Founder of
Samuel Jones
In tracing the personal history of the above named gentleman, the
editor is led backward along the lines of history to
the original founder of the town of Warren, Samuel Jones, a brief
investigation of whose life will repay the student and
prove interesting to every citizen of the present city, standing where he
first cast his lot and where so many evidences
of his handiwork and direction are still visible. Samuel Jones was born
in the state of Pennsylvania, on the 20th of
December, 1790, his parents being John and Jemimah
Jones, who carried him when a lad to Highland county, Ohio,
where he was married, January 5, 1812, to Miss Sarah Ruse, who died July
28, 1825. He then married Miss Nancy
Reveal, and in the spring of 1833 moved to
country from the time he first cast his eyes upon its beautiful
landscape on passing through while in the service of his
country during the war of 1812.
Before the hand of the white man had begun to remove the grand
forests, this region must have presented a charming
scene to the beholder, and the impression upon the minds of many of the
young men who had traversed its ridges or
fished in its waters was of that impressionable character which demanded
greater familiarity when the time came for
them to seek new homes. Samuel Jones secured from the government the
land upon which the village of Warren now
stands, and selecting a spot where the old Fort Wayne trail crossed the
Salamonie he established himself and his little
family, having but few neighbors and they widely scattered. As other
settlers came around him he realized the
importance of having a trading point near by, and on
years Samuel Jones was the leading spirit of the place, his natural
ability as a business man and his interest in all that
made for the advancement of the community indicating an aptitude for the
things of modern civilization second to none.
The first school here was taught in a little house of his own, the
teacher being employed for the instruction of his own
children, though others were accorded the privileges of attendance. He
had no desire to become a recluse, but
rendered all the encouragement possible to others who gathered about
him, and was instrumental in a thousand ways
in the settlement of the region. He served in the state legislature of
1848, his district including Whitley and
county, and we are informed he was an able and
persistent advocate of all those laws essential to the government and
regulation of the new state. His was not a narrow character, but, filled
with a desire to be of use to his fellowmen, was
ever found making some sacrifice to be of assistance to others. He
welcomed the new comer to the neighborhood,
helped him to erect a cabin, gave him employment if needed, and retained
a kind of fatherly oversight, so that
whenever sickness, disaster or other ills came he was never too busy or
too much absorbed to be of help and comfort.
He was liberal, as became the pioneer, his life being characterized by
the desire to make as many friends as possible
among those who were becoming the bulwark and strength of the county. He
was entirely free from vindictiveness,
being ready to take the first step to reconcile any difference that
might exist, and never allowed rancor to darken and
dwarf his existence. Every movement that was initiated to make a better
community found in him a friend, and he was
never happier than when doing some thing that would tend to the
improvement of the region over which he seemed to
feel a kind of paternal right on account of priority of coming, though
never displayed in a manner offensive or
distasteful, but in making every new resident to feel that here he had a
friend who was glad to render assistance to him
and to others in their efforts toward a more highly improved and cultivated
condition. In deference to the preceding biographical
information presented, it is known that Jones, a pro slavery Confederate
supporter disinherited two of his daughters that married Union men.
Matilda Jones Morrison and Nancy Pulse (Wife of Capt. Silas Pulse) were both
stricken from the will of Jones. His anti-Union feelings ran so
deep that in 1865 upon hearing of the assassination of President Lincoln, Jones
hosted a "bonfire" that lasted several days and invited people from
miles around to celebrate with him. Samuel Jones died in 1872 and
is buried in the family plot at the