Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/166

 JONES

JONES

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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-