
J. Glancy Jones was educated at Kenyon College,
Ohio, and in 1833 was ordained to the ministry of the Protestant
Episcopal Church, to which his family had for generations belonged.
His inclinations, however, led him to prefer the profession of the
law; and having undergone the necessary course of preparation he
was admitted to the Bar. He commenced practice in 1842, at Easton,
Pa. The judicial district was composed at that time of the counties
of Berks, Lehigh and Northampton, and was presided over by Hon.
John Banks. After a residence of three years at Easton, he removed
to Reading, and was admitted to the Bar of Berks county, Jan. 7,
1845. He was appointed district attorney for Berks county, under
the administration of Governor Shunk, in March 1847, and served in
that capacity until January 1849. During that period he was
tendered by the Executive the president judgeship of the Chester
and Delaware District.
Though successful in the practice of his
profession, he very early inclined to politics. Being a decided
Democrat, he became active in the affairs of the dominant party in
his native county, as well as in the State at large. He was the
warm personal friend and political supporter of Morris Longstreth,
the unsuccessful competitor of Governor Johnston in 1848, and the
following year was chairman of the Democratic State Committee. In
1850 he was elected to Congress from the Berks District. Having
declined a renomination, the Hon. Henry A. Muhlenberg, the younger,
was chosen as his successor for the term beginning in December
1853. Mr. Muhlenberg having died shortly after taking his seat, a
special election was held in February 1854, to fill the vacancy,
when Mr. Jones was chosen for the unexpired term. He was reelected
for two succeeding regular terms, in 1854 and 1856, thus holding
the position of representative, with but a brief intermission, for
the period of eight years. As a member of the committee on Claims,
he was author of the bill establishing the United States Court of
Claims. In 1857 he was chairman of the committee on Ways and Means,
a position of leadership which necessarily secured for its
incumbent a national reputation.
After the election of Mr. Buchanan to the
Presidency, in 1856. Mr. Jones was selected as a member of his
cabinet. This selection was ratified by the Democratic press and
party throughout the country with great unanimity, but Mr. Jones
declined the appointment. In February 1857, he tendered to Mr.
Jones the mission to Berlin. "It is my purpose." he wrote, "to
present your name to the Senate for that highly respectable and
important mission immediately after my cabinet shall have been
confirmed. And permit me here to add that I think your mind and
qualities are admirably adapted to that branch of the public
service." This position Mr. Jones declined. He continued his
service in Congress as chairman of the committee on Ways and Means,
and was the zealous advocate and supporter of President Buchanan's
administration on the floor of the House.
In the year 1858 he was unanimously renominated
for Congress, his opponent being Maj. John Schwartz, the candidate
of the anti--Lecompton Democracy, which united with it the strength
of the Republican party. Mr. Jones being the special representative
of the policy of the Federal administration, the contest in Berks,
as elsewhere, was conducted largely upon national issues. One of
the most exciting campaigns in the history of the county ensued,
which resulted in the election of Maj. John Schwartz by a majority
of nineteen votes. The total vote in the district was upward of
fourteen thousand. Immediately after the result of the contest was
known, President Buchanan tendered to Mr. Jones the Austrian
mission, which he accepted. Upon his confirmation by the Senate, be
resigned his seat in Congress, and left, with his family, for his
post in January 1859. Upon the accession of the Republican party to
power, in 1861, Mr. Burlingame was appointed by President Lincoln
to succeed Mr. Jones at the court of Vienna; but, having been
almost immediately recalled, Mr. Jones, at the request of the
administration, remained in the embassy until the arrival of his
successor, Hon. John Lothrop Motley, in the month of December. At
the period of the outbreak of the Civil war in the United States
the subject of the belligerent relations of the two contending
sections devolved duties of a peculiarly delicate and responsible
nature upon our diplomatic representatives abroad, and, so far as
Mr. Jones's sphere of service was concerned, he sustained his
official trust in a manner highly satisfactory to the
administration and the government of the country.
Upon his return home, where he arrived in
January 1862, the period of Mr. Jones's public life practically
terminated, though he did not cease to participate in the councils
of his party for many years afterward. He resumed the practice of
the law, and carried it on for about ten years, when declining
health compelled him to retire from all employments of a public
nature.
