San Joaquin County
Biographies
JOHN WHEELER JONES
JOHN WHEELER JONES, a rancher
of Dent Township, was born in North Carolina, March 10, 1821, a son of Electus
and Mary (Lambeth) Jones. The father had served in the navy in the war of 1812,
and died before his son came to California. The mother lived to be ninety-one
years, ten months and five days, dying at the home of her son, February 20,
1883, leaving three sons and two daughters, of whom one daughter died in 1885.
John W. Jones spent some time in early
manhood in South Carolina, and afterwards in Georgia, where he held the
position of overseer, which he threw up rather than whip a female slave. Moving
into Tennessee, he was there married December 2, 1842, to Miss Mary Ann Allen,
and, after some changes not worthy of mention, settled in Missouri.
In 1852 Mr. Jones, with his wife and
mother and four children set out for California across the plains, but the wife
did not live to see the glories of the land of sunshine, dying of cholera on
the plains. On his arrival Mr. Jones engaged in the teaming business from
Stockton eastward to the mountains, keeping also the Blue Tent Tavern, about
twenty-two miles east of Stockton, on the French Camp road, in charge of his
mother. In 1854 he erected a school-house and hired a teacher for his children
and such others as could attend it.
In 1855 he located 160 acres, which became
the homestead, and twenty years later, in 1875, he owned over 7,000 acres in
Dent Township, with one mile of frontage on the Stanislaus, extending inward
and spreading to the east and west to cover that area. About 1866 he purchased
25,000 acres in Stanislaus County. He also owns 2,500 acres of pasture land in
this county, west of the San Joaquin.
Meanwhile, in 1857, Mr. Jones went East
and drove a herd of cattle to this county. On the return trip across the plains
he made the acquaintance of John W. Dunlap and family, who were then on their
way to this coast. Soon after their arrival he was married, September 7, 1857,
to Miss Catherine Martin Dunlap, a native of Illinois, the daughter of John W.
Dunlap and wife, whose maiden name was Leigh. The father, born in Illinois in
1810, is still living in 1889 in Oakdale, Stanislaus County. In 1861 Mr. Jones
erected a handsome two-story brick residence, which cost probably not less than
$12,000. In 1889 it is surrounded by a vineyard and orchard of seventeen acres,
chiefly for home consumption.
About 1870 he distributed 15,000 acres in
equal parts among the surviving children of his first marriage: Levi J., of
Turloch; Edna, now Mrs. Willis Bledsoe, of Modesto; Elizabeth, now Mrs. Anthony
Humphrey, of Shasta. The fourth child, Electus Newton, had died before the
distribution, at the age of eighteen.
Mrs. Catherine M. (Dunlap) Jones, born in
Illinois about 1834, died at her home in Dent Township in 1879, leaving six
children: Lucinda Caroline, born August 30, 1859; William Joshua, August 15,
1861; Emma Narcissa, May 8, 1864; David Lincoln, January 13, 1867; Alice
Deborah, February 8, 1869; James Wesley, June 17, 1871.
Lucinda C. was married December 31, 1879,
to J. J. Dolan, a native of Illinois, and received from her father 1,280 acres
in Stanislaus County. Mr. and Mrs. Dolan have three children: Mary Catherine,
born September 12, 1880; Wilbur Wheeler and Alver Gordon. Emma N. and Alice D.
are living at home, the comfort and support of their father, have received
1,280 acres each; David Lincoln, 1,000 acres of the Stanislaus river, and James
Wesley is being educated at the San Joaquin Valley College in Woodbridge.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 652-653. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
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