J. T. Jones, M. D.—The subject of the following sketch is the oldest physician and surgeon now in active practice in Franklin, Johnson County, Ind., being now in the forty-second year of his professional life. He was born in what is now Blue River Township, on a farm about two miles east of Amity, in a log cabin which was without a floor, on January 23, 1825 (the day upon which this sketch is written being his sixty-third birthday). His father was Jefferson D. Jones, who was born in Virginia, in 1799, and emigrated to Kentucky when a boy, locating in Mercer County. While living in Kentucky he was married to Eleanor Frary, the wedding occurring in 1820 or 1821, in the town of Harrodsburg. Eleanor Frary was born in Mercer County, Ky., in 1801. In 1823, they came to Johnson County and settled on the farm where our subject was born. In about 1835, they exchanged farms with his brother and removed to the same, which was east of the Franklin College, and is now partly in the corporate limits of Franklin. The father died January 10, 1877, and the mother died August 26, 1885. To the parents six children were born, of which our subject was the second; a brother and sister are the only surviving members of the children, save our subject. The brother is William L., who was born June 30, 1838, and is now a practicing physician of Marysville, Utah, and the sister is the wife of William L. Peggs, now living near Indianapolis, Ind. Our subject was reared on the farm, and secured his early education in the Franklin schools and college. He began reading medicine in the office of Drs. Webb and Thomas in Franklin, Ind., and in 1846, began practicing. In the fall of 1860 he entered the University of Ann Arbor, Mich., graduating from the medical department of that institution in the spring of 1861. He returned to Franklin and resumed his practice, and has continued up to the present. He has held various public positions of trust, among which were those of city councilman of Franklin four years, secretary of the county board of health, and is at present city health officer, and coroner of Johnson County, having been elected to the latter office in 1886. He was married December 28, 1847, to Isabella Peggs, who was born in Trimble County, Ky., December 23, 1825, and is the daughter of Jacob Peggs, now a resident of Franklin, Ind., and probably the oldest citizen of Johnson County, being in his ninety-fourth year. His wife died July 7, 1884. To this union nine children were born, of whom five are living, three daughters and two sons. In politics, the Doctor is a democrat, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Transcribed by Cheryl Zufall Parker

Banta, D. D. History of Johnson County, Indiana. Chicago, IL: Brant & Fuller, 1888, page 622.