Mr. Jones was, for a long period, prominent in
the councils of the Protestant Episcopal Church, having been
frequently a delegate to diocesan conventions, and having taken a
leading part in the measures which led to the establishment of the
new diocese of Central Pennsylvania in 1871. During his entire
political and professional career he preserved a character of
unblemished integrity, and in his private relations to his
fellowmen was equally above reproach. He had many warm and zealous
friends, and succeeded, as few public men succeed, in preserving
the personal esteem of his political opponents, against whom he
never cherished animosity or resentment. He was well fitted to be a
leader of men, and those who differed most radically from him in
political opinion did not hesitate to acknowledge the winning power
of his personal influence. He was a very social man. His domestic
life was especially happy and attractive. His wife, Anna Rodman, a
daughter of the Hon. William Rodman, of Bucks county, formerly a
representative of that district in Congress, was a lady of superior
refinement and most estimable Christian character, and her decease,
in 1871, severed the ties of a peculiarly united and affectionate
household.
Mr. Jones died at Reading, March 24, 1878, in
his sixty-seventh year, and upon that occasion the Bar of the
county united in a testimonial of marked respect to his memory and
appreciation of his public services. Two of his sons, Charles Henry
and Richmond L. Jones, were admitted to the Berks county Bar in
1863, having studied law in their father's office. The latter was a
representative from the county in the Legislature from 1867 to
1869, and the former became a resident and practitioner at the Bar
of Philadelphia. Mr. Jones's eldest daughter, Anna Rodman, married
Farrelly Alden, of Pittsburgh, and died there in December 1885. His
youngest daughter, Katharine, married William Thomas Wallace, of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
p. 327
Surnames: JONES, CHAUNCEY, BARR, BANKS, GORDON, HIESTER
John Pringle Jones, first President Judge of Berks county under the
amended Constitution of Pennsylvania, from 1851 to 1861, was born
near Newtown, Bucks county, in 1812. His father died when he was
young. His mother was of an English family in Philadelphia. His
education was acquired at the Partridge Military Academy in
Middletown, Conn., at the University of Pennsylvania, and the
College of New Jersey at Princeton, from which last he was
graduated in 1831. He studied law in the office of Charles
Chauncey, Esq., and was admitted to the Philadelphia Bar in 1834.
While in Berks county, in 1835, he determined to locate at Reading.
In 1839 he was appointed deputy attorney general of Berks county
and served in that office until 1847. During this time he was
associated in the practice of law with Robert M. Barr, Esq., who in
1845, was appointed reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court.
At the expiration of the official term of the Hon. John Banks in
1847, he was appointed to fill this position. By an Act of the
Legislature, passed in 1849, Berks county was erected into a
separate judicial district, of which David F. Gordon, Esq., was
appointed president judge, and judge Jones continued to preside in
Lehigh and Northampton counties until 1851.
In 1849, Mr. Barr, the State reporter, died and
judge Jones completed two of the State Reports, known as the "Jones
reports." In 1851 he was elected president judge of Berks county
for ten years. After the expiration of his term he devoted himself
to literary pursuits and to the management of the Charles Evans
Cemetery Company, of which he was elected president.
In 1867, Judge Maynard (of the 3rd Judicial
District, then composed of Lehigh and Northampton counties), died,
and Judge Jones was appointed his successor for the unexpired term.
