Elmer A. D. Jones, M. D. Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1164-1167 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				ELMER A. D. JONES, M. D. 

	Among the able and learned members of the medical profession in 
eastern South Dakota is Dr. Elmer A. D. Jones, now successfully 
practicing both medicine and surgery in Garretson. He was born in 
Allamakee county, Iowa, on the 18th of June, 1870, and is a son of 
William J. and Susan R. (Smith) Jones. The father was a native of Wales 
and was but four years of age when brought to the United States by his 
parents, who settled upon a farm near Kenosha, Wisconsin. Having 
arrived at years of maturity, he wedded Susan R. Smith, a native of 
Indiana and a descendant of one of the Mayflower Pilgrims. Her parents 
removed to Allamakee county, Iowa, when she was four or five years of 
age and there she was reared. In early womanhood she engaged in 
teaching school and was Senator Crawford's first teacher. Following 
their marriage Mr. and Mrs. William J. Jones began their domestic life 
in Iowa, where they remained for about nine years. In 1874 they came to 
South Dakota. Prior to this, in 1872, Mr. Jones had visited this state 
and had filed on land, securing both a preemption and a tree claim. In 
1873 he broke the virgin soil and the following year removed to his new 
home. In 1875 he built one of the first houses and barns in Minnehaha 
county outside of Sioux Falls. He now resides upon a farm of a quarter 
section of land about a half mile north of Brandon and has converted 
this tract of hand into rich and productive fields. He has ever 
believed in the future greatness of South Dakota and has manifested his 
faith in the state by adding to his holdings until he now owns 
seventeen or eighteen hundred acres of land, making further investments 
in property from time to time. In business affairs his judgment is 
sound, his discrimination keen, and his energy unfaltering. He has 
likewise been a prominent and influential factor in the public life of 
the community, has served as county commissioner for two terms and also 
represented his district in the territorial legislature before the 
admission of the state into the Union. 

	Dr. Elmer A. D. Jones was reared at home and acquired his 
preliminary education in the public schools. He also attended the State 
Normal School at Madison, South Dakota, for two years and for two years 
was at the State Agricultural College of Brookings. Later he became a 
student in the Sioux City Business College, where he remained for six 
months, and in the fall of 1894 he entered the Kentucky School of 
Medicine at Louisville, Kentucky, in which he remained through the 
following term. In January, 1896, he resumed his studies, entering the 
Kentucky Medical College. In the fall of 1896 he matriculated in the 
medical college of the State University at Louisville, from which he 
was graduated on the 29th of March, 1898. While thus preparing for 
active practice he took special work during the holiday periods, 
studying particularly along the lines relating to internal medicine, to 
diseases of children and to diseases of the nose and throat. Since his 
graduation he has taken post-graduate courses in Chicago at the Chicago 
Post-Graduate School, at the Chicago Policlinic and also pursued 
Pratt's special course in orificial surgery. 

	After his graduation Dr. Jones located for practice in Iowa, and 
was also in Nebraska for a time and thence came to South Dakota. He 
also has license to practice not only in those three states but also in 
Missouri and California. He practiced for a time at Spearfish, South 
Dakota, but after four years, or in October, 1909, located in 
Garretson, where he has since made his home. He was appointed railway 
surgeon for the Great Northern Railroad Company the week following his 
arrival in Garretson and has acted in that capacity continuously since. 
He has a large general practice and manifests particular skill in 
surgical work. 

	In 1889 was celebrated the marriage of Dr. Jones and Miss Mary M. 
Stahl, and unto them has been born a son, who still survives, Donald H. 
Jones, who is now attending the Sioux Falls high school. Politically 
Dr. Jones is a republican but while he keeps well informed on the 
questions and issues of the day he does not seek nor desire office. He 
belongs to Minnehaha Lodge, No. 5, F. & A. M.; to Sioux Falls Chapter, 
No. 2, R. A. M.; to Occidental Consistory, No. 2, A. & A. S. R.; to 
Jasper Chapter, No. 2, O. E. S.; and to El Riad Temple, A. A. O. N. M. 
S. He also has membership in Sioux Falls Lodge, No. 262, B. P. O. E., 
and Dell Rapids Lodge, No. 8, I. O. O. F. Along strictly professional 
lines his connection is with the Seventh District Medical Society of 
South Dakota, the Missouri Valley Medical Society, the South Dakota 
State Medical Society, the American Medical Association and the 
American Society of Orificial Surgeons. He holds to the highest 
professional standards and is constantly on the alert to gain knowledge 
which will benefit him in his practice. He is very careful in the 
diagnosis of his cases, is at all times thorough and painstaking and 
through his developing ability has reached the enviable place which he 
now occupies as one of the leading medical and surgical practitioners 
of his section of the state.