My Genealogy Hound

Caleb S. Jones, of the firm of McCutchen & Jones, was born in Lexington, Mo., February 5, 1848, and is the son of Rev. William W. and Jane M. (Kennedy) Jones, born respectively in Kentucky and Virginia, he of Welsh, and she of Irish descent. When about nineteen years of age, William W. Jones began his ministerial work and continued this until his death, when sixty-six years of age. His wife is still living, and is fifty-eight years of age. Mr. Jones was converted at Mitchell Camp Ground, in Polk County, and gained quite a reputation as a minister, all his labors being in the State of Missouri, He was on the editorial committee of the Christian Advocate, and was a prominent man. He was the father of eight children, seven sons and one daughter, of whom Caleb S. Jones is the eldest. He received his education in the private schools, and at the age of fifteen began clerking in a store in St. Louis, in a jobbing house. In 1866 he began traveling for Hastings, Wilkerson & Co., and traveled over Southwest Missouri and Kansas when there were no railroads. In 1868 he opened a store at Renick, Randolph County, where he continued until 1875, when he came to Lamar, and has been with his partner ever since, with the exception of eighteen months. In 1877 he married Miss Florence McGruder, a native of Cooper County, and the fruits of this union are two children, a son and daughter. Mrs. Jones died in 1883, and in 1885 he married Miss Carrie J. Timmonds, who bore him one daughter. Mr. Jones started in life with little or nothing, and has made all of his property by the sweat of his brow. Aside from his mercantile business he is also interested in farming, and is one of the prominent men of the county. He is a member of the A. O. U. W., and is a Democrat in politics.