San Joaquin County Biographies


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



WILLIAM JOSEPH JONES.
 
        A well-known and enterprising citizen of Lodi, William Joseph Jones has 
for the past fifteen years been in the plumbing contracting business. He was 
born on his father's ranch on West Lane, Stockton, August 12, 1864, a son of 
William and Mary Ellen (McKenna) Jones, the former a native of Philadelphia, 
Pa., and the latter of New York City. In 1850 the father, William Jones, crossed 
the plains to California, where he worked in the mines. In 1854 he was married 
to a Miss Johnson in Stockton, who lived only three months after her marriage. 
In 1858 he returned to Philadelphia, where he was married to Miss Mary Ellen 
McKenna, and then came to California via Panama and settled at Stockton. The 
father was a wheelwright by trade, and was in business with Charles Christian on 
Market street until 1863, when he bought a thirteen-acre home place on West 
Lane. William Joseph was the eldest of a family of seven children, the others 
being Charles Lincoln, residing at Newman, Cal.; Bernardina, a sister at the Rio 
Vista Convent; Rosa, deceased at the age of two years; Rebecca Jane, Mrs. T. C. 
Flynn, of Stockton; Frank M., of Alameda; and a seventh child, an infant, 
deceased.
        William Joseph Jones attended the old North, the Weber, and the 
Lafayette district schools. After his father bought a quarter-section of land 
three and a half miles southeast of Lockeford, William had charge of it until 
1890, when the ranch was divided among the members of the family. From 1890 to 
1907 he was employed in the general merchandise store of Mr. Bruml in Lockeford. 
Then he took a course in the Coyne Plumbing School in San Francisco, and 
afterwards was with the Putnam Hardware Company, and then with the successor, 
John H. Davies, seven years in all. For the past eight years he has been in the 
employ of Henderson Bros. Hardware Company at Lodi.
        On September 27, 1892, in Lockeford, Mr. Jones was married to Miss 
Katherine B. Ryan, a native of Australia, and a daughter of John and Mary Ryan, 
both natives of Ireland, who soon after their marriage went to Australia and in 
1868 came to California and settled at Lockeford, where they purchased 143 acres 
of grain land. There are four children in her parents' family: Katherine B., 
Mrs. Jones; Maggie, residing at Lockeford; Mary; and John. Mr. and Mrs. Jones 
are the parents of eight children: Bernard; Agnes; Irene, now Mrs. Leo Bender, 
of Oakland; Theresa, Mrs. Clarence Bauer, of Stockton; and Doris, Lawrence, 
Raphael, and Walter. Mr. Jones is fraternally affiliated with the Woodmen of the 
World, and is the present banker of Lodi Camp; and he also belongs to the 
Knights of Columbus.
 
History of San Joaquin County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 
1923
p    1628      
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.