In nearly every community the leading dentist divides with the family physicians a public confidence which is accorded him to a degree that is little understood outside the profession. If a dentist cannot inspire such confidence he never becomes a leading dentist. The experience of Hailey emphasizes these facts. Hailey’s leading dentist is Dr. Homer D. Jones, who is also its oldest dental practitioner in point of years, of residence and practice.
Dr. Jones was born in Jeffersonville, Oregon, April 12, 1867. His father, Ansel Cromwell Jones, a native of Ohio, was one of the bold and hardy pioneers who crossed the trackless plains in 1850 to the then isolated territory of Oregon. He was one of the first settlers in the beautiful Willamette valley, and there he met and married Miss Elizabeth Smith, a native of Pennsylvania, who had found an abiding place in that far-away land. He was a successful lawyer, influential in public affairs and was elected to numerous offices, representing his people in the Oregon legislature and otherwise serving their interests with ability and integrity. He is now living retired at San Diego, California, and the wife of his youth is spared to him in his declining years. He is sixty-seven and she is fifty-one years of age. They had five children, three of whom arc living.
Dr. Homer D. Jones was educated at Albany College, Oregon. After competing his classical course he studied dentistry three years under the preceptorship of Dr. N. W. Davis, of Roseburg, Oregon. He practiced his profession in his native state until the summer of 1888. June 1, that year, he located at Hailey, where his skill as a dental surgeon was at once recognized and where he has built up a large and successful practice, which extends to all the country round about. He has never married.