Chemung County NY
History of Tompkins, Schuyler, Chemung, Tioga 1879
Page 278 - Richmond Jones Biography
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1879 Four County History - Table of Contents
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Richmond Jones was born in Bloomfield, Essex Co., N. J., September 4, 1811.

His great-grandfather Jones emigrated from Wales with his six brothers, and are supposed to have settled at different places in the United States.

His grandfather, Elijah Jones, lived and was married in Norwalk, Conn., to Hannah Raymond, of a distinguished family; was a messenger of dispatches in the Revolutionary war for General Washington, and served until its close, at about which time he first settled in New Jersey; and subsequently, in the year 1798, came and settled in Newtown (now Elmira) with his family, which at that time and afterwards consisted of seventeen children, fourteen of whom lived to an average age of sixty-five years. The religious tenets of the family of Jones are Presbyterian, and its members have taken leading parts in establishing churches in that denomination; and particularly characteristic of the family is its uprightness, honesty, general intelligence, devout Christian principles, and liberal opinions on all matters relative to any enterprise tending to educate and elevate the rising generation, and to build up and improve the country, and a strong advocacy of temperance principles.

Of this large family of children, the Rev. Simeon R. Jones, a very prominent clergyman, was eldest son, and was probably the first settled minister in Elmira. He lived to do very much good, and spent nearly his whole life in the Chemung valley, was chaplain in the war of 1812-14, and died at about the age of eighty-four.

Joel Jones, father of the subject of this narrative, was third son of the family; was married before leaving New Jersey to Mary Munnward, a lady belonging to one of the most wealthy and influential families of that State; settled in Elmira in the year 1814; was a mechanic by occupation, and served as an elder of the Presbyterian Church for some thirty years. Died at the age of seventy-five, December 10, 1863. His wife died January 10, 1863.

Mr. Jones spent his boyhood days mostly at school, in the best schools of Elmira. At the age of fifteen he became a clerk in the store of Joseph Viall, where he first became impressed with the idea of leading a mercantile life. At the age of twenty he established business for himself in Tioga Co., Pa., and also engaged largely in the manufacture of lumber, and dealing in the same at Daggett’s Mills, and at Wellsville, N. Y. Both in his mercantile business and lumber manufacturing he was successful. While at Wellsville he was in partnership with Mr. Bradley as lumber merchants, shipping to Albany, Troy, and New York. About the year 1849, Mr. Jones retaining his interests in Pennsylvania and New York, went to New York and opened an office as a jobber in lumber, which he continued for some three years, and returned to Elmira, where he has since resided, engaging still in the lumber business as a buyer and shipper. In connection with this business, he has engaged largely in real estate operations, mostly in the city of Elmira. Mr. Jones, although not solicitous of office, has been an ardent supporter of first the Whig party, and afterwards the Republican party, and is well read in all the current topics of the day.

He is a man of strict honesty, of much consideration in the management of his business affairs, and prompt in the fulfillment of his least obligations. In the year 1843, October 24, he married Miss Sarah Ann, second daughter of Col. Ambrose Millard, Tioga, Pa. The family is of Scotch descent on her mother’s side (Gordon), and on the paternal side of English descent.

They have two children, -Alice L., wife of Horace R. Hallock, of Detroit, Mich., and Millard R. Jones, a practicing attorney in New York. Mr. Jones had six brothers, one of whom -Isaac Ward -was prominently identified in New York as a grain and flour commission merchant for some twenty years, and was killed while attempting to pass from one car to another on the New Jersey Central in the year 1861, December 3.

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