Written by his daughter Leona Jones Williams 1947

John Asahel Jones was born in Malad, Idaho, June 1876 on the 19 day, the son of William Evans Jones and Martha Lucritia Lusk.  His father William E. Jones was born in South Wales 19 February 1848.  HIs mother was born in Pleasant Grove Utah 29 March 1857.  He was 26 and she was only 17 years old when they started their married life.

To this union were born 13 children, John being the second child, Bertha, and James, Olive, Hugh, Peny, and Delilah.  Both William and Thomas died while quite young.

When John was a young man his parents’ house burned.  HIs mother was in the house and John went and got her out.  He received some very bad burns on his right arm at this time and carried deep scars all his life.  He went to Malad School but only to the 5th grade but was very good in arithmetic and read a great deal all his life.  When he was 18 years old he married Mary Adams, on 7 December 1894, at Malad Idaho.  He was the father of 8 children.  The four girls, Myrtle, Lucretia, Leona, Laura, and four boys Asahel, Glenn, Vernon, and LeRoy died three hours after birth.  John was a very hard worker and I have been told by other people that he always took the hard end of the work.  He worked in his father’s flour mill which was the first mill in Malad and people from all over came here to get their wheat made into flour.  Later he worked around for wages until he bought the old Babbit farm on Devil Creek and also took up 160 acres.  Here he made his living and worked very hard breaking new land hauling rocks off the land to raise wheat.  In the winter he would get wood from the canyon which was also hard and cold work.

He was always troubled with his eyes and during world war one he was taken to Utah for he was almost blind.  He had to be taken to the doctor for some time.  Then his eyes got better but when he came home from Utah he sold his farm to Ben A. Evans and bought the MALAD drey.  This was also very hard work and has hauled everything for the stores and machinery came in on the train and it was heavy lifting.  Some time later he sold the drey business and was the Malad Police for a few years.  While working here his health got quite bad, he had asthma and a bad heart so was unable to do anything.  About this time January 1934, his wife died quite suddenly which was quite a shock to him as they had lived very close all their married life which was one month over 39 years.  The two years after his wife died, his daughter Leona, took him to Los Angeles on the train to his daughter, Lucretia, to see if his health would be better but he only stayed a month, as his asthma was worse during the time we were down there.  The first Hypo Leona ever gave him was on the train going there, and Leoona said she was frightened, but gave him many more after that.  Most of the family learned to use the needle to give him hypos.  His arms were hard from so many and several times he took the shots in his legs.  His son, Vernon, was living with him before his wife died so he stayed on after and was a great help and comfort to him because for the last four years of his life he spent sitting in a  chair and when he went to bed, he had to be propped up on pillows to get his breath.  During the last two months of his life someone sat up with him every night.  He died 26 February 1938.  Four years after his wife.  He was very well known around Oneida County and always wanted to do right by his fellowmen.  Before his death there were 5 generations in the family.  His mother age 81, he being 61, his daughter Lucretia 38, her daughter Alta 19, and her daughter JoAnn 1 year old. He had 29 grandchildren at the time of his death and 1 great grandchild.  He was a member of the L.D.S. church and 22 February 1940 his son Vernon did his endowment and February 1940 he was sealed to his wife in the Logan Temple with Ray and Mary Owens standing Proxies.  The same day J. Guy Gleed was Proxy for his son LeRoy and I, Leona for myself was sealed to them.  He is buried in Malad, Idaho by the side of his wife and son.

(pictures of Mary Adams Jones and John Asahel Jones)