Macoupin County
ILGenWeb

Biography - ROBERT L. JONES

Among the public spirited and successful men of Macoupin county, who have gained the confidence of the entire community, is Robert Lee Jones. He has served in one of the most important offices in the county, and has shown an ability and fidelity to trust which are worthy of universal imitation. Born in Carlinville, August 23, 1873, he is a son of John D. and Sarah L. (Rule) Jones, the former of whom was born in Scioto county, Ohio, and the latter at Alton, Illinois. The grandfather on the paternal side came to Illinois with his family and began farming in Jersey county. Later he removed to Macoupin county in a covered wagon and purchased a farm upon which he established the family homestead. He contracted pneumonia from exposure while driving cattle and hogs through the country and died soon after locating in this county. John D. Jones, the father of our subject, was reared under pioneer conditions and continued at home until the outbreak of the Civil war. In response to the call of President Lincoln, he offered his services to his country and became a member of Company C, Fourteenth Illinois Infantry, serving faithfully with his regiment during the entire war. After the close of the great conflict, he received his honorable discharge and returned to Macoupin county, entering the butcher business at Carlinville, in which he continued successfully for many years. He is now living in honorable retirement at his home in Carlinville, and has reached the age of seventy-four, his wife being sixty-eight years of age. They are both well known and highly respected residents of the city.

The public schools of Carlinville furnished opportunity for Robert Lee Jones to secure a good preliminary education and thus lay a useful foundation for an active life. After leaving school he secured employment on a stock farm in the county, and subsequently worked on various farms for five years. He then took up his residence in Carlinville and for three years was engaged in teaming. At the end of the time named, he was given employment as weighmaster for the Carlinville Coal Company, a position which he filled for one and one-half years. He then resigned and joined the Coal Miners Union, being employed as check weighman by that organization. He served in this capacity for eight years, and during four years of that time was regularly reelected to the position every three months. He became well known in the county and in 1906 was elected sheriff, a position which he filled most acceptably to voters of all political parties for four years. Since retiring from the office of sheriff he has served as deputy United States marshal, and also has had charge of the sheriff’s office during the absence of the sheriff from the county.

Mr. Jones has never married, preferring the freedom of bachelorhood. Politically he is an earnest advocate of the republican party whose principles appeal to him as essential to the perpetuity of the nation. He is in sympathy with the doctrines of the Methodist church but he has never affiliated with any religious denomination although friendly toward them all. He is a member of Lodge No. 107, I. O. O. F., and also of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and has found much in the teachings of those orders which meet his approval. A faithful public official and through life a lover of justice and truth, he is a worthy representative of the best type of American citizen and as such is highly popular wherever he is known.


Extracted 18 May 2018 by Norma Hass from History of Macoupin County, Illinois: Biographical and Pictorial, by Charles A. Walker, published in 1911, Volume 2, pages 41-42.


Design by Templates in Time
This page was last updated 07/01/2022