Biographical Sketch of

Nelson Jones

Transcribed by Joan Benner



Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Green Lake, Marquette and Waushara Counties, Wisconsin, 
published 1890 by Acme Publishing Co., Chicago, Pages 371 - 372 


Nelson Jones. Perseverance and industry, supplemented by good judgement and honesty, are sure of successful 
results, to whatever vocation they are applied, and the gentleman whose name heads this review is one whose 
life work has been a success by the exercise of these characteristics. He has chosen agriculture as his calling, 
and from a humble start has gained a competence sufficient to tide him through life. He is the owner of large 
tracts of land, and his home farm is in Jackson township, Adams county, and here he is passing his declining 
years, enjoying the esteem of his fellow men.

Mr. Jones was born in Rockingham, Windham county, Vermont, January 26, 1839, and was a son of Asa K. and Mercy 
Jones, a sketch of whose lives appears elsewhere in this volume. Our subject came with his parents to Adams 
county in 1851, going via the Erie canal to Buffalo, thence by boat to Racine, Wisconsin, and completed the 
journey by team to Adams county, where the family settled on section 3, in Jackson township. The land was not 
surveyed until the following year, and the father then became the possessor of three hundred and twenty acres. 
Our subject attended the schools of his native state, and one winter in Wisconsin, and assisted his father in 
clearing the homestead, splitting rails, etc. His father died before his subject was twenty years of age, and 
he then took the management of the farm, and now owns the estate. He also possesses a fine farm near the 
homestead, comprising two hundred acres, and also has a valuable tract of three hundred and twenty acres, 
in Cerro Gordo county, Iowa, which he purchased about 1879, as wild land, while spending one year in that 
county. He engages in raising stock to some extent, and has some excellent horses in his estate.

Mr. Jones was married, in April, 1859, to Lucy Calkins, daughter of James and Mary A. (Briggs) Calkins. Mrs. 
Jones was born in Pennsylvania, and moved with her parents to Adams county, Wisconsin, in 1858. Her father 
was a carpenter by trade, and died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and her mother is still living. Mrs. Jones died 
July 18, 1895, aged fifty-four years. Three children were born unto Mr. and Mrs. Jones, as follows: Frank, a 
farmer of Jackson township; Mary, who married H. L. Mason, and who died in September, 1891, aged twenty-nine 
years; Hattie, now Mrs. Hattoe Wohlfort, of Jackson township. Mr. Jones has ten grandchildren.

Our subject is a Republican in political sentiment, and takes an interest in public matters, although he never 
accepted the responsibility of public office. He has pursued the even tenor of his way, gaining the respect of 
his associates, and is well known in Adams county, where he has resided for nearly half a century. He has 
witnessed the development of that region, and has lent a helping hand toward a high state of civilization.


Transcribed by Joan Benner






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