Biography of Benjamin O. Jones  Massac County, Illinois

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Source: "The Biographical Review of Johnson, Massac, Pope, & Hardin,
Counties, Illinois"   Published in 1893 

Page 404 & 405 


BENJAMIN O. JONES, is one of the prominent and influential men of Massac 
County, his home being in Metropolis. In 1890 he was elected County Judge,
which position of high honor and responsibility he still holds. He is a man 
of literary taste and high intellectual acquirements, his talent in this
direction being generally recognized among those who know him. He has been 
a resident of this city since March 22, 1864, and has been much interested
in various newspapers. In the year 1869 he became editor of the Western
Star, and a year later purchased the Promulgator, the name of which he
changed to the Massac Journal. 

In 1871, in company with A. J. Alden, now a resident of Washington, D..C.,
he founded and named the Pulaski Patriot, a weekly paper published at Mound
City, Ill. Three years later, during the Farmers' Club excitement, Mr. Jones
ran and was elected as a Republican to the Twenty-ninth General Assembly of 
Illinois, a position in which he served his constituents acceptably and to
their full satisfaction. Two years later he declined a renomination, and 
having studied law under Judge R. W. McCartney, obtained a license to
practice law in September, 1879. The following year he was elected State's
Attorney, filling the office for one term, and in December, 1887, parted
with his interest in the Massac Journal, Messrs. Hines & Starks becoming
the proprietors, the latter of whom, in company with P. H. Norris, is one 
of the present owners. 

The subject of this sketch was born in Graves County, Ky., November 23, 1844.
His father, Dr. Caleb Jones, was a native of Suffolk, Isle of Wight County,
Va., and his mother, who bore the maiden name of Sarah Clapp, was a native 
of Guilford County, N. C. Our subject was educated under the Kentucky school
system, where to go to school meant severe mental work, with ten hours in 
the schoolroom, and from two to four hours of hard study was required each
night. He first attended a school at Alabama, on the Trinity River, Houston
County, Tex., during the winter of 1850 and 1851. During the winter of 
1858-59, he engaged in study at the Mayfield Seminary, near his birthplace,
where he pursued the studies of Latin, rhetoric and the higher mathematics. 
This institution was destroyed by fire some time in 1859, and after leaving
its friendly walls our subject continued the same studies under the tutorage
of Prof. W. H. Watkins, of Booneville, Ind. The rebellion coming up
terminated his scholastic course in 1861. Mr. Jones has been in reality an 
earnest student throughout life and has, in the opinion of his friends,
built well upon the secure foundation which he laid in early life. 

In 1864, Mr. Jones removed to Metropolis, where he has since made his home,
and December 4 of that year, he wedded Miss Mary T. Brown, of Princeton, Ky.
To them has been born a family of seven children, three of whom are living.

Our subject is of a social disposition and is an official member of the 
Commandery, Chapter and Blue Lodge of the Ancient Free & Accepted Masons,
of the Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias. In manner he is plain and 
unassuming, and is one who regards no man for his external appearance, but
only for his intrinsic worth.

It is his intention to pass his remaining years in this place, which has been
his home for so long, among the warm personal friends whom he has drawn to
him by his honorable qualities as a man. His highest ambition is that he may
live so that after his decease those who knew him may be able to say in all
sincerity, "Here lies an honest man."