The Jones Families of Butler County, Ohio

HON. EDWARD H. JONES.

E. H. Jones, probate judge of Butler county, Ohio, was born in Gomer. Ohio. February 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 of Morey, Andrews & Morey, in Hamilton. Mr. Jones was graduated from the Cincinnati Law School in 189.1, 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 thor-

High 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.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

FRANK VALLANDINGHAM JONES.

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 3° j 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 mar-

1 riage with Miss Nancy Vinnedge, in Union township, established a home in the same township, Butler county, where he was sucj cessfully 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, lie 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 April 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, November 30, 1809. His father, John Vinnedge, came to Ohi6 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 ageremoved 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 material 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 as 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 directors 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 manager the internal affairs of the great institution with a masterful hand. Mrs. Jones, who was married to Frank V. Jones on October 12, 1887, was in maidenhood Miss Henrietta M. Ratz, a 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 March 30, 1896. He is a namesake of the late Hon. P. J. Sorg, of Middletowm. 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, the Improved Order of Red Men, and “Monkey Mutual Aid Society,” and the “Ground Hogs.”

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

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 to 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 to 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 liter-; ally 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 forethought 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 LTnion. 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 November 5* 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 a reciprocity of interests have always predominated.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.