BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio
edited by
Hon. Bert S. Bartlow, W. H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater,
Frederick Schneider and Others To which is appended
A Comprehensive Compendium of Local Biography and Memoirs of Representative
Men and Women of the County.
Illustrated
Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers
1905
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HON. EDWARD
H. JONES. E. H. Jones,
probate judge of Butler county, Ohio, was born in Gomer, Ohio, Feb. 2,
1865. He is a son of Edward and Ann (Evans) Jones.
His father was a native of Wales and his mother was of Welsh descent,
though a native of Ohio. The paternal grandfather of the subject
of this sketch, Edward Jones, was a farmer in Wales, and came to
America in 1842, dying at Gomer, Allen county, Ohio. He was a
devout member of the Congregational church, in which faith he zealously
reared his family of two sons and two daughters. The maternal
grandfather of Edward H. Jones was John Evans, a native of
Wales, born in 1795. He located, with his family, at Shandon, then
known as "Paddy's Run," in Butler county. There his days were
ended in 1890, at the age of ninety-four years. He spent his life
in agricultural pursuits and, by industry and prudent investments,
accumulated a handsome property.
Edward H. Jones, of this review, was reared and
educated mostly in Butler county. He began his educational career
in the public schools at Shandon, and then he was engaged in the
mercantile business for about two years. He entered the employ of
an uncle at Gomer, Ohio, and remained there as a clerk in a general
store for a year or more. He was employed as a teacher in the
public school at Shandon for four years, and while thus engaged began
the preliminary work in the study of law. He was a student of
Miami University for a time and spent his vacations in reading law in
the office Morey, Andrews & Morey, in Hamilton. Mr.
Jones was graduated from the Cincinnati Law School in 1891, and
admitted to the bar immediately thereafter. He began his
professional career in Hamilton, and was successful from the start as an
attorney and counsellor at law.
Mr. Jones was elected clerk of the board of
deputy state supervisors of elections in 1891, and served several years
as a member of that board. He also served the city of Hamilton in
the office of city solicitor, a position he held for two terms.
His success in the practice of law and the popularity attained through
his geniality made him a logical candidate for higher official honors,
and he received the nomination for the office of probate judge, as a
Democrat, and was triumphantly elected in 1899, being his own successor
in 1902. Judge Jones is a thorough student and well versed
in the intricacies of legal lore. He is popular with all classes,
and is an active, public-spirited citizen who stands very high in social
and political functions of the city and county.
Edward H. Jones was married on the 6th of
August, 1891, to Miss Elba, daughter of C. E. and Phoebe
Butterfield, to which union have been born two children, Gordon
B. aged ten years, and Frances C., aged six years.
Judge Jones is an active member of the Knights of Pythias.
Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio -
Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 600 |
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FRANK
VALLANDINGHAM JONES, the well-known superintendent
of the Butler county infirmary, is a native of Union township, this
county, and was born on the 30th of October, 1862. His father,
Frank Jones, was an old resident and served in numerous official
capacities in township and county. He was born in 1838, at
Madisonville, Hamilton county, Ohio, and after his marriage with Miss
Nancy Vinnedge, in Union township, established a home in the same
township, Butler county, where he was successfully engaged in farming
for many years. But his later life was devoted to clerical
pursuits, in which he proved himself highly efficient and thoroughly
competent. He was a member of the board of education in Hamilton
for twelve years and was secretary of that body for nine years. He
served twelve years as deputy clerk of courts of the county under
different principals, and was local correspondent of the Cincinnati
Enquirer for many years, achieving in that capacity quite a record as a
terse and accurate writer. Mr. Jones was reasonably
successful in the accumulation of property and was a man highly esteemed
in the community. His death occurred May 7, 1896, and his wife
survived him until Apr. 24, 1904. Both were devout Christians and
active members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Mrs. Jones was a representative of one of the
early and prominent families in Butler county. She was a daughter
of the late George Vinnedge, who was born in Fairfield township,
Nov. 30, 1809. His father, John Vinnedge, came to Ohio with
General Wayne's army in 1794. He was one of Butler county's
soldier representatives in the war of 1812, and died at the home of his
son George, in August, 1868, in his ninety-fifth year. He
and his wife, who was Miss Rosanna Moore, were natives of
Pennsylvania, and were of German lineage. Being among the very
earliest settlers of the territory now embraced within Butler county,
the Vinnedge family has been thoroughly identified with the
county's history. The humble cabin of John and Rosanna Vinnedge
in the early days was a house of worship and the home of ministers and
traveling brethren. John Vinnedge was the township squire
and a man of high social standing in the county. He was a son of
Adam Vinnedge, a native of Germany, who first established a home
among the pioneers of Pennsylvania, but in old age removed to the
Buckeye state and died in this county.
