Transcribed by Mary Ann Kaylor
Page 1352:
JONES, OWEN W. , of Mechanicsburg Township, Sangamon County, has spent his entire life on the farm he now owns and occupies, where he was born, March 9, 1868. He is a son of E. W. and Margaret A. (Campbell) Jones, the former born at Wheeling, W. Va., and the latter near Frankfort, Ky., he a son of William Jones, and she a daughter of J. J. Campbell, of Kentucky. The grandfather was a soldier in the Union army, and after the Civil War came to Charleston, Ill., later locating in Mechanicsburg Township. The father of Owen W. Jones located in Clear Lake Township, was married in Springfield in 1862, then purchased a farm in Mechanicsburg Township, which he cleared and improved. He originally had fifty-one and three-fourths acres, all in timber, but added to his land from time to time until he owned seventy-two acres. He died on this farm March 4, 1907, and his widow died in August, 1908. There were parents of children as follows: J. J., of Mechanicsburg; Owen W.; Eva, Mrs. Fred Cass of Buffalo Hart Township.
In boyhood Owen W. Jones attended the district school, and he was reared to agricultural pursuits. He owns twenty and one-half acres of the home farm and rents 100 acres additional, carrying on general farming and raising cattle and hogs. He was married, December 24, 1889, to Abigail Law, born in Cooper Township, Sangamon County, daughter of Thomas Law, who was born in Tennessee, and his wife in Clear Lake Township. Children as follows have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Jones: Shelby, Melvin and Bessie, all at home.
Mr. Jones has taken an active interest in affairs in his community and served twelve years as Highway Commissioner and one term as School Director in Mechanicsburg Township. He is a Republican in politics and a public-spirited, representative citizen. He belongs to Lodge No. 323, I.O.O.F., and No. 559, K. of P., of Mechanicsburg, also to I.O.R.M. Chicoppee Tribe No. 556. He is well known and highly esteemed in his neighborhood, where his entire life has been spent, and is successful in his farming operations.