History of Conneaut, (Ashtabula County) Ohio United States of America

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Biographies:

The Biography of Joseph Russell Jones

Joseph Russell Jones, diplomatist, was born in Conneaut, Ohio, Feb. 17, 1823; son of Joel and Maria (Dart) Jones, and grandson of Capt. Samuel Jones, of Hebron, Conn., an officer in the French and Indian war. His father died in 1825. He attended a public school, and in 1836 became clerk in a store in Conneaut, where he remained until August, 1838, when he joined his mother's family at Rockton, Winnebago county, Ill., and in June, 1840, went to Galena, Ill., where he was clerk and subsequently partner in one of the business houses of that city. He retired from business on the dissolution of the firm in 1856. He was secretary and treasurer of the Galena and Minnesota Packet company, 1846-61; a representative in the Illinois legislature in 1860; U.S. marshal for the northern district of Illinois, 1861-69; U.S. minister to Belgium, 1869-75; declined the cabinet appointment of secretary of the interior in 1875, and was collector of the port of Chicago, 1875-76. He was married in 1848 to Elizabeth Ann, daughter of Judge Andrew Scott, of Arkansas, and they resided in Galena, Ill., until 1861, when they removed to Chicago, Ill. He organized the Chicago West Division Railway company in 1863, and was its president for twenty-five years, retiring from business in 1888.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor