James Gurnal Jones Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1108-1109 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	JAMES GURNAL JONES, one of the pioneers of Charles Mix county, is a 
native of the old Empire state of the Union, having been born on a farm 
in Oneida county, New York, on the 21st of April, 1851, a son of William 
J. and Ann (Wheldon) Jones. The grandparents of the subject were born in 
Wales, whence they emigrated to the United States about the year 1812, 
locating in the state of New York, where they passed the remainder of 
their lives. The father of our subject was born in Oneida county, New 
York, and became a prominent farmer near Utica, Oneida county, where he 
died in 1877. James G. Jones received his early educational discipline in 
the common schools and in an academy at Rome, New York, while he has ever 
been a wide reader and student of affairs, and is a man of broad and 
exact information, having supplemented his early training by systematic 
personal application. He continued to assist in the work of the home farm 
until he had attained the age of sixteen years, when, in 1867, he gave 
rein to his spirit of adventure and came to the west, passing five years 
in Texas and the Indian territory and gaining much experience in regard 
to life on the frontier. In 1873 he came to what is now the state of 
South Dakota and settled in Charles Mix county. In 1879, when the county 
was organized, Governor Howard appointed Mr. Jones county commissioner, 
while in the first popular election, in the fall of the same year, he was 
elected register of deeds of the county. He was re-elected in 1880, 
serving for a total of three years, as the first incumbent of this 
office. Four years later he was chosen representative of his county in 
the first constitutional convention of the south half of the territory of 
Dakota, but declined to serve, said convention having been held at Sioux 
Falls. In 1887 he was elected a member of the territorial legislature, 
serving with marked ability and being chosen as his own successor two 
years later. Prior to the organization of Charles Mix county Mr. Jones 
and Major Thad S. Clarkson, ex-commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of 
the Republic, were rival candidates for the territorial legislature, and 
the vote proved to be a tie. Under these conditions Brule county, which 
gave Mr. Jones a majority, was conveniently thrown out on a technical 
pretext and his defeat was thus compassed, this being in the year 1876

	The subject was a staunch supporter of the Republican party until 
the organization of the Populist party, when he transferred his 
allegiance to the same, and he has ever since been one of the ablest and 
most enthusiastic advocates of its cause in the state, while he has been 
an effective worker in the promotion of its interests. In 1893 Mr. Jones 
was the nominee of his party for the state senate, but met defeat by a 
narrow margin. In 1896 he was elected enrolling and engrossing clerk of 
the house of representatives. In 1898 he was again the nominee of his 
party for the state senate, and at this time a gratifying majority was 
rolled up in his favor, and he proved an able and valued member of this 
body. In 1900 he was one of the delegates-at-large from this state to the 
People's party national convention, at Sioux Falls, which nominated Bryan 
for the presidency and Towne for the vice-presidency. Mr. Jones is a man 
of strong individuality and marked intellectuality, being a close student 
of the political and economic questions of the hour and being ever 
fortified in his convictions. He is the owner of a fine landed estate of 
three hundred and twenty acres, in the Missouri valley district of the 
county, and is one of the successful farmers and stock growers of this 
section. Fraternally he is identified with Doric Lodge, No. 93, Free and 
Accepted Masons, at Platte, which village is fourteen miles distant from 
his fine farm home. 

	On the 15th of July, 1877, Mr. Jones was united in marriage to Miss 
Winifred Mulleague who was born in County Roscommon, Ireland, whence she 
came to America at the age of thirteen years and established her home 
with her. brothers and sisters in Bon Homme county, South Dakota, where 
she was reared to maturity. As before noted, she was the first white 
woman to settle in Charles Mix county, where she resided almost two years 
with her husband without seeing a person of her sex and race, and her 
eldest child was the first white child born in the county. Mr. and Mrs. 
Jones are the parents of eight children, all of whom have been accorded 
the best possible educational advantages, their names, in order of birth, 
being as follows: Whitfield, William James, Mary Laura, Gordon Gurnal, 
Winifred Ann, Roscoe Conkling, Francis, Wheldon and Emma Lela. Four of 
the children are successful and popular teachers in the public schools of 
the county, namely: Whitfield, Mary L., Gordon G. and William J.