Jerry and Linda Butler

James Lemuel Jones is living retired in Sardis. The success he has achieved in life is well merited and the high regard and esteem in which he is held by his fellowmen is expressive of his real character and clearly indicates the value of his citizenship. James L. Jones was born in Henderson county, on the 19th of December, 1856, a descendant of an old and honored Tennessee family. His paternal great-grandrather, John Jones, was one of the pioneer settlers of Henderson county, coming to this county in the early part of the nineteenth century from North Carolina. The maternal great-grandfather, Wright Spain, was a native of Alabama. Three of his sons took up arms in defense of the Confederacy during the Civil war. Two returned and the other one was lost. The parents of James Lemuel Jones, whose name initiates this review, were Erwin and Miranda (Spain) Jones, both natives of this state. His father died in 1856, at the age of thirty-three years. His widow survived him until 1915, when her demise occurred, at the age of eighty-seven.

James Lemuel Jones attended the public schools of Henderson county and then entered the high school at Saltillo. After putting his textbooks aside he taught school for four years in Henderson and Decatur counties, at the termination of which time he engaged in farming. He was active as an agriculturist for ten years, achieving substantial success In that connection, and then moved into Sardis, where he established a mercantile business. He was engaged in the conduct of that business for nine years and at the same time operated a number of mills. In 1918 he retired from active life. He is held in high confidence and esteem by all who know him, for honesty and integrity have governed him in all transactions.

On the 14th of December, 1873, in Decatur county, occurred the marriage of Mr. Jones to Miss Margaret P. Lancaster, a daughter of Jesse and Susan (Wells) Lancaster, natives of this state. Her mother died in 1896 and her father died in 1898. Mrs. Jones is a sister of Judges W. H. Lancaster and T. A. Lancaster, prominent residents of Lexington. To Mr. and Mrs. Jones eight children have been born: Nora Jones Bryant; Gemmie Jones Stanfill; Celestine Jones Stanfill; Jesse, whose death occurred in infancy; Bertha Jones Perkins; Lemuel Taylor Jones (Lem T.), who finished his college work at Hills College in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and entered the life insurance business and is now a successful general agent for one of the large old line life insurance companies of America; Beulah Jones Bunch; and Julian Lancaster. Julian Lancaster Jones is a veteran of the World war. His record follows: Entered service in September, 1918; was sent to Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina, and there made sergeant; sailed on the 29th of September on Leviathan for France; arrived at Brest on the 8th of October and remained in hospital for a few weeks; was sent to Savenay Convalescent Camp in charge of company there until sent to Le Mans Training Camp area, toward the front; was assigned to the Forty-ninth Infantry Regiment and returned to New York on January 17, 1919; sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and then was placed in charge of seventy-three men and sent to Camp Pike, Arkansas; there was honorably discharged. Immediately after receiving his discharge Julian L. Jones returned home for a rest and then entered the University of Tennessee, from which institution he received the B.A. degree in 1920. In 1921 and 1922 he was principal of the Shelby county high school at Capleville, and in 1922 and 1923 he was Spanish instructor in the Knoxville high school.

James Lemuel Jones has always been a strict adherent of the democratic party and the principles for which it stands. In 1889 he warn elected to the state senate for one term but he cared little for politics and at the termination of his service in that office, retired from public life. Fraternally he is a Master Mason and his religious faith is that of the Methodist church.

• Tennessee: The Volunteer State 1769-1923
  (Chicago, S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1923)