Jones, Samuel J., a notorious character during the early border troubles and the first sheriff of Douglas county, was a native of Virginia. In the fall of 1854 he arrived at Westport Landing (now Kansas City, Mo.) on the steamboat F. X. Aubrey, accompanied by his wife and two young children. After making a trip through Kansas, he took charge of the postoffice at Westport, Mo. On March 30, 1855, he led the pro-slavery mob that destroyed the ballot box at Bloomington, and as a reward for his activity he was appointed sheriff of Douglas county, receiving his commission from acting Gov. Woodson on Aug. 27, 1855. He was also one of the contractors for the erection of the territorial capitol at Lecompton. As sheriff he arrested Jacob Branson in Nov., 1855, which started the "Wakarusa war." The following April he attempted to arrest Samuel N. Wood, and about that time was shot and wounded by some unknown person. This no doubt made him more bitter toward the free-state advocates, and on May 21, 1856, he led the so-called posse which practically destroyed the town of Lawrence. On Jan. 7, 1857, he resigned the office of sheriff because the governor would not furnish him with balls and chains for certain free-state prisoners. Subsequently he removed to New Mexico, where he was visited in the summer of 1879 by Col. William A. Phillips, who found him suffering from the effects of a stroke of paralysis that affected his speech. He died in New Mexico.