The Moore family, previously mentioned in this
connection, was established in Pennsylvania by Patrick Moore, a
native of Ireland. He came to Ohio with his daughter Rosanna,
in 1779. He settled on a farm in this county, and dispensed a
liberal hospitality, being a true son of the Emerald Isle, jovial, of
happy disposition, and notably kind and generous to those in distress.
He was a man of considerable means and was content with a general
superintendence of his business affairs, without engaging in the labors
of the field and forest. These are the ancestors of Frank Jones
on the maternal side, the paternal ancestry being somewhat obscure.
They were of Welsh extraction and early settlers of southern Ohio.
Frank Jones is the eldest of three children, the others being
Ella and George. The former is a highly accomplished
and successful teacher in the Hamilton city schools, where she has been
employed for a number of years. George is a skilled
mechanic, profitably employed at the Columbia Carriage works in
Hamilton. He married Miss Iva Yingling, and their living
children are Isabel and an infant.
Frank Jones received his education in the public
schools of Hamilton. HE began his independent career as a farmer
and followed that business for several years, and then was engaged in
the hotel and grain business at Port Union for eight or nine years.
Mr. Jones was president of the school board in the special
district of Port Union for nine years. He was twice chosen at the
representative of Union township on the Democratic county central
committee, and has always been prominent in local politics.
In September, 1901, the board of county infirmary
director elected him as superintendent of the Butler county infirmary, a
position to which he has been unanimously re-elected each year since.
The county farm embraces one hundred and ninety-six acres, adjoining the
city plat of Hamilton on the east. The buildings, stock and
appurtenances represent a value of many thousands of dollars, which, in
connection with the operation of the farm and the caring for the
inmates, are under the direct supervision of Mr. Jones. At
the present time (July, 1904) there are one hundred and sixty wards of
the county being cared for in this beneficent institution, fifteen of
them being classed as "harmlessly insane." All are supplied with
an abundance of wholesome food, properly clothed and sheltered, while
the sick have the personal care of competent physicians and nurses.
At the infirmary sanitary conditions are perfect. The beds,
clothing, floors and dining rooms are kept scrupulously clean by a corps
of competent housekeepers, this department being under the direct
supervision of Mrs. Jones, as the matron. She is fully
alert to the duties of her office and manages the internal affairs of
the great institution with a masterful hand. Mrs. Jones,
who was married to Frank V. Jones on Oct. 12, 1887, was in
maidenhood Miss Henrietta M. Ratz, native of Port Union, Butler
county, Ohio, a daughter of Frank and Margaret (Berlein) Ratz,
natives of Germany. Both parents are now living at Port Union.
Her father is a retired grain merchant and hotel proprietor, in which
business he accumulated a handsome fortune. Mr. and Mrs. Jones
have an interesting family of two sons and one daughter, the eldest of
whom is Carl V. He was born on the 26th of February, 1889,
and is now a student in the Hamilton high school. Paul J. Sorg
was born Mar. 30, 1896. He is a namesake of the late Hon. P. J.
Sorg, of Middletown. Marguerite was born July 18, 1900.
Mr. and Mrs. Jones are members of St. John's
Evangelical church and spent almost their entire lives under the
teachings of their late pastor, the lamented Rev. C. A. Hermann,
D. D. Mr. Jones is a prominent member of various social
orders, both local and general. He was a charter member of
Hamilton Aerie. No. 407, Fraternal Order of Eagles, and is a trustee of
the lodge. He is also prominently affiliated with the Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks, "Monkey Mutual Aid Society," and the
"Ground Hogs."
Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio -
Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 657 |
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OSCAR N.