This was the last official position he occupied. In 1872, he sailed
for Europe, accompanied by his wife, and traveled through France,
Italy, Germany and a part of Russia. He was taken sick and died in
London on March 16, 1874. His remains were brought to Reading and
buried in the Charles Evans Cemetery. He married (first) in 1840,
Annie Hiester, daughter of Dr. Isaac Hiester, of Reading. After her
death, he married, in 1851, Catharine E. Hiester, daughter of John
S. Hiester.
p. 1470
Surnames: JONES, MUMM, NORTHEIMER, MONDY, STAUFFER, PLANK,
REIFFSNYDER, REIFSNYDER, McCANNEN, FRY, HARTMAN, GICKER, DUNDOR,
WILLIAMS
Levi G. Jones, of Spring township, who is en-gaged in carpentering
in the borough of West Reading, Pa., was born in Honeybrook
township, Chester county, Sept. 20, 1849, son of William and
Susanna (Mumm) Jones. William Jones, who was a well to do
agriculturist of Chester county, followed that occupation all of
his life, and died well advanced in years. He and his wife were the
parents of the following children: Louisa m. Nicholas Northeimer;
Annie m. John Mon-dy; Margaret, twin of Annie, m. Ephraim Stauffer;
Lydia m. Peter Plank; Emma m. Henry Reifsnyder; Eliza m. John
McCannen; Loretta m. Oliver Fry; Mary, Rebecca and John all died
unmarried; Reuben re-sides in Chester county; and Levi G.
Levi G. Jones attended the schools of Chester
coun-ty, and worked on his father's farm until eighteen years of
age, at which time he engaged in work at a furnace, where he
continued until his thirtieth year. He then began learning the
carpenter trade in Read-ing, which he followed exclusively until
1901, and then went into a restaurant business at No. 418 Penn
avenue, West Reading, in connection with his trade. He makes his
home at No. 408 Penn avenue. Mr. Jones is a Democrat in politics,
and for one term served on the school board of Spring township. He
and his family are members of St. James Reformed Church, where he
is Serving as deacon; and he is fraternally con-nected with the
Knights of Friendship, and the P. O. S. of A., of which latter
society he is financial secretary.
Mr. Jones was married to Mary Reiffsnyder,
daugh-ter of Samuel and Hannah (Hartman) Reiffsnyder, and to this
union there have been born children as follows: George m. Annie
Gicker; Laura m. Henry Dundor; Levi m. Gussie Williams, of
Philadelphia; and Charles died aged nine months.
p. 352
Surnames: JONES
Jonathan Jones was a son of
David Jones, one of the earliest settlers of Caernarvon township,
Berks county. He was born in the township in 1738. Upon the
breaking out of the Revolution he raised a company of Associators
in that locality, and was appointed a captain in the 1st
Pennsylvania Regiment, of the regular Continental army Oct. 25,
1775. He was ordered with his company to the "British Barracks," at
Philadelphia, and acted as part of the escort of Martha Washington
into Philadelphia. In December he was ordered into Northampton
county, Va., to protect it against Lord Dunmore. The alarming state
of affairs in Canada led to the revocation of this order, and, by
command of Congress, he marched with his company of eighty-three
men for Quebec, over the snow and "frozen lakes." This terrible
midwinter march consumed two months. After the precipitate retreat
from Quebec, he voluntarily returned, at the risk of capture, and
recovered valuable papers. He was with Arnold in his pursuit of the
British, after the battle of the Cedars, and took part in the
battle of "Three Rivers," June 8, 1776. He shared the terrible and
distressing sufferings of the army in its disastrous retreat to
Ticonderoga, and underwent at that post the severe and exacting
routine of military duty incident to its fortification and defense
to resist the attack of General Carleton. He was stationed there
from July 9 to Nov. 15, 1776. On Oct. 27th the time of enlistment
of his men ran out, but through his exertions they consented to
remain as long as the enemy was in their front. After a year's
active service he was promoted to the rank of major, Oct. 25, 1776,
and to lieutenant-colonel of his regiment, which had become the 2d
under the new arrangement, March 12, 1777. His constitution was so
shattered by the hardships and exposure of the campaign against
Canada that he was obliged to return home to recruit his health in
the winter of 1776-77. Having partially recovered, he rejoined his
regiment in the spring of 1777, the command of which devolved upon
him after the resignation of Col. James Irvine, June 1, 1777. Two
companies of the regiment were then on duty in Philadelphia and the
remainder were guarding the upper ferries of the Delaware.
Increasing ill health, however, obliged him to
resign his commission in the latter part of July. In December,
1778, he was appointed by the Assembly a commissioner under the
test laws, and he was a member of the General Assembly of
Pennsylvania from Berks county from October, 1779, to October,
1780. His health continued steadily to decline, and he was shortly
afterward stricken with paralysis, of which he died, after a
lingering illness, on Sept. 26, 1782, at the early age of
forty-four. He was buried at Bangor Church, Churchtown, of which
members of his family had been wardens and vestrymen from its
earliest foundation.
