Standard History of Adams & Wells Counties, Indiana – 1918
Tyndall & Lesh, Pages 878 & 879

BENJAMIN O. JONES

Benjamin O. Jones is proprietor of the lumber yards at Geneva, and is one of the energetic and constructive factors in business affairs of Adams County. While he has lived in this county only a few years Mr. Jones represents a family that were pioneers here.

Mr. Jones was born in Van Wert County, Ohio, March 11, 1874, a son of Benjamin and Mary (Dailey) Jones. Benjamin Jones, a native of Medina County, Ohio, was brought to Adams County, Indiana, in 1846, when nine years of age. The Jones family located east of Decatur, in the midst of the heavy timber, and two years after they came here the father died and after that the support of the rest of the family devolved largely upon the youthful shoulders of young Benjamin. He worked hard, spending the winter months in the woods clearing the land for cultivation and was the mainstay of the family until he was twenty-four years of age. At that time he was called to the service of his country, enlisting in Company A of the Forty-seventh Indiana Infantry. After three years he veteranized, and altogether was in the army four years and four months, until the close of hostilities. He thus proved faithful to those primary interests which revolve around the family and its integrity and also to that patriotism which makes men give up their all and sacrifice everything for their country. At the end of the war he returned to Adams County and married Mary Dailey. Mary Dailey was born in Adams County, Indiana, in 1846, a daughter of James and Mary Dailey. She is still living in Van Wert County, Ohio, where they settled son after their marriage, and where Benjamin Jones, Sr., died in 1903. He was a republican and an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic. One interesting relationship is that Benjamin Jones, Sr., had a grandmother on his father’s side who was a niece of Benedict Arnold, whose name figures ingloriously in the annals of the American Revolution. Benjamin Jones and wife had thirteen children, all living except one: Emma, Eva D., Dailey, Esaies, Benjamin O., James, who died in infancy, Charles J., Harry O., Mary A., Harland H., Clyde C., Fred C., and Clara A.

Benjamin O. Jones spent his early life on his father’s farm in Van Wert County, Ohio. He attended the district schools and the high school at Wren in that county, and he found ample employment for his energies at home until 1906. In that year, with the modest capital of $300, he started south and for three years was engaged in the lumber business. He bought a half section of timber land in Alabama. On returning north he started a lumber yard at Cayuga, Indiana, but after two years and eight months he came to Geneva in December, 1911, and bought his present business. His trade has grown rapidly and he now has one of the substantial concerns that make up the business prosperity of Geneva. Mr. Jones is also a stockholder in the Bank of Wren, Ohio.

In September, 1908, he married Esther A. Morgan, of Van Wert, Ohio. They had three children, Dailey M. and Henry J., still in the home circle, and Mary A., who died January 10, 1918. Mr. And Mrs. Jones are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Geneva and he is one of the church trustees. Politically he is a republican.