Kiler Kent Jones (1825 - 1886)

Born 13 Apr 1825 in Chautauqua County, New York

Died 20 Aug 1886 at age 61 in Quincy, Adams County, Illinois

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Biography

Although the subject of this sketch resides outside of Quincy, he has been prominently identified with its prosperity for the past fifteen years, and his interests are now so identified with those of our city that he is emphatically one of her citizens.

K. K. Jones is a son of the late William Jones of Chicago, who at the time of his death was one of its wealthiest and most influential citizens. Born in Chatauqua County, N. Y., when but an infant his parents removed to Buffalo, where they remained until he was ten years of age, when they went to Chicago, his father having first visited Chicago in 1831.

On his thirteenth birthday he entered a printing office, and at eighteen associating with him Dr. J. S. Beach, established a weekly paper called the Gem of the Prairie. This modest weekly which then enlightened the pioneers of Chicago, was the foundation upon which has since been built the great Tribune of that city, one of the most profitable newspaper enterprises of the nineteenth century.

In 1848, disposing of his interest in the "Gem," Mr. Jones removed to Manitowoc, Wis., and began business on a small scale. lie found this decidedly a wooden country — lumber, saw logs, shingles and cord wood being legal tender. By close attention to business, and hard work, he however succeeded in making it profitable, and in 1851 commenced vessel building, continuing at it more or less for several years. In 1857 Mr. Jones came to Quincy, and the following spring settled on his farm known as the "Pines," near this city. Here he continued farming successfully for years, having one of the best stocked, most admirably arranged, and most valuable farms in Illinois. In 1866 he purchased his present suburban residence known as the " Wedgelands," a magnificent country place with a handsome and commodious dwelling and beautiful grounds surrounding the same.

The past summer Col. Jones purchased the control- ling interest in the magnificent new Opera House here, and adding some improvements, has gone to work to make it a benefit as well as ornament to Quincy. Possessed of indomitable enery, and unbounded enterprise, few men are better calculated to advance a city than Col. K. K. Jones, and none are more ready to give time and money for such a purpose. Warm and impulsive, there is no medium with him. Whatever he advocates he gives a whole-souled, earnest support at all times. A friend of railroads and public enterprises calculated to enrich and develop a country, he has actively encouraged them. An ardent republican, he upholds the principles of that party with all his might, and is a zealous and influential member of the same.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ History of Quincy and Its Men of Mark, 1869

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22726748/kiler-kent-jones