Fort Bend County, Justice Of The Peace, Precinct No. 1.
Judge Wiley Powell Jones was born in Fort Bend County, eight miles below Richmond, on October 17, 1843. His father, Henry Jones, came to Texas in 1822 among the first installment of Austin’s colonists, and first settled on New Year’s Creek in what is now Washington County, near Independence. There a brother, William Jones, was born, the first child born in the colony.
They lived one year on New Year’s Creek, and then came on down the Brazos River and settled below the present town of Richmond, where the Henry Jones league was located, the town of Booth now being situated on the upper league line. Here Wiley P. Jones was born at what was called by the family in the Old Prairie” home. His occupation as she grew up was farming and stock raising, until the breaking out of the civil war, when he joined the Confederate army, enlisting in Captain Sullivan’s company, “Waul’s Legion.” While the command was encamped near Independence, Judge Jones contracted a. severe case of measles, and came near dying, being two months in bed with his sisters family at the old home, whither he was conveyed from camp. When he finally recovered the legion had Bane to Virginia, and he enlisted in another command, and after it disbanded was not attached to any other command during the balance of the war.
In 1887 he moved to Richmond, and has continued to reside here since, serving during that time nearly eight years as Justice of the Peace, and up to the present time has held sixty inquests on people who lost their lives in various manners, killed by trains, gunshot wounds, drowning, etc.
Judge Jones has been twice married, his first wife being Miss Sallie Bailey. She died in 1869, and his second wife was Mattie Bailey, sister of the first, and she died in 1880. Three children, all boys, living, none married. Of the two marriages eleven children were born, eight of whom are now dead.