JOHN JONES, a well known citizen and dairyman of Washington Township, Miami County, Ohio, resides on a farm of 191 acres located about three miles north of Piqua ion the Hardin pike and is an extensive land owner in the county. He has been a resident of the township and located on his present farm for more than half a century. He is of Welsh descent but was born in Dauphin County, Penna., September 28, 1830. He is a son of Josiah and Catharine (Alaman) Jones, his father a native of Delaware, and is a grandson of James Jones, who came to this country from Wales.

John Jones was reared on a farm in Dauphin County, Penna., and received but little schooling. He was very young when it became necessary for him to make his own way in the world, and with the thrift characteristic of the Welsh race he worked and saved until he became a man of affluence. In 1858, some seven years after his marriage, he moved west to Miami County, Ohio, the earnings which he had saved up to that time amounting to $2,500. He purchased ninety acres of his present farm in Washington Township, and has added to it until it now consists of 191 acres. He and his sons own some 714 acres of land in the county, all well improved and- under a high state of cultivation. A farm of 206 acres in Spring Creek Township, probably the best farm in the township, he purchased for $18,584 in cash, and erected thereon a new house at a cost of $2,500, in which his son William now lives. To work has been a habit with him, and although advanced in years, he would be discontented if his time was not employed to advantage. For the past twenty-five years he has conducted a dairy route in Piqua, one day on the route in eleven cars. He has been prominently identified with the progress and development of Washington Township, and for seventeen years served as a member of the School Board.

When twenty years of age, John Jones was married to Louisa Wagner, whom he survives, her death occurring December 31., 1893. They became parents of the following children: Elizabeth, wife of Josiah Wilkinson, of Piqua; Henry, who lives in Shelby County, about one mile north of the home of his father; Mary, wife of John Thompson of Shelby County; William, who lives on the farm before mentioned in Spring Creek Township; Laura, who lives it home; Josiah, who died leaving a wife and children; John, deceased, who was a prominent farmer of Washington Township; Emma, who died in childhood; and Louisa, who also died in childhood. Religiously Mr. Jones is a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.