Marcia Evans Daugherty doc.
HISTORY OF THE JONES FAMILY
(The following pages give a history of the Richard P. and Eliza E. Jones family as given at the Jones Family reunion at Lagoon, June 25, 1939)
We are assembled here today for the purpose of commemorating the memory of two beloved personsÉRICHARD P. JONES, and his wife ELIZA EDWARDS JONES. And it is only fitting that we should give some genealogical information of the family. What little information I have been able to assemble, I will give in brief outline, as follows:
To only two members of our group here today known as Father, to a good anymore of us, known as Grandfather, and to a still larger number Great Grandfather, and indeed to still others as Great, Great Grandfather. He was born 13 May 1816 at Denbyshire, in North Wales, and died in Samaria, Idaho, 3 September 1889. He was buried in Malad.
His wife was born 16 September 1816, at Brymbo Lodge, Wrexham, North Wales, and died in Malad, Idaho, November 15th. 1896, and buried beside her husband.
It was during the year 1856 that Richard P. and Eliza Edwards Jones packed their belongings, gathered their family together and immigrated to the United States. At the time, they were living at Ruabon, North Wales. (Richard was a member of the Mormon Church but Eliza was not.) After arriving in this country they had the misfortune of losing two members of their family, Margaret and Louis, as they were immigrating toward the West. Their first residence was established at Williamsburg, Iowa, where a little over a year later their youngest child, William Richard, was born. They remained at Williamsburg for four years, but the lure of the West, with itÕs glamour of gold strikes, and fortunes, was too much of a temptation to Richard P. Jones, Who was an expert mineralogist and metallurgist, and his fervent desire was to go to the West and see what would fall his lot, so, in the spring of1861 they continued on their journey toward the Rocky Mountains and Salt Lake Valley, and the following winter they spent at Provo, Utah. The following spring their son, Amos, was married to Leah Parry of Salt Lake, and went to Salt Lake City to make his home. Their daughter, Joice, was also married about the same time to David Thomas of Provo and remained in Provo to make her home, while the rest of the family prepared to journey on toward the Sierra Nevada Mountains. They stopped for a short time in Jacks Valley, Nevada, but later went to Silver City,
Nevada, where they established their residence, and it was there that Mr. Jones staked out "The Pride of the West" mining claim, which still remains a deserted mine in Silver City today. The little white school house up on the hill in Silver City, where Sarah, Isaac and William Richard went to school, and still stood there when we made our trip to the famous old town ten years ago, but on our last visit there June 1st. 1939, it had been torn down.
In 1864, Mr. Jones went to Oreana, Nevada, and erected the first smelter known in the western part of the United States. Charcoal was used in the smelter, and the bullion was shipped to Swanzee, Wales, for refining. It being hauled by ox team over the Sierra Nevada Mountains to San Francisco and loaded on boats.
After completing this smelter, the family again moved back to Silver City, but did not remain their very long the second time before they moved to Virginia City, which were only a few miles distant. Mr. Jones again interesting himself in the mining game, and he was living in Virginia City during the days when "Fair, Flood and OÕBrian" made the famous strike in the Comstock district. In those days the MinerÕs Union was the law, and the outlaw element, known as "Bushwhackers" were a low class composed mostly of Southerners who were against anything that was in line with law and order, and especially they were anti-unionist. The family lived there during the Civil War days and were living there when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Some of those Bushwhackers were present in the famous old "Crystal Bar" Saloon when news of LincolnÕs assassination was brought to the city, and their slighting remarks of Lincoln caused the President of the Labor Union to walk forward, take a whip from on e of the mule skinners present, and whip the bushwhacker until the blood ran down into his shoes. Those were the days when Virginia City was at its best, one of the liveliest towns in the western country, plenty of money in circulation, fortunes being made overnight.
In the year 1867, our family moved to Eureka, Nevada, where Mr. Jones again founded a smelter for Colonel Buhl and Mr. Bateman, and remained there to operate over a period of about three years. Thomas Lilly, his son-in-law, operating a smelter a short distance from his, and he was called from one smelter to the other whenever anything went wrong.
In 1871, Brigham Young sent for Richard P. Jones to come to Salt Lake and make an examination of the iron deposits in southern Utah, near Cedar City, and that year the family moved to Salt Lake City. Mr. Jones went to Cedar City, as requested by Brigham Young, but could not make a favorable report of the project, on account of the high cost of production, but did tell Brigham Young that the time would come when the country was more developed, with rail road facilities, etc. that the iron deposits would become valuable to them, but it was too far distant at that time, as they could not meet the competition of the eastern iron mines. Mr. Jones remained in Salt Lake, and erected the smelter at Murray, Utah, the old slag pile till remains at the South end of the town of Murray and it was there that Richard P. Jones lost his fortune.
In 11876 the family moved to what is known as "The Point", at Samaria, Idaho, and tried their luck as farmers, after the loss of their fortune in Salt Lake. There they lived happily, and humbly, as did the other pioneer resident of that locality. They did not have so much of the worldly goods that they had been used to prior to coming here, but the peace and contentment that comes from living close to nature was theirs until the end of their days.
Post script by Raymond Evans..G Grandson.
Richard Peter Jones, after he moved to Malad surveyed the Samaria Lake and Portage Canal and supervised its construction and being a mining man, prospected and did some mining south of the Samaria Mountain with his son Amos, until the early 1880;s when his health failed.
Richard Jones was in partnership with a man named Raymond and I was named after him. They built the first smelter in the Salt Lake Valley, in Murray. They used ore from the Big Cottonwood Canyon. When the Railroad was built to Park City it put them out of business.
To this beloved couple, the following sons and daughters were born:
Amos Jones: born 19 December 1837 at Ruabon, North Wales. Died 21 March 1913, Malad City, Idaho
Joice Jones Thomas: born 17 November 1839 at Flintshire, North Wales. Died in Provo, Utah, 21 March, 1916
Edward S. Jones: Born 17 April 1842, at Flintshire, North Wales. Died in Shelley, Idaho, 2 August 1902
John Jones: Born 22 December 1844 at Flintshire, North Wales. Died before the family left Wales. Date unknown.
Hannah Jones Mackinson: Born 25 February 1846 at Flintshire, North Wales. Died in Stockton, Utah, 16 July 1928
Sarah Jones Williams: Born 2 November 1847 at Flintshire, North Wales. This beloved member of our family who is now drawing near her 92nd. Birthday is celebrating this occasion with us here. Unusually spry for a lady of her age, mentally alert, and with all the charm of a girl of sixteen, we welcome this day to pay her special tribute. Will she honor the occasion by taking a bow?
Margaret Jones: Born 9 February 1850 at Flintshire, North Wales. Died during the familyÕs immigration to the United States and was buried in Pennsylvania, to the best of our knowledge.
Isaac Jones: Born 28 June 1853 at Ruabon, North Wales. Died at Eureka, Utah, May 1913. Buried at Logan, Utah.
Louis Jones: Born 6 August 1855 at Ruabon, North Wales. Died during the year 1857, at Toledo, Ohio, and was buried in Cleveland, Ohio.
William Richard Jones: Born 4 June 1858, at Williamsburg, Iowa. He is the youngest member of the family and the only other surviving member of the family at this date. He is also present here today, now passing into his 82nd. Year of life. To him the credit is due for what little history I have been able to obtain of the family. Will he stand and take a bow.
Courtesy of Marcia Evans Daugherty
