Wm. Jones, M.D. |
WILLIAM W. JONES,
Physician and Surgeon, was born in Smyrna, Chenango County, New
York, Sept. 28, 1819. He is a son of Marquis Jones,
whose father was Colonel Israel Jones, of Barkhamsted,
Connecticut, a soldier of the Revolutionary Army, and a member of
the Connecticut Legislature. His paternal ancestors came to
that State very soon after the arrival of the Mayflower, having
settled there in 1643. The mother of Dr. Jones (Elizabeth
Merrill) was born in New Hartford, Connecticut, where her
father was a prominent citizen. Her husband died in 1827, aged
47; she surviving him until her 85th year. William W.'s
education was limited. He was in a District School until his
10th year, when he went to a private Academy for three years, and
then to an Academy at Salem, New York, where he completed his
studies. When about 13 years of age he entered a printing
office at Forestville, Chautauqua County, New York, which
establishment closing he went to Buffalo. Here he was employed
on a literary publication for a time, when he obtained work on the
Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, remaining there until his
removal to Dresden, Muskingum County, Ohio, in 1836, where a brother
was engaged in the manufacture of flour and the sale of merchandise,
with whom he took an interest as partner. While
pecuniary returns were satisfactory, he ere long realized that such
business was not adopted to his taste and modes of thought.
Acting upon such review, he determined you professional life, and in
1844 began the study of medicine, his preceptor being Dr. W. W.
Rickey, of Dresden, who was prominent in the profession, having
been the President of the Ohio State Medical Society. For some
time Dr. Jones was a student of Dr. Frank H. Hamilton,
then Professor of Surgery in the University of Buffalo, where he was
graduated during the winter of 1848-49. The young graduate at
once came to Toledo, then a Town of 2,000 inhabitants, and entered
upon the practice of his life-calling amidst strangers. For 38
years has this now been pursued, with a success which fully meets
his early hopes. Fortuitous circumstances materially favored
his advent and early practice here, whereby he was advanced to a
flattering position in his profession. His attention was
directed to both medicine and surgery, in both of which he was
successful. The first case of lithotomy successfully performed
in this section was by him, which was followed by many like
operations. Similar success has attended his treatment of
nearly every kind of surgical cases. He has been for many
years a member of the Ohio State Medical Society, of which he was
the President in 1875, and also a member of the American Medical
Association; an ex-President of the Alumni Association of the
University of Buffalo; a member of the Detroit Academy of Medicine,
and of the Detroit Medical Society; an honorary member of the
Michigan State Medical Society; a member of the Detroit Library
Association; the oldest living member of the Lucas County Medical
Society, organized in 1851; a member of the Northwestern Ohio
Medical Society, of the Southern Michigan Medical Society, and the
Northern Indiana Medical Society; and corresponding member of
several of several Scientific Societies. He is Consulting
Surgeon of St. Vincent Hospital, Toledo. Since 1840 Dr.
Jones has been a member of the Masonic Order, the office of High
Priest being the highest official position held by him in the same.
From his arrival in Toledo he has taken a deep interest and active
part in all affairs in which his fellow-citizens were concerned,
contributing, in such ways as occasions might furnish, to their
welfare and prosperity. In 1857 he was chosen a member of the
City Common Council, of which he was elected President. He has
served for three terms or six years as Mayor of Toledo, having been
elected to that office in 1871, 1873, and 1877. For many years
he has served as a member of the Toledo Board of Health. In
large measure, the material improvement of the sanitary condition of
the City has been due to his influence and suggestions, both as a
sanitarian and a public officer, in which connection may be
mentioned the superior system of sewerage, the admirable water
supply, the plan for collection of vital statistics adopted in 1857,
and the compilation of the present Sanitary Code. Like service
was rendered by him in connection with the State Sanitary Code.
Few writers wield a more trenchant or facile pen, which has done
good service in advancing the sanitary and material interests of the
City. The following paragraph from one of the City papers of
last year, is taken as a sample of his modest way of stating
Toledo's past and present sanitary condition:
The writer of this has lived to see this City emerge,
during the last 40 years from the most sickly to the most healthy in
the country, and much of this improvement is due to the intelligent
appreciation of its desirability on the part of our people, and
their readiness to co-operate in its accomplishment. IN
addition to the labors of the citizen and sanitarian, Toledo has
been found to possess the most healthful climate of any City East or
West, the daily range of the thermometer rarely exceeding 20 degrees
in the 24 hours. Situated upon the lowest depression of the
line between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the month of the Ohio and
Mississippi Rivers, and tempered by the waters of that great inland
sea. Lake Erie, the heat of Summer or the cold Winter is not
so great as is found in any part of the country East and West, North
or South of us. That silent witness, the Signal Service, has
been telling us this simple truth for years, and yet but few realize
how important a factor this has been in connection with the other
efforts made by man in making Toledo by far the healthiest City on
the continent.
Dr. Jones' political views from
the first attached him to the Democratic party, with which he has
always acted. On different occasions his name has been
mentioned for nomination for prominent official positions; but he
has always declined every call that was likely to draw him from the
pursuit of his profession, the chief ambition of his life. He
was married Feb. 15, 1851, with Miss Adeline Knaggs, a
daughter of John Knaggs, an early pioneer of Lucas County,
who was born in Detroit, and whose father was United States Indian
Agent at that point during the War of 1812-15; he having been among
those made prisoners by the British forces at the surrender of
Detroit and General Hull's Army, in 1812. Few families
were equally prominent with that of Mrs. Jones, in the
earlier history of the Maumee Valley. Five children have been
born to Doctor and Mrs. Jones - three sons and two daughters.
Source: City of Toledo and Lucas County, Ohio -
Illustrated - Clark Waggoner, Editor - Publ. New York &
Toledo: Munsell & Company, Publishers 1888 - Page 549 |
