The true American spirit of progress and enterprise, as exemplified in
the career of Hon. Robert S. Jones, of Flora, gives him prestige among the
representative citizens of Southern Illinois, and his career is a case in
point that proves one of the reasons for the country's greatness the fact
that all men are equal before the law and that all have an even opportunity
in the struggle for advancement. He is essentially a self-made man, and his
energetic nature and laudable ambition have enabled him to conquer many
adverse circumstances, while he has so ordered his life as to gain and hold
the esteem and confidence of his fellow men. Mr. Jones was born at Xenia,
Clay county, Illinois, June 20, 1871, and is a son of Robert H. and Emily E.
(Hammer) Jones.
Robert Jones, the paternal grandfather of Robert S.,
was a native of Virginia, from which state he moved to Kentucky, thence to
Illinois in 1839. He was a blacksmith by occupation, participated in both
the Black Hawk and Civil wars, attained advanced years, and died in Clay
county, respected and esteemed by all who knew him. On the maternal side Mr.
Jones' grandfather was Frederick Hammer, a native of Germany, who came to
the United States in young manhood and spent the remainder of his life in
Jasper county, Illinois, where he was the builder of the first mill in the
county. Dr. Robert H. Jones, father of Robert S., was born in Warren county,
Kentucky, in 1829, and when ten years of age was brought to Illinois. Reared
in Randolph county and educated to the profession of physician, he was
engaged in practice for thirty years and attained eminence in his calling.
During the entire Civil war he served with distinction on Grant's staff in
the Twenty-first Illinois Volunteers, holding the rank of
quartermaster-sergeant. On his return from the war he again engaged in
practice, and from 1897 to 1900 was surgeon of the Soldiers and Sailors Home
at Quincy. Being stricken with paralysis, he was for the last eleven years
of his life an invalid, and his death occurred in 1909. Dr. Jones was a well
known figure in Republican politics and in 1872 was chairman of the county
committee. His wife was born in Marion county, Indiana, and came to Illinois
with her parents, and she survives her husband and resides at Lebanon,
Illinois.
Robert S. Jones obtained his education in the common
schools of Flora, supplemented by attendance, at Fairfield, Illinois, in
Hayward College, and he subsequently studied both law and medicine, but
never took up either profession. During the early years of his business
career he followed commercial traveling, but after spending about fifteen
years on the road established himself in the real estate business in Flora,
with Colonel Randolph Smith. Although he had started life with little beside
ambition and a determination to win success, he had the native ability and
enterprising spirit that goes to make the leaders in any field, and his
operations have been of such an extensive nature to entitle him to a place
among the prominent business men of his section. Mr. Jones is an expert on
realty values, and although the firm does a small commission business the
greater part of their operations are carried on with their own property, and
at times they own vast tracts of valuable lands. Mr. Jones is a man of the
highest honor and integrity in all the relations of life, and commands the
confidence and esteem of the entire community, where the family enjoy a
distinctive popularity. He is progressive in his methods, is public-spirited
in his attitude, and is known as a man of wide information and sound
judgment. He and his family are connected with the Christian church, and
fraternally he is connected with the Masons, the Odd Fellows and the Modern
Woodmen of America. A stanch and stalwart Republican in a district strongly
Democratic, Mr. Jones in 1908 was a candidate for a state senatorship, but
owing to political conditions met with defeat, although he ran ahead of his
ticket about 2,000 votes. In 1910, however, he was nominated and elected to
the legislature of the state, and he is chairman of the committee on
horticulture and a member of the following committees: Appropriation,
corporation, fraternal and mutual insurance, judicial apportionment, mines
and mining, penal and reform institutions, retrenchment, temperance and to
visit state institutions. A strong and able speaker, Mr. Jones has been
fearless in his support of those measures which he has deemed important to
the welfare of his constituents, and he is esteemed by his
fellow-legislators as an active and energetic member. All progressive
movements in his home city have his earnest and hearty support, and he has
just been elected secretary of the newly organized Fair Association. He is a
stock-holder and director in the First National Bank of Flora, and
contributes in various ways to the development of his community's
industrial, commercial and civic resources.
In 1907 Representative
Jones was united in marriage with Miss Delia Naney, daughter of Newton
Naney, for more than thirty years a passenger conductor on the Baltimore &
Ohio Railroad, and two children have been born to this union: Leslie and
Pauline, both attending school.
Extracted 09 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from History of Southern Illinois, by George W. Smith, published in 1912, volume 3, pages 1541-1542.
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