Thomas B. Jones
Thomas B. Jones, prominent retired farmer of Radnor Township, was born in Belmont County, Ohio, December 20, 1834, and is a son of Nicholas and Elizabeth (Warner) Jones.
The founder of this family in America was Griffin Jones, who came from England to America at a very early day. when somewhat advanced in years, but his son Edward, who was the grandfather of Thomas E., was born after he settled in Virginia. Edward Jones learned the carpenter trade and he also was employed as an overseer on Virginia plantations. He was a soldier in the War of 1812 and received a land warrant on that account, but he never made use of it. His last years were spent at the home of his son Nicholas, in Delaware County, Ohio, where he died in 1856, at the age of 62 years. He married Nancy Wharton and they had several children. She had five brothers, all of whom became ministers either of the Baptist or the Methodist Episcopal faith.
Nicholas Jones was born near Fredericksburg, Virginia, in January, 1807, and died in Ohio, in 1868. He remained in Virginia until the construction of the National road was under way, when he came to Ohio and engaged as a hotel clerk at Morristown, in Belmont County. He married Elizabeth Warner, who died in 1883, aged 72 years. She was a daughter of Henry Warner, who kept the hotel at Morristown, in which Mr. Jones was employed as a clerk. To this marriage were born 12 children, the following of whom grew to maturity: Edward, who was a physician, died in Missouri; Thomas B.; Nicholas, who resides in Nebraska; Winfield S., who resides at Moberly, Missouri; Mary, who is the wife of Sidney Howe, of Black Rock, Arkansas; Charles, who resides near Rochester, New York; and Stella, deceased, who married Rufus Wells of Chicago, who is also deceased.
Nicholas Jones and wife continued to live in Belmont County, until after the birth of Thomas B., when they came to Troy Township, Delaware County, where Mr. Jones built a log cabin in the woods and subsequently cleared up an excellent farm. He was a man of more than ordinary intelligence and force of character and so impressed his fellow citizens that for many years he was retained in public office. In politics he was first a Whig and later a Republican and he was elected a justice of the peace in Troy Township and served for 12 consecutive years. In 1847 he was elected sheriff of Delaware County, an office he efficiently filled for four years, leaving it to became county auditor for a like period. He then returned to Troy Township, where he bought what was known as the broom-corn farm, but five years later he sold that property and retired to Delaware, where the remainder of his life was passed. Both he and wife were leading members of the Baptist Church.
Thomas B. Jones was educated in the public schools of Troy Township and at the Ohio Wesleyan University. He engaged in farming with his father until his marriage in 1861 and continued to live in Troy Township until 1866, when he came to Radnor Township. In the above year he bought his farm of 187 acres on which, until within the past two years, he has carried on general farming and stock raising. He made all the improvements here and erected all the buildings except the residence.
In 1861, Mr. Jones was married to Ellen Bush, who is a daughter of David Bush, of Troy Township. Mrs. Jones was a school teacher for a number of years in southern Ohio and in Iowa, prior to her marriage. Of the ten children born to Mr. and Mrs. Jones, all but one reached maturity, as follows: Louis J., residing at Lorain, Ohio; Alice, who married Cadwallader Price, residing at Magnetic Springs, in Union County; Thomas Bennett, deceased; Walter A., residing in Concord Township; Victor W., residing at Columbus; Hosea H., residing in Radnor Township; Elizabeth, who married Edmund Morrison, residing on the home place; and Anna, who married Frank Graham. residing in Thompson Township. Mr. Jones and family belong to the Baptist Church at Radnor.
Among the many recollections of his boyhood, Mr. Jones recalls seeing a party of Wyandot Indians riding through Troy Township on their way to the Ohio River. They impressed him as a very jolly company, singing as they went on out of hearing. They never returned to this section. Mr. Jones remembers also the mob that came out from Columbus, in 1844, for the purpose of tearing down the gates along the Columbus & Sandusky turnpike road. When they reached Thomas Casey's gate, in Troy Township, they found a band of militia awaiting them and when the mob persisted in tearing clown the gate, the militia fired and wounded one of the invaders. In spite of the militia the gate was demolished.
20th Century History of Delaware County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Edited and compiled by James R. Lytle, Delaware, Ohio, Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1908