Robert Jones, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Robert Jones
ROBERT JONES, deceased, was for a great many years a resident of Porter county, Indiana, where he was well known and highly respected, and where his widow still resides, making her home at the old farmstead. Personal mention of the individual members of the Jones family is of interest in this connection, and is as follows:
Robert Jones was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, in 1831, son of Aquilla and Mary (McKimson) Jones, and youngest of their six children, the others in order of birth being Benjamin, Haman, Anna, Calvin and Irvin. In his native state he spent his boyhood and reached his majority. Then, in 1852, he married and brought his young bride over into the neighboring state of Indiana. They settled in La Porte county, where he engaged in the grocery business, and where they remained until the spring of 1863, when they came to Porter county. Here, for a few years, he rented a farm. Then he purchased eighty acres of land, to which he subsequently added, making one hundred and fifty acres, which he improved with good buildings including barns and outbuildings and a brick residence, which he surrounded with a choice variety of fruit and shade trees, making a fine farm home. Here he spent the rest of his life and died, his death occurring in 1891. For many years in connection with his farming operations he gave considerable time to the buying and selling of stock. Indeed, he was well known over the county as a prosperous stock dealer.
Politically Mr. Jones was a staunch Republican. His religious creed was that of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he was a substantial member, and he was, fraternally, identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His sterling qualities as a man endeared him to all who knew him, and by those who knew him best he was most highly esteemed.
Mr. and Mrs. Jones had nine children, of whom two died in infancy; Loeva Maud died at the age of thirteen years; Cora Nell, wife of Robert Stephenson, died in the prime of young womanhood, leaving a little son, Robert D.; Bertha, now Mrs. James McChesney, has one son, Robert; Mary Dell is the wife of Leroy Burbank; Lefa Bell, wife of Edward O. Hughes, has one son, Edward; W. J. Jones is engaged in a mercantile business at Denver, Colorado; and Orton Roy is a traveling salesman for the Fairbanks Company of Chicago.
Mrs. Jones, mother of this family, was before her marriage Miss Fanny Evaline Swartz. She was born in Cook county, Ohio, in 1835, daughter of Christian and Magdaline (Folk) Swartz, natives of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Swartz moved from Pennsylvania to Ohio and settled at Strassburg, where their children were born, reared and educated. Their family are now scattered. In order of birth they are Stephen, a prosperous farmer of St. John, Kansas; Elijah, a retired lawyer, is now a resident of California; Frank, a resident of Seattle, Washington, is in the real estate business; Levina and Mollie are deceased; the next is Anna; and the youngest is Fanny, widow of the subject of this sketch. Mrs. Fanny Jones since the death of her husband has continued to reside at the old home place. She has spent considerable time traveling in California and Colorado, in company with her children, visiting, etc., yet the love of the old home and its associations draw her back to the spot. Here, with her old friends around her, she still dispenses the old time hospitality, and, mentally and physically well preserved, she is enjoying the evening of life. She is a charter member of the Rebekah Degree Lodge at Wheeler, and is a worthy member of the Methodist Episcopal church of this place.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company. 1912. History of Porter County, Indiana: A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People and its Principal Interests. Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Company. 881 p.
Page(s) in Source: 720-721
This biography has been transcribed exactly as it was originally published in the source. Please note that we do not provide photocopies or digital scans of biographies appearing on this website.
Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook