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 persons: RICHARD 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 many 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 Edward
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 it's 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 of 1861 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 [Swansea],
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 O'Brian' made the
famous strike in the Comstock district. In those days the Miner's 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 Lincoln's 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 one 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 still remains at
the South end of the town of Murray
and it was there that Richard P. Jones lost his fortune.
In 1876 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. They lived there 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 1880s 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 family's 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.
