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LEON G. JONES
BIOGRAPHY and GENEALOGY
(1865-aft. 1904)
Talladega, Wilcox, and Shelby County, Alabama
Leon G. Jones, of the Talladega Wholesale Grocery company, was a native of Alabama. In 1841 his parents, Rev. H. M. and Mary P. (Williamson) Jones, came from Virginia and settled in Talladega County. Later they removed to Montevallo, Shelby County, and still later to Wilcox County, where Leon G. was born, June 22, 1865, and where both parents died, the father in 1889 and the mother in 1893. H. M. Jones was a Presbyterian minister, a Knight Templar Mason, and a prominent Democrat. He and his wife had eight children, five of whom were still living in 1904. One son, Richard Jones, was killed at the battle of Sharpsburg, Md., Sept. 27, 1862, in the Civil war.
Leon G. Jones was educated in the common schools, and at an early age began clerking in a store at Talladega. He soon developed the qualifications of a successful merchant, and at the age of twenty-one years went into business for himself. For fifteen years he conducted successfully a very large retail business, and in 1902 he organized the Talladega Wholesale Grocery company, one of the largest establishments of its kind in Northern Alabama. In 1904, the capital of the company was $50,000, and its volume of business increased each year since its organization. Mr. Jones was one of the leading spirits of the company and was generally recognized as one of the most successful businessmen in the city and the surrounding country.
Politically he was a strong Democrat, but the demands of his business were so great that he had but little time for active political work. He was somewhat prominent in the work of secret and benevolent orders, being a member of Talladega lodge, No. 61, Free and Accepted Masons, a Knight of Pythias, and a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
He was married, in 1894, to Miss Kate Higgins, daughter of Joel and Maggie (Turner) Higgins, and they had three children by 1904:
- Turner Joel Jones
- Mary Jones
- Margaret Jones.
Mr. Jones and his family were active members of the Presbyterian church.
SOURCES
- Notable Men of Alabama: Personal and Genealogical, Volume 1 edited by Joel Campbell DuBose
