Biography of Milton C. Jones, pages 896/897/898.  History of DeKalb 
County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.



In examining the life records of self made men, it will invariably be 
found that indefatigable industry has constituted the basis of their 
success. True there are other elements which enter in and conserve the 
advancement of personal interests-perseverance, discrimination and 
mastering to expedients-by the foundation of all achievement  is 
earnest, persistent labor. At the outset of his career Mr. Jones 
recognized this fact, and he did not seek any royal road to the goal of  
prosperity and independence, but began to work earnestly and diligently 
in order to advance himself, and the result is that he is now numbered 
among the progressive, successful and influential farmers of Franklin 
township, DeKalb county, Indiana, where he has a well improved landed 
estate. Milton C. Jones, one of the successful and enterprising farmers 
of Franklin township, DeKalb county, Indiana, is descended from 
sterling old  New England Yankee ancestry, his parents, Samuel and 
Jerusha H. (Chamberlain) Jones, both being natives of Monkton, Addison 
county, Vermont, where the former was born in 1805 and the latter in 
1812. Some time after their marriage they moved to Seneca county, Ohio, 
but about a year later came to LaPorte county, Indiana, where they 
lived for nearly five years. They then took up land in DeKalb county, 
Indiana, where they intended to build and make their future home. This 
land, which is now owned by the subject of this sketch, was then worth 
only about one dollar and a quarter an acre and Mr. Jones obtained 
eighty acres of land for a team and eighty dollars in money. He cleared 
nearly two hundred acres of this land an made of it an excellent farm. 
When he first came to this locality the land was so densely covered 
with timber and undergrowth that at night time the settlers were 
compelled to carry torches in order to make any headway through the 
woods. Their trading was done at Fort Wayne, Coldwater, and Defiance, 
Ohio, the nearest of which was at least fifty miles from the 
settlement.  The household conveniences were chiefly noted for their 
absence, cooking being done in an old-fashioned fireplace baking being 
performed by putting the bread under an iron kettle and then keeping 
live coals over the kettle. Nails were practically unknown here, boards 
being held together by wooden pins and other methods were equally 
primitive. Soon after the great gold rush to California in 1849 Samuel 
Jones went to the at locality as much on account of his health as in 
search of gold and remained there several years. The subject’s mother 
died in 1884 and his father in 1889, at which time the latter was the 
owner of two hundred and eighty acres of splendid land, most of which 
the subject of this sketch had bought and now owns.  To Samuel and 
Jerusha Jones were born the following children: Sarah A., Jane and 
Hiram were born in Vermont, the two last named being now deceased; 
Julia, born in Ohio; Julius, born in LaPorte, Indiana, was a soldier in 
the Civil war and is now deceased; Milton C., the subject of this 
review; Sidney P., Henry,  Harriett, and William deceased, the two last 
named being twins. The five younger children were born on the Franklin 
township homestead in this county. Sidney P. Jones was a soldier in the 
Civil war.  Milton C. Jones was born on December 26, 1842, in the old 
log house occupied by his parents in Franklin township and was reared 
to the life of a farmer, a vocation which he has always followed an in 
which he has met with eminent success. He attended school in Hamilton, 
Steuben county, Indiana, but on the out break of the Civil war his 
patriotism was aroused and in the fall of 1863 he gave practical 
evidence of his loyalty by enlisting as a private in Company B, Twelfth 
Regiment Indiana Volunteer Cavalry, in which he served two years and 
two days, acting as sergeant until the end of the war.  He saw some 
arduous service and endured all the hardships and privations incidents 
to the campaigns in which he took part and was in the battles of 
Nashville, Mobile, Murfreesboro and other of the more hotly contested 
engagements of that great struggle.  In one battled he was severely 
wounded, being struck by a sabre and falling from his horse, broke his 
arm and dislocated his shoulder. Because of his faithful and courageous 
service on the field of battle he was commissioned to the rank of 
second lieutenant on being mustered out. After receiving an honorable 
discharge from the service, he returned to the home farm and lived here 
continuously since. He has made many substantial and permanent 
improvements of the place and the splendid residence, large and 
commodious barn, well kept fences and other important features of an 
up-to-date farm indicate him to be a man of good judgement, sound 
discrimination and common sense in the conduct of his farm. On July 4, 
1892, Mr. Jones was married at Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Agnes Cecilia 
Baxter, who was born in Wayne county, Ohio, on July 11, 1843, the 
daughter of Moses Baxter and the sister of John Baxter, whose sketch 
appears elsewhere in this work. Mrs. Jones was one of the most 
successful and best known teachers of DeKalb county, having taught 
probably from twenty-five to thirty years in DeKalb and Steuben 
counties. She had studied elocution in Indianapolis and has taught that 
science. No children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Jones. Politically, 
Mr. Jones has been a life-long supporter of the Republican party, in 
the success of which he has been interested and to which he has 
contributed his quota. Fraternally, he was for many years a member of 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Grand Army of the 
Republic at Hamilton. He served as assessor of Franklin township for 
twenty-two years and was also county recorder for four years, in both 
positions given eminently satisfactory administrations and winning the 
commendation of his fellow citizens. On his

home farm Mr. Jones has carried on his operations in a manner that has 
insured him financial success. In addition to the raising of ordinary 
crops he has given some attention to the threshing and to live-stock 
raising, in which he has been very successful. Mr. Jones is a wide-
awake, enterprising man of the times. Fully alive to the dignities and 
responsibilities of citizenship and to the extent of his ability, 
contributes to the material prosperity of the community and to the 
social and intellectual and moral advancement to his fellow citizens. 
Courteous, affable and easily approached, he commands the respect of 
all with whom he comes in contact and his friend are in number as his 
acquaintance.

Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com