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A Patriarch of the Elmwood
Business Community
Miles Jones,
himself, was not a well known figure in the Elmwood business community, but
this sketch will reveal the great influence that his sons and sons-in-law had
on Elmwood business in the late 1800’s. Miles Jones had an active
business life as a carpenter in
Here are some representative newspaper advertisements and business directory notices from Elmwood in 1866 and 1870.
1866 -
WM. DOUGLAS & Co.
- Carriage & Wagon Makers, Near the Depot, -
1870 - JONES & VANDERVOORT - Keep a full stock of Dry Goods, Furnishings, Boots, Shoes, Hats, Caps, Carpeting, &. They also have in their employ a first-class Tailor, so that persons can be accommodated with goods ready-made or unmade. They are among the early settlers in the place, and are known to be gentlemen of enterprise and reliability, identifying themselves with every progressive feature of the place.
1870 - CALDWELL & VENN -- Manufacture Carriages, Wagons and Buggies, and they do General Blacksmithing on call. They put up just as fine a Carriage as can be turned out of any shop in the State; hence they should receive the patronage of the public, in their line, instead of giving it to other rival shops of the town.
The Jones family has deep and interesting roots. Miles
Jones’s descendents can trace their family tree, through Miles’s
great grandmother, Joanna Abell, back
to King Edward III and other royals including Charlemagne and various emperors
of
Miles’s son, Luther
Franklin Jones was the first of the Jones family to come to Elmwood. He
and his brother-in-law, J. A. Vandervoort,
came to Elmwood in 1859 and went into the grocery and mercantile business as
Jones and Vandervoort. Back in
When J. A. Vandervoort and L. F. Jones arrived in Elmwood in
1859 there were only two business houses in the town. They decided to try the
grocery business and opened their first shop in the building opposite the
Elmwood house on the block of Magnolia just south of
A few years later, Vandervoort and Jones relocated onto the next block of Magnolia and called their new larger store (twenty-four feet by one hundred feet!), the Palace of Trade, deeming it deserving of such a glorified name as it was one of the finest business rooms in town. The firm was a going concern until Mr. Jones’ death in June 1871; thereafter the firms name changed to Vandervoort and Wyley, and remained so until June 1878 when J. A. Vandervoort retired. His son and son-in-law took over his interest and the firm was renamed Wyley, Vandervoort and Sloan. In 1897, the store was run by J. A.’s son and known as W. M. Vandervoort.
The success of the
The proceeds from that sale enabled J. A. Vandervoort and L. F. Jones to embark upon a new venture with
William Douglas forming Douglas
& Co:
a mercantile business in Elmwood.
William Douglas joined the Jones family by espousing
Sarah Maria Jones in 1852 back in
Wm. Douglas continued in the carriage and wagon business until
the fall of 1866. He then engaged in the mercantile business with his
brother-in-law Harvey VanSickle as Douglas
and VanSickle. Harvey VanSickle
had married another Jones daughter, Maria Ann Jones, in Elmwood in 1861. After
his death in 1869, L. F. Jones and
J. A. Vandervoort purchased the VanSickle interest and the firm was renamed
In 1871, Wm. Douglas disposed of his interest in Douglas and
Co. and reentered the carriage and wagon business with his new brother-in-law,
James Venn. James Venn and Maria Ann
Jones had married the year before, after both had lost their spouses. Although
James Venn had been a competitor of Wm. Douglas in the carriage business, after
he joined the family, he and Wm. decided to become partners. Wm. Douglas bought
out the
Two other Jones sons resided in Elmwood as well.
Darius Benjamin Jones came to Elmwood in 1862 and worked in the
mercantile business until 1872 when he moved to
Today, we may well ask why the Jones sons and sons-in-law, who
were so prominent and successful in Elmwood in the late 1800’s, are no
longer represented in the town. There are a number of reasons. Wm.
Douglas’s son, William H. Douglas, for example, persevered in the wagon
business and eventually worked for the Brown Carriage Company in Elmwood.
However, when the automobile took the place of the horse and buggy, he could no
longer find suitable employment in Elmwood and was obliged to move to
In the late 1800’s, many people were familiar with the businesses and enterprises of the large Jones family, but, as time went on, they tended to forget the family ties between the sons and sons-in-law of Miles Jones which had facilitated their partnerships and helped hold these partnerships together. Distance eventually broke those ties and over time the memories of them faded from the minds of those who had once known or done business with the descendants of Miles Jones.
(This sketch of Elmwood in the 1800’s was prepared in March 2003 by Albert Douglass Hart, Jr. - a descendant of Miles Jones.)
Click on links below for more information on the Jones Family
Hart Family Resource
Index
Hart Family Genealogy Home Page
Hart Family Genealogy Index of Names
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