Giles Jones was an Englishman, but came to America and served as a soldier in the revolutionary war. His son John came to Missouri in 1817, and studied medicine under Dr. Young. Dr. Jones married Minerva Callaway, daughter of Flanders Callaway, and granddaughter of Daniel Boone, and settled near Marthasville. They had the following children James, Caroline, Emily, Daniel, John S., Ellen, Paul, Samuel, George, and Anna. The Doctor became celebrated as a physician, and had an extensive practice. He was also very fond of hunting, and had a horse named Nick, that he generally rode on his hunting expeditions. Sometimes, just as he would be in the act of firing at a deer or some other game, Nick would move and cause him to miss his aim. The horse did this one day just as he was drawing a bead on a fine buck, and the buck escaped unhurt, which so enraged the Doctor that he determined to give him a whipping. So he alighted and cut a keen switch, and placed the bridle under his feet to keep old Nick from running away while he whipped him; but the horse jerked his head up at the first cut of the switch, threw the Doctor on the back of his head, and nearly killed him. After that, when he tried to whip old Nick, he held the bridle in his hand. Dr. Jones took a prominent part in ferreting out the counterfeiters and horse thieves with which the country was infested from about 1835 to 1844, when the “Slicker” organization put a stop to their rascally practices. By so doing he incurred the enmity of the gang, and the 22d of January, 1842, he was shot and killed in his own yard, by an assassin who was concealed in the woods near the house. The whole country was thrown into a state of excitement by this murder, and the repeated outrages which led to it, and companies of regulators and patrols were organized in every community. But notwithstanding the most delight and thorough search was made for the murderer, no trace of him could ever be found. Several suspected parties were arrested and tried, but they generally had but little difficulty in proving their innocence.
