JONES
JONES
^Jh^
lator of the French language for the board of U.S.
land commissioners at Kaskaskia. He removed
in 1808 from Vincennes to Kaskaskia, the seat of
government of Illinois Territory, where he prac-
tised law ; thence iu 1810 to Ste. Genevieve, Mis-
souri Territory, later
to St. Louis, and
finally to Potosi, Mo.,
where, in company
with Moses Austin
(in honor of whom
Austin, Texas, was
named), he erected
what is said to have
been the first rever-
batory furnace con-
structed in the Unit-
ed States. He was
a member, and dur-
ing the last session
president, of the leg-
islative council of
Missouri Territory, 1814-15, and was a member of
the convention of 1820, which framed the con-
stitution of the state of Missouri. He was a can-
didate for U.S. senator in September, 1820, but
withdrew in favor of Judge John B. C. Lucas.
At the same session of the legislature he was ap-
pointed an associate justice of the supreme court
of Missouri, which position he held until his
death. He was twice married : first in Wales,
Jan. 8, 1781, to Eliza Powell ; and secondly, Feb.
11. 1791, at Vincennes, to Mary Barger, of German
ancestry. Of his children : Rice Jones, born in
Wales, Sept. 28, 1781, was a graduate in both
medicine and law, a member of the general as-
sembly of Indiana Territory, and was assassinated
in Kaskaskia, Dec. 7, 1808, by a political enemy
John Rice (q.v.), was born in 1792, died in 1845
Augustus (q.v.), was born in 1796, died in 1887
Myers Fisher, born at Kaskaskia, Oct. 19, 1800,
was a member of the Missouri legislature, repre-
sented his county in the internal improvement
conventions at St. Louis in 1835 and 1836, removed
to Texas in 1839, where he engaged extensively
in farming and stock-raising, took an active part
in protecting the frontier from the Mexicans and
Indians, and died in Texas in 1846 ; George Wal-
lace (q.v.), was born April 12, 1804, died in 1896 ;
William Powell, was born at Kaskaskia, May 13,
1810, and died a passed midshipman and acting
lieutenant in the U.S. navy in 1834 ; Eliza be-
came the wife of the Hon. Andrew Scott, first
U.S. judge of Arkansas Territory ; and Harriet
married, first Thomas Brady, a (vealthy mer-
chant of St. Louis, Mo., and secondly the Hon.
John Scott (q.v.). a representative in congress
from Missouri, 1822-26. Judge John Rice Jones
died at St. Louis, Mo., Feb. 1, 1824.
JONES, John Rice, pioneer, was born in Kas-
kaskia, Northwest Territory, Jan. 8 , 1792 ; son
of Judge John Rice and Mary (Barger) Jones.
He served under Capt. Henry Dodge in the war
of 1812, and removed to Texas, then a Mexican
state, about 1831, locating in San Felipe de Austin.
He became a participant in the struggle for in-
dependence, and bore a conspicuous part both as
a soldier and political leader. He was postmaster-
general of Texas under Governor Henry Smith,
1835-36, President D. G. Burnet, 1836 and 1839, and
President M. B. Lamar, 1837-38. He was also a
comijanion and friend of Stephen F. Austin, Gen-
eral Houston, Col. William B. Travis, Col. James
Bowie, Col. David Crockett, Col. Benjamin R.
Milan and with ex-Governor Henry Smith was
executor of the will of the heroic Colonel Travis.
He was married in 1818 to a daughter of Maj.
James Hawkins, of Missouri, and a large family
of children survived him. He died on " Fairland
Farm," Fayette county, Texas, in 1845.
JONES, John Sills, i-epresentative, was born in Champaign covmty, Oliio, Feb. 12, 1835 ; son of William H. and Rachel (Sills) Jones. He was a student at the Ohio Wesleyan university, and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1857. He was elected prosecuting attorney for Delaware county in 1860, but resigned in 1861, and enlisted in the Federal army, serving as private and receiving promotion through the several ranks to that of colonel of the 174th Ohio regiment, and was bre- vetted brigadier-general of volunteers, June 27, 1865. He was mayor of Delaware, Ohio, 1866 ; prosecuting attorney of Delaware county, 1866- 71 ; presidential elector, 1872 ; Republican repre- sentative in the 45th congress, 1877-79 ; a repre- sentative in the Ohio legislature, 1879-84, and during both terms chairman of the judiciary com- mittee of the house. He was a member of the board of trustees of the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' home, 1870-74 ; trustee of the same from 1887, and president of the board of trustees. He -was also a trustee of the Wesleyan female college, 1865-74.
JONES, John Tecumseh, clergyman, was born in Canada, Jan. 1, 1800. He was a half-breed Chippewa Indian. He was educated at Madison university, N.Y., and was adopted by the Ottawa tribe of Indians. He married Jane Kelly, a native of Maine, who was a missionary among the Ottawa Indians in Franklin county, Kansas Territory. He was a co-worker with Mr. Meeker in organiz- ing Baptist churches in Kansas, and organized the Fii'st Baptist church of Ottawa, which, in 1860, had nearly one hundred baptized Indian members. The Baptist convention at Atchison, Kan., in October, 1880, through the suggestion of Mr. Jones, organized the Roger Williams univer- sity on the Ottawa reservation, the Indians pre-