JONES. Success in any line of
endeavor or in any field of activity is not a matter of sudden growth,
but rather the result of the application of talents and energies along
the avenues where lies the greatest potentiality. He who has the
judgment and discretion to perceive his own powers, and ot follow their
bent through the various exigencies of time and place, is the one to
whom success is apt to come as a natural sequence. In a very
important sphere the subject of this review has proved his ability and
usefulness, having for a number of years been superintendent of the Fox
Paper Company, one of the leading industries of Butler county, and an
establishment in which the people manifest an abiding interest and
pride. Oscar N. Jones is proud to claim Butler county as
his native heath, having been born in Union township on July 9, 1865,
the youngest in a family of eight children whose parents were James
and Jane (Hall) Jones. His father was a farmer and it was
amid the quiet scenes of rural life and under the wholesome influence of
outdoor labor that the subject spent his early years, receiving during
his childhood and youth the bent of mind which led him to plan for his
future so as eventually to rise superior to his circumscribed
environment and become a useful factor in the world of affairs and an
honorable citizen. At the proper age he entered the public
schools, where he prosecuted his studies about the usual length of time,
following which he turned his attention to farm work, in the townships
of Liberty and Fairfield, until his fifteenth year. In 1875 young
Jones entered the employ of the Fox Paper Company, beginning in
the modest capacity of a common laborer, but his faithfulness and
efficiency were such as soon as commend him to the favorable notice of
the management of the concern, the result being his gradual promotion to
positions of greater responsibility and trust. It may truthfully
be said that he has literally grown up with the plant, and it is not too
much to state that much of the steady growth and development of the
industry are directly attributable to his abiding interest, effective
service and judicious management. After working in various
capacities and fully demonstrating his ability and usefulness in each.
Mr. Jones finally rose to the responsible position of foreman,
which he filled to the satisfaction of his employer until 1890, when he
was further honored by being promoted to the superintendency, which post
he still holds, discharging the exacting duties of the same in the able
and business-like manner for which he had long been characterized, in
the meanwhile bringing the establishment to a high state of efficiency,
greatly enlarging its capacity and extending the scope of its influence
as one of the leading industries in this part of the state. Mr.
Jones is highly regarded in business circles as a man of sound,
practical intelligence, mature judgment and commendable enterprise.
He has fine executive ability, as the successful management of the large
concern with which he is identified attests, enjoys the confidence of
his employers and the esteem of the men under his control, while his
series of promotions from an humble and subordinate beginning to the
present influential position he occupies in business and industrial
affairs shows him the possessor of the strong powers of mind, the tact,
resourcefulness, and wise fore-thought which never fall short of the
accomplishment of well-devised plans and purposes. Mr. Jones
is essentially a self-made man and owes his present advancement to his
own plans and energies rather than to fortuitous circumstances. He
is also a man of action, knows how to take advantage of opportunities
and bend them to his will, or, in their absence, possesses the ability
to create them. While making every other consideration subordinate to
his business interests, he finds time to attend to the duties of
citizenship and to discharge his obligations to the public. He has ever
had the welfare of the community at heart, gives his influence and
support to all enterprises on progressive measures for the promotion of
the same and encourages every laudable object whereby his fellow men may
be benefited.
Mr. Jones has ever been a zealous and
uncompromising Democrat, but in no sense a politician in the commonly
accepted significance of the term, although an active worker for the
success of the party. Aside from serving as township trustee of
which office he is the present incumbent, he has held no elective
positions, never having entertained any ambition for public preferment,
his chief aim being to fill efficiently his present station and to hold
no other title than that of private citizen.
Fraternally he is identified with the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows, belonging to the lodge at Port Union, in which he has
long been an active and influential worker and in which he has also
twice passed the several chairs.
Miss Ollie B. Powell, who became the wife of
Mr. Jones on Nov. 5, 1883, was born at New Paris, Ohio, in August,
1868. Their pleasant and attractive home is brightened by the
presence of four children, namely: Harry, Ruth, Raymond and
Mildred, who with their parents constitute a happy domestic circle
in which love, mutual forbearance and the reciprocity of interests have
always predominated.
Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio -
Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 485 |
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