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1907 Past and Present Biographies

Charles H. Jones

Charles‘H. Jones, mayor of Paton, in which capacity he is giving to the town a public spirited, businesslike and progressive administration, was born in Delaware county, Ohio, on the 18th of August, 1847. His father, George Jones, likewise a native of that county, was born on the 11th of October, 1824. He came to Cedar county, Iowa, in 1864 and in 1887 removed to Greene county. His entire life was devoted to the occupation of farming, which he followed in order to provide for his family. In his later years, having acquired a comfortable competence, he put aside business cares and took up his abode in Dana, where he was living retired at the time of his demise on the 18th of December, 1901. He married Miss Polly Pike, who was born in Delaware county, Ohio, in 1820. While returning to her home in Dana after making a visit to her son Charles and his family, she met with an accident while driving and was brought back to Paton, dying at the home of her son at the advanced age of eighty-two years. In the family of George and Polly Jones there were six children, of whom Charles H. is the eldest. The others are: James C., now a resident of Dana; Mrs. Alice Schnapp, also living in Dana; John J., who died about eight years ago; Lorenzo D., a resident of Fraser, Iowa; and Leroy F., also living in Dana. The last two are twins.

Charles H. Jones remained at home until seventeen years of age and pursued his education in a log schoolhouse in Ohio. The little “temple of learning” was a primitive structure and the methods of instruction were somewhat crude as compared with those of the present day, but in the school of experience he has learned many valuable lessons of a practical character and is now a well informed man, keeping in touch with the subjects of general interest to the people at large. He was reared to the occupation of farming and chose that as a life work. He was married in Greene county and with the exception of a few years spent in Boone county has continuously resided here, living in Paton township for twelve years. He carried on farm work actively and successfully for a considerable period and eight years ago he purchased a ten-acre tract of land in the village of Paton, where he now has a nice home. He is still active in business, carrying on farming operations on a small scale, while much of his time and energies are given to the discharge of his oflicial duties.

It was on the 3d of September, 1879, that Mr. Jones was united in marriage to Miss Amanda E. Sides, who was born in Marshall county, Illinois, and is a daughter of John and Margaret (Seylar) Sides. The father, a native of Pennsylvania, was born August 25, 1816, and the mother's birth occurred in the same state on the 14th of September, 1818. They became residents of Illinois in 1849 and in 1868 removed to Iowa, spending their last days in Boone county, where the father died at the age of seventy-two, while the mother reached the age of sixty-seven years. Mrs. Jones was a little maiden of thirteen years when the family came to Iowa. She was educated in the common schools and afterward engaged in teaching for about eight years in Greene and Boone counties, proving a capable educator, imparting readily and clearly to others the knowledge that she had acquired.

Mr. and Mrs. Jones are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, are interested in its work and active in its support. In politics he is a stalwart prohibitionist and one of the earnest champions of the party, believing that intemperance is today the greatest evil in the United States. He is putting forth strenuous effort to make others see its deleterious effects and arouse them to stamp out this foe to the best development of American manhood. He is now serving for the second year as mayor of Paton. He has never been a politician in the sense of oflice seeking and his present position came to him entirely unsolicited - in fact it was forced upon him by his friends, who regarded him as a capable business man and public-spirited citizen who would bring to the discharge of his duties conscientious purpose and practical ideas. Nor have they been disappointed in him. He does with all his might what his hand finds to do and never swerves from a course that he believes to be right, weighing nothing in the scale of policy, but judging all by what he believes to be for the best interests of the community at large.

Transcribed from "Past and Present of Greene County, Iowa Together With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Prominent and Leading Citizens and Illustrious Dead,"
by E. B. Stillman assisted by an Advisory Board consisting of Paul E. Stillman, Gillum S. Toliver,
Benjamin F. Osborn, Mahlon Head, P. A. Smith and Lee B. Kinsey, Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1907.

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