Thomas C. Jones
Judge Thomas C. Jones was born in the parish of Myfod, Montgomeryshire, North Wales, February 9, 1816, and died at Delaware, Ohio, August 13, 1892. His father, Robert Jones, was a farmer in his native country of Wales, and the family immigrated to America in the year 1822 and settled on a farm near Delaware, Ohio. At the early age of thirteen years the subject of this sketch earned his own living by working on farms for the neighbors in the spring and summer and fall and attending school in winters. In this way be obtained a sufficient education to teach. In the year 1837, he began the study of law with his brother Edward, who had just previously opened an office in Delaware. The brother died in the year 1838 and Thomas taught a district school in the winter of 1839, and in April of that year he started to Wales to settle his father's estate. He traveled from Delaware to Philadelphia on horseback, where he sold his horse and sailed for his former home. He studied law in England for about eighteen months, and as a student attended the sessions of the English courts with great benefit to himself. In the spring of the year 1841 he returned to America and was admitted to the Bar before the Supreme Court of Ohio, which was then being held at Gallipolis. Ohio, Justices Peter Hitchcock, Thomas A. Grimke and S. F. Vinton, examiners. He immediately opened an office in Delaware, Ohio, with good prospects. In a short time he entered into a partnership for the practice of his profession with Judge Sherman Finch, which partnership continued for only a short time. In the year 1843, Mr. Jones removed to Circleville, Pickaway County, Ohio, where he continued in the practice of his profession for thirteen years. In the year 1856 he returned to Delaware County, where he formed a partnership for the practice of law with H. M. Carper, the style of the firm being Jones & Carper, which partnership continued until Mr. Jones was elected to the Common Pleas bench. In the year 1859. he was elected State senator from the Sixteenth Senatorial district, at that time composed of Delaware and Licking Counties, as a Republican, though the district was largely Democratic. Mr. Jones was elected by a handsome majority. In January, 1850, Mr. Jones was elected a member of the State Board of Agriculture, which office he held for eight years. being president of the board for two years.
In the autumn of the year 1861, Mr. Jones was elected judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the First Subdivision of the Sixth Judicial District, composed of Delaware, Knox and Licking Counties. He was re-elected in the autumn of 1866, serving for the term of ten years with general satisfaction to the public and to the Bar.
He was a delegate to the National Republican Convention held at Chicago in the year 1868, which nominated Grant and Colfax for president and vice-president, respectively, of the United States and was chairman of the delegation. He was also a member of the National Republican Convention which nominated R. B. Hayes for president in the year 1876, and he was one of President Hayes' strongest supporters, having known him from childhood, they having been school boys together. After the expiration of Judge Jones' second term on the bench, he engaged in agriculture and the breeding of thoroughbred short-horned cattle, Southdown sheep and other fine stock, for which he always had a taste, no doubt inherited through many generations from his ancestors. He was appointed trustee of the Ohio Agricultural College, located at Columbus, Ohio, was made chairman of the Executive Committee, and was largely responsible for the design and erection of the college buildings as well as the selection of the first professors and the character of the course of study. In the year 1876 he was one of the jury selected to award the honors in the cattle department of live stock at the Centennial at Philadelphia and he was made chairman of that body.
In the year 1880 he visited Great Britain, including his native Wales, taking with him his wife, and with the aid of a letter from President Hayes, his old school fellow, he made extensive observations with reference to our live stock trade with that country and the effect of its restrictions upon our exports. The result of his observations was made known to the president in a letter by Mr. Jones, which letter he caused to be published for distribution among breeders and others interested in this most important branch of our export trade. In the year 1881 he was appointed on a commission by a special act of Congress to examine and report upon the agricultural needs and resources of the Pacific States. In the government's earnest endeavor to solve and settle the Indian question the wisdom of Judge Junes was recognized by His appointment to several commissions.
Judge Jones was at one time an official visitor to the Naval Academy at Annapolis. As a writer on agricultural subjects and especially in the department of stock-breeding, he had a national reputation.
Judge Jones was chosen as the first president of the Ohio Association of Breeders of short-horn cattle and was really the leading spirit in its organization. The judge was a man of sincere and earnest convictions, liberal and public spirited, of a genial temperament and was interested in his fellow citizens and his company was sought after in the social circle.
Religiously, he was a positive character. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, had clear views on the subject of religion and he believed in a God as taught by his church and the Bible. He had no patience with non-believers or with the doctrines of the rationalists. He was for many years a trustee of the Theological Seminary and of Kenyon College, which was established by his church at Gambier, and his eldest son is a professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Polity in Kenyon College.
From 20th Century History of Delaware County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Edited and compiled by James R. Lytle, Delaware, Ohio, Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1908