BIOS: Isaac G. JONES, Somerset, Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Sharon Trosan

Copyright 2007.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/somerset/
________________________________________________

BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Vol. XXXII, Containing Life Sketches of Leading Citizens of 
Bedford and Somerset Counties, Pennsylvania. Boston, Biographical Review 
Publishing Company: 1899, pp 212-214.

  Isaac G. Jones, senior member of the well-known firm of I. G. Jones & Son, 
lumber manufacturers and dealers in Somerset, Pa., was born July 4, 1832, in 
Schuylkill County, this State, a son of Isaac and Betsey (Thomas) Jones.
  Isaac Jones, the father, was born in Wales in the year 1800, and lived in his 
native land until after his marriage.  In 1828, soon after the birth of his 
eldest child, he emigrated with his family and settled in Pennsylvania.  For a 
few years thereafter he worked on the Philadelphia and Columbus Railroad; and 
then he invested his savings in four hundred acres of land on Laurel Hill, at 
Big Springs, in Cambria County, not far from Johnstown, this State, and resided 
there eleven years.  Disposing of that property, he then removed to Cambria, 
where he engaged in agricultural pursuits two years.  He then bought land in the 
town of Indiana, Indiana County, Pa., and was there engaged in general farming 
until his death, at the age of fifty years.  He was a man of strict integrity, 
highly respected.  His wife, who died in 1840, ten years before he did, was an 
active member of the Baptist church.  Of the eight children that blessed their 
union three- namely, Eliza, Isaac G., and Mary Ann - survive.  Eliza is the 
widow of James A. Lohr, late of Blairsville, Pa., and has seven children- 
Tilley, William, Kate, Irving, John, Charles and Maggie.  Mary Ann has been 
twice married.  Her first husband, the late David Wonders, left her two 
children- Emma and Blanche; and by her present husband, Henry Good, she has four 
children- Grace, George, Harry, and Gertrude.
  Isaac G. Jones began work when a lad of thirteen as boat driver on the 
Pennsylvania canal, and for four years trod the tow-path.  Going then to 
Johnstown, this State, he learned the plasterer's trade, which he followed three 
years in that place and subsequently for a short time in New York City.  Being 
desirous then of going to sea, he registered in the office of a New York agency, 
and was from there sent to New Bedford, Mass., as one of the crew of the whaling 
ship "Young Phoenix."
  Sailing from New Bedford in 1853 under Captain Charles Toby, he had a long and 
adventurous trip.  After visiting Fayal, one of the Azores, and the Cape Verd 
Islands, off the western coast of Africa, they crossed the equator and went to 
the Isle of St. Helena, and then to Tristan d'Acunha, the principal of a small 
group of islands in the South Atlantic, where they caught their first whale; 
thence around the Cape of Good Hope to St. Paul Island, in the Indian Ocean; to 
Van Diemen's Land, Port Phillip, and New Zealand.  The ship next stopped at the 
group of islands in the South Pacific known as the Three Kings, and then 
proceeded to the Samoan Islands, the Society Islands, Washington and Marquesas 
Islands, King's Middle group of islands, Strange Island, and to the Sandwich 
Islands.  Here the vessel touched the ports of Lanai and Honolulu, going thence 
to Hong-Kong, China, then northward through the China Sea, the Corea Strait, and 
the Sea of Japan to the Sea of Okhotsk and to the city of that name.  Going from 
there to Shanty Bay, on the Russian coast of Siberia, the crew were there  
engaged in whaling several weeks.  Afterward they passed through Behring Strait 
to the Artic Ocean, in which they fished three weeks before going to the fishing 
grounds at the mouth of the Yukon River, where they continued fishing for a 
month or more.  At the next stopping-place, in Honolulu on the island of Oahu, 
Mr. Jones, who had endured all the hardships he cared to aboard ship, having 
been punished for indulging in religious exercises, escaped from the "Young 
Phoenix," and was swimming to one of the nearby islands when he was picked up by 
the shipping master of the port for which he was headed and by him put in the 
fort as a deserter.  He appealed to the American counsul for aid, and by him was 
placed on board the ship "Draper," commanded by Captain Thomas Coffin; and after 
a long voyage, during which he never saw land for five months and nineteen days, 
he arrived in New Bedford, Mass., in the summer of 1855, having been away just 
twenty-two months.  He subsequently went to sea again, visiting Australia and 
other Southern ports, and after that was engaged as a seaman in coasting along 
the Atlantic for a short time.
  In 1856 Mr. Jones resumed his trade, which he carried on successfully for 
fifteen years in Johnstown, Pa., whence in 1871 he came to Somerset to engage in 
business.  Purchasing a saw and planing mill, he began the manufacture of 
lumber, which he carried on alone until 1886, when he took into partnership his 
son, Brinker R. Jones, who is now junior member of the present enterprising 
firm.  Before settling in Somerset, while the Civil War was in progress, Mr. 
Jones showed his devotion to his country by enlisting in Company H, Tenth 
Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, under Captain Easly, with whom he served three 
months.  He subsequently re-enlisted for nine months in Company B, One Hundred 
and Thirty-third Regiment; and on May 5, 1863, at the battle of 
Chancellorsville, he was severely wounded in the knee.
  On March 3, 1857, Mr. Jones married Catherine, daughter of George Trent, of 
Johnstown.  Of the six children she bore him, five are now living, namely: 
Annie, wife of James B. Holderbaum, of whom a brief sketch may be found on 
another page of this volume; Edward P.; Brinker R.; Mary F.; and Bertha A.  
Edward P. married Annie Nedrow, of Somerset, and they have six children- Frank, 
George, Isaac, Kate, Nellie, and James.  Brinker R., born in Johnstown, October 
13, 1865, married September 13, 1887, Bee Walter, daughter of Captain Jacob R. 
Walter, who commanded a company of brave Somerset boys in the late Rebellion, 
and is now a resident of Astoria, Ill.  They have three children- Herbert, 
Walter, and Elizabeth.  The mother of these children, Mrs. Catherine T. Jones, 
who was a woman of rare Christian character and a member of the United Brethren 
church, died at the age of forty-eight years.  Mr. Jones subsequently married on 
March 2, 1890, Ellen Lowry, daughter of Chauncey Lowry, of this town.  By this 
union he has one child, Ira Clyde.  Both Mr. and Mrs. Jones are active members 
of the United Brethren church, in which he is class leader and one of the 
trustees.  Politically, he is a strong Prohibitionist, and fraternally, is a 
member of the R. P. Cummings Post, No. 210, G.A.R.