(An engraved image of Jonathan Jones is found opposite page 352.)
p. 1177
Surnames: JONES, RUDMAN/RUCHMAN, NIELSON, MILES, WEIDNER, HEFFNER,
STRYKER, HUGHES, WIGFALL, VAN DUYN
Capt. Richard Hall Jones, who in his lifetime was a citizen useful
to his town, his State and his country in peace and in war, came of
loyal, sturdy pioneer stock, descending from the Swedes whose
colony was planted at Philadelphia before William Penn was born.
In a case in
the Philadelphia library, on Locust street , is an old volume, "Nya
Sverige," by the Rev. John Campanius Holm. It was published at
Stockholm in 1702, and contains the first printed account of the
colonial settlement of Pennsylvania. The Rev. Mr. Holm was chaplain
of the company of Swedish colonists who came over with Capt. John
Printz in three ships in 1643, and established a permanent
settlement on Tinicum Island.
The King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, sent out
these early settlers, and they were provided for spiritually by
three missionaries, and the first church was built by the
government of their mother country. This was a block house, which
stood on the present site of Old Swedes Church, (erected in 1700)
at Swanson and Christian streets. These first settlers were
accustomed to the use of boats, and were wont to use the water
instead of the paths and half-opened Indian trails along the shore.
A history of any of the descendants of these
pioneers would be incomplete, indeed, without a short sketch of
their old house of worship, "the meeting place at Weccacoe," now
Gloria Dei or Old Swedes Church. The present edifice, as stated,
was erected on the site of the old block house in 1700. Originally
its ministers were of the faith of the National Church of
Sweden-Lutheran in faith, and Episcopal in government. To the
energies of the first pastor, the Rev. Mr. Rudman (or Ruchman) was
due the erection of the present building. From 1700 to 1786 ten
ministers occupied the pulpit, and then as the Swedish languages
and purposes had died out, the congregation elected a minister of
the Church of England, and of that faith it has since continued,
though of such great length have been the pastorates that the
present priest is but the fourth of his faith, and his term of
faithful service lacks but one year of four decades. The interior
has been remodeled several times, but the quaint hint of for-mer
days is seen, and the aisle is inlaid with the tablets of the ten
Swedish ministers.
"The footprints of an elder race are here, And
memories of an heroic time - And shadows of the old mysterious
faith."
In Philadelphia. there is yet to be seen a house
that was built by one of the companions of Capt. John Printz's
voyage. It stands on the desolate flats west of the Schuyl-kill,
and was built (family tradition says in 1650) by Jo-nas Nielson,
who for some years before building this house dwelt in a cave, the
site of which is still pre-served in the side of the hill which
slopes from the front door of the cottage to what was originally
the bank of a navigable creek. Ships from the Delaware brought up
merchandise to the front door of the cottage, and the cave, the
first home of Jonas Nielson and where he partly reared his eleven
children, became a store house for the goods brought up for traffic
with the Indians. The old house with its two rooms and garret was
hardly larger than a packing box. In the ground floor room there is
an immense fire place, now walled up, extending almost the entire
width of the room and reaching nearly to the ceiling, which is
itself scarcely more than seven feet high. In front of this
fireplace George Washing-ton once sat as guest. Sessions of court
were held where -ever a building was available, and the old Jonas
Nielson cottage, today so lonely on the Schuylkill meadow, was one
of the earliest places in America where trial by jury was held. A
trail that led to the house from the direction of Tinicum Island
has appeared on the maps of the city from time out of memory as
Jones's Lane. Jonas Niel-son is buried at the Old Swedes Church
cemetery.
