Richard Peter Jones

 

 

Richard 'Peter' Jones was born 13 May 1816 to Edward Jones and Sarah Morris at Denbyshire, in North Wales, and died in Samaria, Idaho, 2 September 1889. his wife, Eliza Edwards, was born 16 September 1816 at Brymbo Lodge, Wrexham, North Wales, the daughter of Simon Edwards and Elizabeth (Betsan) Jones and died in Malad, Idaho, 15 November 1896. She was buried beside her husband in the Malad Idaho Cemetery. They were the parents of ten children.

Richard heard about and joined the Mormon Church through the missionary Dan Jones. It was during the year 1856, that Richard P. and Eliza Edwards Jones packed their belongings, gathered their family together and immigrated to the United States. At the time, they were living at Ruabon, North Wales. They came with the Edward Parry's on the Samuel Curling. They left on April 19, 1856, from Liverpool, England and arrived in America on May 23, 1856, at Boston, Massachusetts. After arriving in this country, they had the misfortune of losing two members of their family, Margaret and Louis, as they were immigrating toward the West.

Their first residence was established at Williamsburg, Iowa, where a little over a year later their youngest child, William Richard, was born. They remained at Williamsburg for four years, but the lure of the West, with its glamour of gold strikes and fortunes, was too much of a temptation to Richard P. Jones, who was an expert mineralogist and metallurgist. His fervent desire was to go to the west and see what would fall his lot. In the Spring of 1861, they continued on their journey toward the Rocky Mountains and the Salt Lake Valley. The following winter they spent at Provo, Utah.

The following spring their son, Amos, was married to Leah Parry of Salt Lake and went to Salt Lake City to make his home. Their daughter, Joice. was also married about the same time to David Thomas of Provo and remained in Provo to make her home while the rest of the family prepared journey on toward the Sierra Nevada Mountains stopped for a short time in Jacks Valley, ada. but later went to Silver City, Nevada, re thes established their residence. It was that Mr. Jones staked out "The Pride of the West: mining claim, which still remains a desertedmine in the Silver City area today. The little white school house up on the hill in Silver City was where Sarah, Isaac and William Richard went to school, but it has since been torn down.

In 1864, Mr. Jones went to Oreana, Nevada, and erected the first smelter known in the western part of the United States. Charcoal was used in the smelter, and the bullion was shipped to Swansea, Wales, for refining. It was hauled by ox team over the Sierra Nevada Mountains to San Francisco and loaded on boats.

After completing this smelter, the family again moved back to Silver City. They did not remain there very long before the moved to Virginia City, which was only a few miles distant. Mr. Jones again interested himself in the mining game. He was living in Virginia City during the days when "Fair, Flood and O'Brian" made the famous strike in the Comstock district. In those days, the Miner's Union was the law. The outlaw element, known as "Bushwhakers," was a low class composed mostly of Southerners who were against anything that was in line with law and order. They were especially anti-unionist. The family lived there during the Civil War days and was living there when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Some of the Bushwhakers were present in the famous old "Crystal Bar" Saloon when news of Lincoln's assassination was brought to the city. Their slighting remarks of Lincoln caused the President of the Labor Union to walk forward, take a whip from one of the mule skinners present and whip the bushwhacker until his blood ran down into his shoes. Those were the days when Virginia City was at its best. It was one of the liveliest towns in the western country with plenty of money in circulation and fortunes being made overnight.

In the year 1867, the family moved to Eureka, Nevada, where Mr. Jones again founded a smelter for Colonel Buhl and Mr. Bateman. He remained there to operate the smelter over a period of about three years. Thomas Lilly, his son-in-law, operated a smelter a short distance from his, and Richard was called from one smelter to the other whenever anything went wrong.

In 1871, Brigham Young sent for Richard P. Jones to come to Salt Lake and requested that he make an examination of the iron deposits in southern Utah near Cedar City. Mr. Jones went to Cedar City, as requested by Brigham Young, but could not make a favorable report of the project due to the high cost of production. He did tell Brigham Young that the time would come when the country was more developed with railroad facilities, etc., that the iron deposits would become valuable to them. It was too far distant at that time, as they could not compete with the eastern iron mines. The Jones family remained in Salt Lake and erected the smelter at Murray, Utah. It was there that Richard P. Jones lost his fortune.

In 1876 the family moved to what is known as "The Point," at Samaria, Idaho, and tried their luck as farmers. There they lived happily, and humbly, as did the other pioneer residents of the locality. They did not have as many of the worldly goods that they had been used to prior to coming here, but the peace and contentment that comes from living close to nature was theirs until the end of their days.

 

Submitted by: Marcia Evans Daugherty

 

Post script by Raymond Evans, G Grandson:

Richard Peter Jones, after he moved to Malad, surveyed the Samaria Lake and Portage Canal and supervised its construction. Being a mining man, Richard prospected and did some mining south of the Samaria

 

Mountain with his son Amos, until the early 1880's when his health failed.

Richard Jones was in partnership with a man named Raymond, and I was named after him. They
built the first smelter in the Salt Lake Valley, in Murray. They used ore from the Big Cottonwood Canyon.
When the railroad was built to Park City, it put them out of business.

 

 

None

Immigrants:

Jones, Richard Peter

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