Family Reunion: Jones

Going four generations back to find another line

This surname can be found among my wife’s Sixteen great-great-grandparents. We have to go that far back to find our first Jones - Alice Frances Jones - (9 Oct 1857 - 25 Apr 1921).

The surname “Jones” dates back to Wales in about the 1270s, when it probably evolved from the patronymic meaning “John’s son” - making it very common in Wales after the Laws in Wales Acts, passed in the mid-1500s, led to the Anglicisation of Welsh names. This makes “keeping up with the Joneses” significantly harder when you’re tracing your genealogy.

David E Jones¹ first appears in the 1850 Census as a 19-year-old furniture maker in the household of Augustus Bradley in Meadville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania. Given that Mr. Bradley was also a “Chairmaker & Painter” in the Furniture and Fixtures industry, it seems likely that David was his apprentice. If so, he probably completed his apprenticeship two years later upon turning 21.

In about 1854, David married Susanna Brookhouser (1836–1924), and they lived in French Creek, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, with their daughter, Frances, age 4, in 1860. A 9-year-old Albert Jones also appears in their household on that census, but we don’t see him again in later records - it seems likely Albert might have been a nephew. David and Susanna had two more daughters during the 1860s.

On 21 August 1865, someone named David Jones enlisted at Utica, New York. He was about the right age - 35 - to be our David and gave his birthplace as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His recorded description: blue eyes, brown hair, a medium, and standing 5 feet, 9 inches. He was recorded with the 15th Infantry and the following day, 22 August, was his discharge date.

By 1870, the Jones family had moved west, settling in Missouri Valley, a small community in Saint John Township, Harrison County, Iowa, which sits just east of Council Bluffs and across the river from Omaha, Nebraska. That is where Alice met John Riley McCullough (1848–1918) and married him on 4 Nov 1877.

Alice’s family: from the left: John Riley, William Edgar, Elsie Ann (center), Earl Randolph, and Alice Frances (Jones) McCullough c.1890 - from James McCullough and Descendants, page 90

Alice had several siblings who raised families of their own in Iowa. Her sister, Martha (Jones) Fickel (who died Martha Sublet), and her brothers, William and Bert Mac Jones, all had large families and stayed in or near Harrison County all their lives. William Jones lived until 1958 and had five sons to carry on the Jones family name.

I’ll keep looking for David’s ancestors - for now, I don’t have a lot to go on. If you’ve researched this Jones family, say hello!

1. David’s name is frequently given as “David Eligh Jones” but I haven’t found any documents referring to his middle name. The closest I’ve seen use his middle initial.