San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JOHN WHEELER JONES
Among the foremost pioneers of the
farming sections of San Joaquin County we mention John Wheeler Jones, one of
the progressive grain and stock raisers whose name is indelibly stamped in the
minds of the descendants of those who laid firm the foundation of this glorious
commonwealth. A native of North
Carolina, he was born in Guilford County, March 10, 1821, and was descended
from ancestors whose blood is of English, Irish, Welsh and Scotch mixture,
making up that hardy type that is continually pressing towards the
frontier. His parents were Electus and Mary (Lambeth) Jones,
the father having served in the Navy during the War of 1812, and who had died
before John W. started for California.
His mother lived to reach the fine old age of ninety-one and passed away
at the home of her son in California on February 20, 1885, leaving three sons
and two daughters, all now passed to the great beyond.
John W. Jones was reared on a farm
in South Carolina, later going to Georgia, where he became an overseer on a
large plantation but threw up his job rather than whip a female slave. He next moved into Tennessee, where his first
marriage was celebrated on December 2, 1842, which united him with Miss Mary
Ann Allen. Six children were born to
them, two dying in early childhood in Missouri, whither they had moved soon
after their marriage. That state
continued to be their home until 1852, when Mr. Jones, accompanied by his wife
and four children and his mother, joined an emigrant train bound for California
and after about six months’ travel they arrived at the end of their journey,
but with saddened hearts, for the good wife died of the dreaded cholera and was
buried on the plains. Soon after his
arrival here Mr. Jones began teaming to the mines from Stockton and met with
the usual success which followed that business.
In 1855 he located a homestead on part of a quarter section of land and
bought out squatters who had the rest, and this parcel of land was always known
as the “old homestead” and is situated where the town of Escalon now
stands. Very soon after he had located
on his ranch and while teaming, Mr. Jones made his home a place where the
freighter and traveler could find a good meal, the fresh meat being antelope
and killed by Mr. Jones, who was a fine shot, nearby in the sagebrush. On one parcel of land he later owned had been
located the Blue Tent Tavern, so-called on account of the tent cloth being that
color. This was known far and wide as a
stopping place of all passers-by and was located on the French Camp Road one
mile east of his home place. He added to
his holdings as he prospered in later years and was rated one of the largest
landholders in this part of the state, owning 8,000 acres in Dent Township,
surrounding the old home place, with one mile frontage on the Stanislaus River;
in 1866 he bought about 25,000 acres in Stanislaus County; and he also had
2,500 acres of grazing land on the west side in San Joaquin County. Showing his foresight he bought 8,000 acres
in Tulare County, paying $100,000 for it, which included the crop of grain and
this he harvested and sold for 80,000 in 1879.
He was the first man to set out a vineyard in this section of the county
and he also had an orchard of several varieties of fruits and nuts, showing
that almost everything would grow if given half a chance. It was he who broke the first furrow in the
land and he sowed the grain by hand and covered it by dragging brush over the
ground, there being no harrows here then.
He harvested a crop that ran thirty sacks to the acre and sold it for
five cents a pound. When he was working
away on his place trying to get in his crop people passing were often heard to
make disparaging remarks about the futility of such labor, but Mr. Jones persevered
and reaped his harvest.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
392-395. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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