San Diego County Biographies
  
JAMES P. JONES

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


of San Diego, is one of the hardy sons of the State of Maine, born in Madison, 
Somerset County, March 10, 1834. His ancestors were from York, England.  His 
grandfather, John Jones, was a native of Vermont, and his son. James Jones, the 
father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Montpelier, where he was a 
lumberman and a blacksmith. He married Johanna Heald, daughter of Oliver Heald 
of Concord, Massachusetts, and had a family of ten children, seven boys and
three girls, six of whom are still alive. Mr. James P. Jones was the oldest of 
the family.  When seventeen years of age he left home and went to Boston, where 
he became a mail-carrier and stage-driver, carrying the mail from Malden to 
Boston. When nineteen he became a fireman on a steamboat, and after three years 
was made first assistant engineer on the steamer Governor.  In November, 1861, 
he went aboard the war steamer Sagamore as fireman. The following June he was 
disabled by the bursting of a steam pipe. In spite of the heat and scalding 
water he remained at his post and saved his ship. His feet and legs were so 
scalded that the skin and much of the flesh came off and he was eight months in 
recovering. He received the thanks of the officers of the ship for his presence 
of mind and bravery. Before having fully recovered he was sent aboard the 
Hendrik Hudson as engineer and assisted in taking her to New York, and from 
there to Boston. He was then relieved from duty and was ordered to report once a 
week, which he did until his term expired. November 26, 1863, he bought a farm 
at Bath, Maine, and farmed for two years. He then sold out and engaged in the 
fine-arts trade in Boston, where he continued three years, and then removed to 
Albany, New York, and remained there three years. Then he sold out and engaged 
in portrait-painting until 1873, when the health of his wife induced him to come 
to California. She was a consumptive and had lost five of her brothers and 
sisters by that relentless disease. He took his family out to San Bernardino in 
May, 1874, and they settled on 160 acres of Government land and engaged in the 
bee business. He remained there until 1881. July 13, 1874, while engaged in 
blasting a rock a premature explosion so injured his hand and arm that it 
necessitated the amputation of the hand. He then moved into San Diego, where he 
bought a home, and his wife fully recovered her health. He was soon elected 
Justice of the Peace and after fifteen months was appointed by the board of 
supervisors, superintendent of the County Hospital, which position he held for 
over a year. Soon after he was again made Justice of the Peace and was elected 
to that office three terms. At last his business became so driving that he 
resigned the office to give his undivided attention to his own business. He had 
bought and platted the Silver Terrace addition to the city of San Diego. After 
disposing of a considerable portion of this property he built a fine home on six 
acres of the land. He has fine grounds planted to shrubs, flowers and trees, 
with a fountain and fish pond, and his residence is one of the most beautiful in 
the city. He has also added another subdivision to the terrace known as J. P. 
Jones' addition to Silver Terrace.
        Mr. Jones was married June 20, 1858, to Miss May T. Blackman, daughter 
of Nathan Blackman, of Sidney, Maine. They have one child, Etta M. Jones, born 
July 22, 1867. She is married to J. H. Simpson, Jr., and resides in San Diego. 
Mr. Jones is a charter member of Heintzelman Post, No. 33, and is Past Post 
Commander and now Commander of the Seventh Inspection District Encampment. He 
belongs to the A. O. U. W. and to the Knights of Pythias. While in New York he 
belonged to the United Sons of America. He is an enthusiastic lover of and 
believer in the great future of the town of his adoption and is wide awake to 
her interests.
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California� Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  299-300