ALLEN
M. D. JONES. The lithographic portrait shown on the opposite page represents one
of the oldest living pioneers of Calhoun County. Notwithstanding his advanced
age he is still actively connected with its agricultural interests and has his
large and well-appointed farm in Belleview Township under his personal
supervision. He is interested in whatever will contribute to the welfare of his
adopted county and is an unswerving adherent of the Democratic party. He has
served as Justice of the Peace, discharging the duties of that office with
characteristic fidelity and to the satisfaction of those who elected him. By
birth he is a Virginian and takes pride in the fact that he is descended from
Paul Jones, of Revolutionary fame.
He of whom we write was born near Fincastle, Va., October 16, 1816, and is a namesake of Dr. McDowell, of St. Louis. His father, Edward D. Jones, was a native of Monroe County, Va., and was united in marriage with Susannah Painter, a native of the Shenandoah Valley, that State. This family was intensely patriotic and furnished many soldiers during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Our subject passed his childhood in his native State and then accompanied his parents in their removal to their new home in the wilds of Indiana, where he grew to a vigorous manhood under the bracing influences of a pioneer life. His educational advantages were limited but he is now well posted on current local and national affairs, having made up for his early lack of schooling by observation and reading.
Our subject well remembers the trip from Virginia westward and relates many interesting incidents connected with the long journey. They crossed the Alleghany Mountains into what was then called New Virginia, stopped at the great salt works at the head of the Kanawha River and there sojourned two years. Thence they went to Charleston, W. Va., where the father chartered the “Paul Pry," the first steamboat that plied the waters of the Kanawha River. Coming down the river the boat was let down over the falls by ropes and proceeded on to Point Pleasant. On the right stood a fort on the point between the two rivers; on the left bank was the buckeye tree in which Daniel Boone alighted when pursued by hostile Indians he leaped over the cliff above. From Point Pleasant the family proceeded to Gallipollis on the opposite side of the river and finally after a long journey landed at their destination in Indiana.
In 1840 our subject accompanied his parents to Calhoun County and has practically been a resident here ever since. In Belleview Precinct he cast his first vote in this State, at which time there were twenty-two votes polled in that precinct, namely: Alex. Hemhill, William Walls, John Stark, Henry G. Hart, William Anderson, H. P. Buchanan, Daniel Puterbaugh, John Barroman, John Martin, Michael Starnes, A. L. Mozier, Samuel Monn, Alvin Tolbert, Lewis Mars, Jr., Lewis Mars, Sr., A. Mars, Samuel Peg, Thomas and George McClelland, Jack Maloy, James Dewey and John Stall. In those days Mr. Jones would haul deer home by the wagon load after they had fallen victims to his unerring rifle.
Mr. Jones has been engaged in farming all his life although at certain seasons he cut logs and cordwood and made staves. For five years he engaged in cutting saw logs, hauling and rafting to St. Louis, Mo. He settled on his present farm in 1862 and now owns three hundred and twenty acres of as choice land as may he found in Belleview Precinct. This he has developed and has thus assisted in advancing the growth of the county. He is classed among the representative pioneers of Calhoun County and enjoys the esteem of all who know him. His fellow citizens have a full appreciation of his honesty and sterling integrity in business matters and hold his word as good as his bond. Although he is now past threescore and ten the biographer found "Uncle Allen" busily engaged in sowing grain and apparently doing as much work as many a younger man. It is the hope of the citizens that he may survive for many years to fill the sphere of usefulness to which he is so well adapted.
The first marriage of our subject was solemnized July 31, 1848, when Maria Burton, of Calhoun County became his wife. She bore him a large family of children, of whom the following four are living: Eleanor, the widow of Henry Fisher, and a resident of Belleview; Minerva, now Mrs. Goeweye, of Belleview; Elva, wife of Henry Willman, and Ada, wife of Andrew Burton. Mrs. Jones died April 6, 1886. In March, 1890, our subject was wedded to his present estimable wife who was Mrs. Mary Wright, widow of T. Wright and a native of Belleview, Ill.
Extracted 23 Mar 2017 by Norma Hass from Portrait and Biographical Album of Pike and Calhoun Counties, Illinois, published in 1891, pages 652-653
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