Thomas M. Jones. From 1903 to 1917 Thomas M. Jones was assistant postmaster of Abilene, and in that time really handled the important responsibilities and executive details of the city postal system. He received his appointment under the late Richard Waring, and steadily continued in the office under subsequent administrations. Mr. Jones is an expert accountant, and that ability gave his service a great value in the postoffice, and during his long residence at Abilene he had been given many important commissions in auditing and in straightening up the books of commercial concerns. He is now cashier of the United Telephone Company, one of the leading light, power and telephone concerns of the Middle West.
Mr. Jones had lived in Abilene since early manhood. He was born in a log house on a farm in Macoupin County, Illinois, June 20, 1861, a son of George F. and Elizabeth E. (Snider) Jones. George F. Jones was long well known in Abilene, where he died May 19, 1917. He was born in Indiana October 6, 1835, in 1855 removed to Illinois, and was a farmer in that state until 1886, when he came to Abilene, Kansas, and identified himself with the hardware and agrieultural business. For twenty-eight years he sold goods all over Dickinson County, and finally retired with a competence in 1914. He was also prominent in civic affairs, was a member of the city council from 1898 to 1902, and was a loyal republican. During the Civil war he enlisted as a private and also served as a corporal in Company A of the One Hundred Twenty-second Illinois Volunteer Infantry and was in the war almost from the beginning until the close. Though participating in a number of historic engagements he escaped without wounds and had nearly half a century of usefulness as a farmer and business man after the war. He was a past commander of Abilene Post No. 63, Grand Army of the Republic, and a member of the Baptist Church.
On August 12, 1860, George F. Jones married Miss Elizabeth E. Snider, who was born at Carlinville, Illinois, January 31, 1844.
Thomas M. Jones, the only son of his parents, attended public school in Macoupin County, Illinois, was reared on a farm, and completed his training in preparation for a business career in Brown’s Business College at Jacksonville, Illinois, His years were spent on his father’s farm up to 1884, when he came to Abilene, and from that date for nineteen consecutive years was bookkeeper and salesman in a hardware and implement house of which his father during the greater part of the time was one of the owners. He left that position to become assistant postmaster, as already stated.
A republican, he was a member of the City Council of Abilene from 1895 to 1903, and gave up that position when he entered the postoffice. He is a Mason and a member of the Presbyterian Church and had been commander of Abilene Camp No. 1 of Sons of Veterans since its organization in 1915. He is also past master workman of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, is venerable consul of the Modern Woodmen of America, and is treasurer of Abilene Chapter No. 11 of the Eastern Star.
Mr. Jones had enjoyed a happy. home life for thirty years. December 1, 1886, at Carlinville, Illinois, he married Miss Henrietta Leach, who was born March 23, 1866, in Maconpin County, Illinois, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Killam) Leach. Mrs. Jones was liberally educated, having finished her training in Blackburn College at Carlinville. She is an active worker in the Presbyterian Church. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Jones, three sons and one daughter. The danghter, who was the first born, and the youngest child, both died in infancy. There are thus two living sons. David Milton, born May 16, 1894, at Abilene, was graduated from the local high school in 1913 and in 1916 completed the course of the Central Kansas Business College. George Leach, born February 3, 1897, at Abilene, was also educated in the Abilene High School, and afterwards in the Wentworth Military Academy at Lexington, Missouri.