By the custom of the Swedes to change their
names to the baptismal name of the father, the progeny of Jonas
Nielson became known as Jonasson, and in the next generation that
was Anglicized to Jones. This is referred to in an old deed of
partition on record at the City Hall, which mentions William Jones
as "a grandson of Jonas Nealson, yeoman, late of Kingsessing, the
said William Jones, having agreeable to the Swedish custom, changed
his surname from Nealson to Jones." Mounce Jones, son of Jonas
Nielson, moved to Amity township, Berks county, late in the
seventeenth century. He built the stone house still standing at the
Douglass-ville bridge, on the old Schuylkill road. It bears the
date "1716." Mounce Jones had a son Jonas, who had a son Nicholas,
who had a son Samuel, who had a son Ezekiel, the father of the
subject of this sketch.
Capt. Richard Hall Jones was born near
Douglassville, Berks county, Pa., Aug. 22, 1834, and grew to
manhood in his native county. From 1851 to 1870 he was engaged in
the manufacture of iron tubing in Reading. He be-came very
prominent during the Civil war. In 1862 after Gen. Banks' retreat,
Mr. Jones tendered his services to Governor Curtin, but additional
troops were refused by the Secretary of War at that time. When the
call for nine months men was made, Mr. Jones opened a re-cruiting
office in the Ringgold Armory, and Aug. 1, 1862, he had succeeded
in enlisting 119 men. Acting under or-ders, on Aug. 9, 1862, he
marched his company to Harrisburg, where he remained in camp until
the 17th, when they proceeded to the front in defense of
Washington, camping near Hunter's Chapel, Virginia. They were
organized as Company I, 128th Pa. V. I., and Mr. Jones became
captain of the company. On Sept. 6, 1862, the reg-iment marched
from near Fort Woodbury, opposite Georgetown, D. C., to Rockville,
Md., where it was bri-gaded with the First Division of the Twelfth
Army Corps. With this Corps it entered upon a severe campaign in
Maryland, and was engaged in the battles of South Moun-tain and
Antietam, after which it occupied Maryland Heights, opposite
Harper's Ferry, Sept. 20, 1862, and from that time it remained
there until relieved Dec. 11th following. Proceeding at once to
Stafford Court House, Va., it entered upon the Rappahannock
campaign. Moving from Stafford Court House by way of Kelly's Ford,
it reached the line of battle on the right of Chancellor House,
April 30, 1863. In the attack that followed, Captain Jones and
thirty-five of his men and Companies C and K of the same regiment,
were captured, and sent to Libby Prison. Here they suffered all the
horrors and privations of that noted pen, and while there their
regi-ment was mustered out by reason of the expiration of the term
of service. As soon as he was released Capt. Jones returned to his
home at Reading, and resumed the occupations of peace. He became
clerk with the Adams Express Company, and remained with that
company un-til he entered the employ of Mr. George W. Hughes, with
whom he remained until the latter's death. Capt. Jones then took
charge of the business and carried it on with great success until
his own death. The firm is now known as Dietrich & Hollenbach.
Capt. Jones died Jan. 15, 1899.
Captain Jones was twice married. By his first
marriage to Rebecca Miles, he became the father of two chil-dren:
James Miles, who married Ellen Kinsey Weidner, and has one child,
Dorothy M.; and Nathaniel Wilmer, a train dispatcher between
Tamaqua and Williamsport, who married (first) Hannah Elizabeth
Heffner, had one child, Richard A., and married (second) Ella
Stryker. For his second wife Captain Jones married Ellen E. Hughes,
and to this marriage three children were born: Henrietta Hughes,
who married Edward Newton Wigfall, and has one child, E. Newton,
Jr.; Henry Harrison, of Springfield, Ill., superintendent of the
Electric Heat and Power Company, who married Ellen M. Van Duyn, and
has three children, Ellen L. and Catherine E. and Gilbert A.
(twins); and Miss Eleanor A. Mc., at home.
Capt. Jones was prominent in fraternal
societies. He was a member of Lodge No. 62, F. & A. M., in
which he was past master; Excelsior Chapter; Reading Com-mandery;
Rajah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S.; I. O. O. F.; K. of P.; and the
Pennsylvania Commandery of the Loyal Legion of America. Capt. Jones
was one of those men to whom duty is a watchword, and he was never
found wanting in any relation of life. At his death be had the
esteem of all who knew him.
p.
