Robert Jones, Beauregard Parish Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller Date: September 24, 2006 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Robert Jones February 13, 1862 Author: Henry E Chambers Robert Jones. Whether in his official capacity or as a private citizen, probably no one in the Beauregard Parish is more generally known and esteemed among the people than Robert Jones, clerk of court of the parish, and who has had the very unusual honors of being elected three consecutive times to a parish office. His has been a career of earnest endeavor, rectitude and kindly relationship, and the sum of his activities constitute success, though he has had some of the misfortunes that overtake men frequently in the course of a long business experience. Robert Jones was born near Sugartown in what was then Calcasieu Parish, February 13, 1862. His father, William Jones, a native of Georgia, moved to Monticello, Mississippi, as a youth and there married Caroline Jelks. She was born at Monticello and was a relative of former Governor Jelks of Alabama, and of the distinguished New Orleans physician, Doctor Jelks. In 1848 William Jones moved to Louisiana, settling in Bienville Parish, where he followed planting about five years. His next location was at Camden, Arkansas, and in 1859 he located near Sugartown in what was then Calcasieu Parish and continued his business as a planter until his death, in 1865, when sixty-five years of age. He was a Methodist. His widow survived him and passed away in 1884, also sixty-five years of age. Robert Jones grew up in the home of his Widowed mother, from an early age taking responsibility beyond his years. He worked on the farm, attended country schools and in 1882 at the age of seventeen began teaching. He taught in rural districts four terms, following which for one year he had the advantages of the Kentucky University at Lexington. On his return he again taught two years in Calcasieu Parish. In 1889 he went to Brazoria County Texas, and was in the drug business as the Jones Drug Company at Velasco, and also was in the real estate business there. On his return to Calcasieu Parish in 1892, he taught school for a time at Merryville. In 1896 under the firm name of Jones & Nolen he engaged in the general mercantile business at Merryville. From there in 1901 the business was removed to De Ridder. A fire occurred in April 1904, destroying his Store and stock of goods. His insurance agent had failed to notify or renew his insurance policies and for that reason this fire resulted in a total loss and he had to begin his career over again. From 1904 to 1909 he was himself engaged in the fire insurance business, also dealing in real estate and timber lands, being head of the firm Jones & Pye. Selling out his interest in that line in 1909, he established in 1910 the insurance business known as the Jones Insurance Agency, which he conducted for six years until his present official duties made it necessary for him to retire. Mr. Jones was elected mayor of De Ridder in 1908 for the term ending in 1910. In 1905 he had been appointed a member of the First Board of Councilman of De Ridder, and was elected to that office in 1906. He was also a member of the Board of Health and for six years was local director of the De Ridder High School. In 1916 Mr. Jones was elected clerk of court for Beauregard Parish, and was reelected in 1920 and again in 1924. He served from 1908 to 1912 as a member of the Calcasieu Parish Executive Committee. He was on the local draft board during the World war, is a member of the Masonic Order, has been steward in the Methodist Episcopal Church at De Ridder since its organization, a chairman of the Board of Trustees and secretary of the Bible class. His recreation is gardening, growing flowers, expending efforts not only for the beautification of his own neighborhood, but the entire community, paying particular attention to school grounds. Mr. Jones is regarded as an encyclopedia of information of the local history of Beauregard Parish, and those in search of knowledge concerning things and persons of the past are usually referred to the clerk of court. Mr. Jones married at Merryville, February 12, 1892, Miss Susan Elevia Frazar, native of Hickory Branch, now Longville, Louisiana. Her father was Moses Cook Frazar and her grandfather, John J. Frazar, who came from Hancock County, Mississippi, in 1853 to Calcasieu Parish. Moses Cook Frazar was a farmer, stockman and logger at Hickory Branch, and at Merryville was a merchant. He was born in 1846 and died in January, 1925. For some years he represented Ward 6 of Calcasieu Parish and the police jury, his district being practically what is now the Parish of Beauregard. He was on the police jury eight years, and always a leader in the democratic party. He had served as a Confederate soldier during the war between the states. Jones is a Methodist Church worker and has given much time to civic enterprises, being particularly active during the World war, during which one of her sons gave up his life. The oldest of the eight children of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Jones was William Walter Jones, who was liberally educated, being a student in Tulane University and prominent in athletics there when he enlisted December 14, 1917, in the navy. He was first assigned duty in the navy yard at Algiers, later attended the radio school at Harvard University and was elected to attend the officers' training school in the Boston Navy Yard. He was taken ill and died in the Newton Massachusetts) Hospital, September 29 1918. The other children of Mr. and Mrs. Jones are: Moses Cook, who died at the age of twenty years; Sam Houston, a prominent citizen of Beauregard Parish, whose career is sketched elsewhere; Varina, who married Sam W. Wallace, and has twin sons, Bill and Bob; Phoebe, Mary Elizabeth, and John Paul. Additional Comments: A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 278-279, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.