Jennette,
Nice to hear from another Boone County Jones. I haven't run across any
ties between these Jones families. But here is a biography I found on
the Boone County History Preservation Society's Web site.
John Merritt Jones, of Marion Township, Boone County, Indiana, was born
in Mason County, Virginia, October 17, 1842, the son of John and Sarah
(Knapp) Jones, natives, respectively, of Virginia and Ohio. The
subject's grandfather, John Jones, was born of English parentage and
early moved from Virginia to Kentucky, where he accumulated a large
landed estate and became quite wealthy, owning at the time of his death,
beside other property, quite a number of slaves. He served in the Indian
Wars under General St. Clair and received a gunshot wound in the knee,
which necessitated the amputation of his leg. He was twice married, the
first time to a Miss Caplinger, by whom he had one child, Elizabeth A.,
and his second marriage, which was solemnized with a Miss Varble,
resulted in the birth of a son, James Jones, father of the subject of
this biography. John Jones died sometime in the eighteen forties and was
laid to rest at Westport, Kentucky, where his wife is also buried.
James Jones was born July 20, 1806, in Oldham County, Kentucky; was
reared a farmer, and afterward worked at the shoemaker's trade. He was a
mechanical genius, and a number of inventions of different kinds were
the result of his skill in this direction. Besides manufacturing
different kinds of tools, he built flouring-mills, carding machines, and
for many years was a valuable member of the community where he resided.
In early life he attended the schools of Louisville, Kentucky, where he
received a fine education, and he always took a lively interest in the
intellectual, as well as material development of his neighborhood. He
became a resident of Boone County a number of years ago, settling in
Clinton Township, where he resided until his death, which occurred at
the age of fifty-seven years. James Jones was twice married, his first
wife being a Miss Chambers of Westport, Kentucky, who bore two children,
John G., born in 1829, and Robert F., whose birth occurred in the year
1832. By his second wife, whose maiden name was Cynthia Knapp, daughter
of John and Sarah Knapp, of Ohio, he reared a family of four children,
namely: Joann, born 1838; John M., whose birth is mentioned above; Etta,
born 1843; Harriet, born in the year 1845, all of whom grew to be men
and women and reared families of their own.
The early life of John Merritt Jones was passed upon a farm with the
rugged duties of which he became familiar while quite young, and he
followed agricultural pursuits, principally in Boone County, until
entering the service of the Union in 1861. In August of that year he
enlisted in Company F, Fortieth Indiana Infantry, and was with his
command in Kentucky and Tennessee, but owing to physical disability, did
not participate in very much active military duty. On account of
sickness he was discharged from the service June 10, 1862, but in March
1864, he reenlisted in Company G, One Hundred and Sixteenth Indiana
Volunteers, with which he served for a limited period; subsequently he
entered the army for the third time, enlisting in Company C, One Hundred
and Thirty-ninth Regiment, with which he served in the capacity of
Sergeant until honorably discharged on the 29th day of September, 1864.
After his discharge he returned to Boone County and for three years was
engaged in the sawmilling business, at the end of which time he
purchased forty acres of land and began farming. He has added to his
original purchase and now owns a comfortable little home in Marion
Township, which contains many of the conveniences necessary to make it
attractive and desirable. Mr. Jones is a man of refined tastes and
conservative disposition, and belongs to that large and eminently
respectable class of people who do so much in a quite way for the well
being of a community. Politically he is a Republican, and as such served
four years as Assessor of his township, refusing to accept a third
election. He was married August 2, 1867, to Ann E., daughter of William
and Mahala (Swain) Lane, a union blessed with the birth of four children
- Addie L., born November 1871; Alforetta, born July 26, 1837; Nellie,
born in 1881; Wilbert, born 1885.
Portrait & Biographical Record
Boone County, Indiana
by A. W. Bowen & Company, Chicago, 1895
I have some connection to the Swaim family that came out of North
Carolina to Boone County, but I don't have Mahala listed.