384
Surnames: JONES, McCARTY, MacVEAGH, FERGUSON, RODMAN
Richmond Legh Jones, Esq., the subject of this biography, was born
Feb. 17, 1840, and after a thorough training in the best schools of
this country completed his education at the University of
Heidelberg, Germany. Before entering that world renowned
institution; however, he went to South America with the United
States expedition against Paraguay, visiting the islands of St.
Thomas and Barbadoes, in the West Indies, and the principal cities
of the east coast of South America, and, sailing a thousand miles
up the Parana river to Asuncion, was present at the capitulation of
Lopez, which crowned the success of the expedition. After a sojourn
of several years in Europe, he returned to America and entered the
law office of his father as a student, and having been thoroughly
qualified was admitted to the bar of Berks county, April 14, 1863.
He was subsequently admitted to the Supreme court of the
Commonwealth and to the Bar of Philadelphia and other counties of
the State.
In his profession he has attained marked
distinction having tried and won many cases involving important
principles of law which are now widely quoted as precedents, and
having recently been appointed, by the Bar Association of
Pennsylvania, chairman of a committee to revise the corporation
laws of the State. The Reading street railway system, with its
suburban adjuncts, and the electric light and gas companies, and
many other industrial corporations which he represents, owe their
marked success largely to the genius and ability displayed by Mr.
Jones in their organization and development. He is general counsel
also for the United Power and Transportation Company and the
Interstate Railways Company, corporations controlling over five
hundred miles of street railways in Pennsylvania and the adjoining
States. His services to the public, aside from business, have been
equally notable, and the prosperous community in which he lives
cheerfully acknowledges many substantial benefits largely due to
his well-directed energy and the wisdom of his counsel. It was
mainly through his efforts that the city of Reading recovered the
tract of land, lost for nearly a hundred years, at the foot of
Penn's Mount, now beautifully improved as the City Park and known
as Penn Common; and that the free public library of the city, of
which he is president, was rescued from obscurity and sacrifice,
placed upon an enduring foundation by liberal private contributions
headed with his name, and then adopted by the public as worthy of
maintenance out of the common purse.
In 1862 on the invasion of Maryland by the
Confederate army, Mr. Jones enlisted, serving as a private soldier,
and was present at the battle of Antietam, and in 1863 he was made
captain of a company of Pennsylvania volunteers. In 1866 he was
elected a member of the Legislature from the county of Berks, and
was twice reelected, and in 1868, his second term, he received his
party's nomination for the speakership. His speeches on the
amendments to the Constitution of the United States then being
considered, were widely read, and ranked with the best arguments
upon that subject. He had little taste for politics; however, and a
preference for the work of his profession induced him to retire
from public life. He has since held no public office excepting that
of Commissioner at Valley Forge, to which he was appointed by
Governor Pennypacker and has been reappointed by Governor Stuart.
He is a vestryman of Christ Church, Reading, and
a director in many local organizations. He is also a member of the
Colonial Society of Pennsylvania, Society of Colonial Wars, Sons of
the Revolution, Society of the War of 1812, and Grand Army of the
Republic.
On Nov. 26, 1870, he married Margaret Ellen
McCarty, daughter of James McCarty, a prominent ironmaster of
Reading, and Rebecca MacVeagh, his wife, and a niece of Wayne and
Franklin MacVeagh. He had one daughter, now deceased, who was the
wife of Nathaniel Ferguson of Reading. His country residence,
"Merioneth." overlooks the city of Reading from the surrounding
hills.
Mr. Jones is descended from a long line of
distinguished Colonial and Revolutionary ancestors on both sides of
his house. His father, J. Glancy Jones, was an able lawyer and
distinguished member of Congress from Berks county from 1850 to
1859, during his last term having been chairman of the committee on
Ways and Means. He resigned his seat in Congress to accept the
appointment of envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to
Austria, which office be held during the trying times of the
commencement of the Civil war, when our relations with foreign
countries were extremely delicate. Mr. Jones's great-grandfather,
Col. Jonathan Jones, was senior captain of the first regiment
raised in Pennsylvania for the Continental army, October 1775. He
participated in the winter campaign for the relief of the army of
Quebec, after the death of Montgomery, and also in many important
engagements. For distinguished services he was promoted to the rank
of major, and later to that of lieutenant-colonel in the
Pennsylvania Line.
Mr. Jones's great-great-grandfather, David
Jones, came from Merioneth, Wales, to Pennsylvania in 1721, and
bought a large tract of land in Caernarvon township, where he
opened and developed iron ore mines, which still bear his name.
Mr. Jones's mother was the daughter of William
Rodman, of Bucks county, who was a brigade quartermaster in the
army of the Revolution, and afterward a member of the Senate of
Pennsylvania and of the Twelfth Congress of the United States. The
Rodman family is one of the oldest in the New World, having settled
in America in the early part of the seventeenth century and
contributed to the Colonies many of their most distinguished
citizens.
p. 694
Surnames: JONES, JONASSON, NIELSON, YOCOM, GORRELL, KIRLIN,
HOOVER/HUBER, MAY, BROWER, GAILEY, ARBLE
William H. Jones, a well known citizen of Douglassville, Amity
township, belongs to the oldest family in Berks county. Before
William Penn was born Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, sent out
colonists to the New World, and in 1643, under Capt. John Printz,
three ships came over and established a settlement on Tinicum
Island. The Rev. John Campanius Holm was pastor for the Colony, and
the first church was built by the government of the mother country.
This was a block house, and it stood on the present site of Old
Swedes Church, (erected in 1700), at Swanson and Christian streets,
Philadelphia. Originally the ministers of this church were Lutheran
in faith, but as time passed on and the Swedish language died out,
the congregation elected a minister of the Church of England, and
of that denomination the church has continued. On the flats west of
the Schuylkill, at Philadelphia, is still standing a house built by
Jonas Nielson (tradition says in 1650). Though consisting of but
two tiny rooms and a garret, many traditions are extant concerning
the importance of this place in early days, and in front of the
fireplace George Washington once sat as a guest. Court was also
held there. Jonas Nielson is buried at Old Swedes Church. By the
custom of the Swedes to change their name to the baptismal name of
the father, the progeny of Jonas Nielson became known as Jonasson ,
which in the next generation was anglicized to Jones. An old deed
of partition on record at the City Hall, Philadelphia, mentions
William Jones as "a grandson of Jonas Nealson, yeoman, late of
Kingsessing, the said William Jones having agreeable to Swedish
custom, changed his surname from Nealson to Jones."
Maunce Jones, a Swede, came from the Wissahickon
to Douglassville, in Berks county, with a colony of Swedes in 1701.
He located on the east bank of the Schuylkill river where he built
a stone house in 1716, where the Douglassville county "covered"
bridge spans the river. This house has a very thick wall, and is
very substantially built, having in its earlier days been a place
of refuge for the pioneer settlers during Indian outbreaks. It is
now owned by the Leaf estate. Maunce Jones was a farmer and owned
considerable land. He was married to Ongabo, daughter of J. Jonas
Yocom and was executor of his father-in-law's will in 1760. Among
the Joneses who are buried in the Episcopal cemetery at
Douglassville are the following: Peter Jones, who died Aug. 20,
1758, aged fourteen years; Sarah Jones, who died June 20, 1762,
aged thirty years; Jonas Jones, Sr. who died Jan. 27, 1777, aged
seventy-seven; Mary, wife of Jonas Jones, who died Sept. 11, 1772,
aged sixty-eight years; Jonas Jones, Jr., who died April 23, 1799,
aged sixty-five years; Mary, daughter of Jonas Jones, who died
Sept. 30, 1805, aged seventy-eight years; Nicholas Jones, who died
Oct. 15, 1826, aged ninety years; Rachel, wife of Nicholas Jones,
who died March 5, 1792, aged forty-one years; Nicholas Jones, who
died March 28, 1820 (or 1829), aged forty-one years; Mary, wife of
Nicholas Jones, who died July 20, 1862, aged sixty-nine years;
Samuel Jones, son of Nicholas, who died April 28, 1786, aged five
years; David Jones, born March 1, 1786, and died Nov. 4, 1822;
George Jones, born Sept. 28, 1814, and died Dec. 27, 1882; Hannah
Jones, born Nov. 5, 1818, and died April 3, 1884; and Richard
Jones, born Jan. 14, 1816, and died Sept. 25, 1875.
Peter Jones, great-grandfather of William H.,
was born at Douglassville, Oct. 10, 1749, and died there on his
farm Nov. 24, 1809. He owned all the land including the Huysingue
Meschert est. to and including the James Gorrell farm (eighty-eight
acres of which was Jones land). Peter Jones had in all, three
hundred acres, and he engaged in farming all his life. He and his
wife were Episcopalians and are buried at Douglassville. He married
Catharine Kirlin, born Nov. 9, 1756, died Feb. 25, 1844. They were
the parents of fifteen children, namely: John, born July 9, 1773;
Ruth and Elizabeth (twins), July 20, 1775; Peter, Aug. 9, 1777;
Hannah, born Sept. 9, 1779, died Dec. 29, 1860, married Jonathan
Jones, (son of Nicholas and Rachel), born March 2, 1778, died April
23, 1840, and their son Samuel died July 2, 1833, (aged thirty
years, one month and eight days); Samuel, Jan. 3, 1782; William,
Jan. 25, 1784; Jacob, Feb. 19, 1786; Nathan, May 22, 1788: Thomas,
May 7, 1790; Ezekiel, April 2, 1792; Mary (Polly), Sept. 15, 1793;
Caleb, July 8, 1766; Catharine, March 28, 1799; and Rebecca, April
5, 1802.
Samuel Jones, son of Peter, was born at
Douglassville, Jan. 3, 1782, and died on his farm above
Douglassville in 1864. He was a blacksmith by trade, and also
conducted a thirty-five acre farm. He was very well known and was
greatly interested in educational matters. In appearance he was
tall and stout, of dark complexion. Both he and his wife Elizabeth
Hoover (Huber) are buried at the Episcopal Church in Douglassville.
He was a member of the vestry of this church, and was always active
in its work. To Samuel Jones and wife were born children as
follows: Peter; Richard, who kept a store along the canal at
Unionville, now conducted by his grandson, Howard W. Jones; Jacob,
who lived at Reading the greater part of his life , but whose
children now live in Philadelphia; Julian, who married Thomas May,
and lived at Douglassville; Ezekiel, an alderman of the Third ward
Reading, who had Dick and Harry.
Peter Jones, son of Samuel, was born at
Douglassville April 19, 1819, and was there reared to manhood,
early becoming acquainted with the duties on a farm. He owned the
farm that is now managed by his estate. He died March 15, 1896, and
is buried in the Episcopal cemetery. He too was a member of the
Episcopal church. and served on the vestry. On Feb. 25, 1847, he
married Mary Ann Kirlin, daughter of John and Sarah (Brower)
Kirlin, of Union township, the former of whom died at Hamburg in
1829. Mrs. Mary Ann (Kirlin) Jones was born Dec. 6, 1820, and is
now (1909) residing on the old farm above Douglassville. She is
remarkably well preserved, and she takes a keen interest in the
life around her.
She is the mother of nine children: Winfield
Scott. born May 23, 1848; Samuel H., May 14, 1849; Sarah Ann, Dec.
13, 1850; Newton, Sept. 27, 1852; Elizabeth C., April 30, 1854;
Fannie, April 23, 1856; Hannah M., Sept. 18, 1858; William H.,
Sept. 17, 1860; and Maggie Y., Nov. 21, 1862.
William H. Jones was born at Douglassville,
Sept. 17, 1860, and was educated in. the public schools of that
district. He was trained to farming, and since 1888, he has been
farming the old homestead for himself. This farm consists of
thirty-five acres of excellent land, and Mr. Jones devotes a great
deal of attention to dairying, having shipped his milk to
Philadelphia many years. In the winter of 1908-09 he established
the first milk route in Douglassville, and this he now serves. In
politics Mr. Jones is a Republican, and he and his family are
members of the Episcopal Church at Douglassville, in which he is a
member of the vestry.
On Dec. 6, 1888, Mr. Jones married Margaret
Gailey, daughter of William and Sarah Jane (Arble) Gailey, and they
have two children: Mary Ethel, a member of the Pottstown high
school class of 1909; and Herbert G.