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DUDLEY EMERSON JONES, 1829-1913

Papers, 1849-1976
Manuscript Collection MC 1305
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DUDLEY EMERSON JONES

Dudley Emerson Jones, born 1829, was a California gold rush participant, going to California by ship. He went by ship around Cape Horn the first time and tried his hand at gold mining, but had more success in the mercantile business. He participated in planning and building what may have been the first suspension bridge in California. He returned home for a visit, this time traveling by steamer and overland across Nicaragua. Although he prospered in California, his family was in the east and so he eventually returned to New York, married Caroline Peck (1830- 1903) in 1855 and moved to Keokuk, Iowa, where he went into the hardware business in partnership as Cody, Jones and Peck. When the Civil War broke out, he enlisted in the Union Army, becoming First Lieutenant and Quartermaster of the Third Iowa Cavalry, which occupied Little Rock. Impressed by business opportunities there, upon his discharge, Jones first established the firm of Jones, McDowell & Co., and later the Dudley E. Jones Company. He participated in the Brooks-Baxter War, and (probably because of his support for Governor Baxter) was appointed a Trustee of the University of Arkansas (then the Arkansas Industrial University) in 1874. He and Caroline Peck Jones had five children, two of whom survived to adulthood: Kate P. Jones (b. 1856), who married Philip H. Bernays, and Arthur C. Jones (b. 1860), who married Georgia Jackson and had three children, among them Arthur J. Jones. Dudley Emerson Jones died in 1913.

THE COLLECTION

Papers of Dudley Emerson Jones and some of his descendants were donated to Special Collections by Carolyn Deller of Tulsa, Oklahoma, September 7, 1995.

The collection includes many handwritten or typed accounts of incidents in Dudley E. Jones's life, particularly the gold rush and the Civil War. Included also are letters and photographs.

RESTRICTIONS APPLY. Some of the materials are extremely fragile and may not be used without special permission. Most of this material has been photocopied for research use.

Processed by Nan Lawler, October 1995. Special Collections Division, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Series 1. Correspondence, 1849-1920. Box 1.

Box 1
  1. Jones's letters (or partial letters) from California, April 25, 1849 - November 26, 1852. 8 items.
  2. Photocopies of sample pages from a letterpress copybook, Francis' Highly Improved Manifold Writer, containing copies of letters from California, October 10, 1852 - March, 1853 (plus two undated letters and two fragments dated April 18, 1854, and August 17, 1858). Copies of 36 letters, some of them many pages long. (The letterpress copybook is restricted; it is extremely fragile and many pages are torn. Also, many pages need to be enhanced before they can be read.)
  3. Civil War letters, September 10, 1863 - March 19, 1865. 6 items, none written by Jones. (The 16-page S. S. Sweet letter of December 11, 1864, is mainly about California since Dudley Jones left there).
  4. Letters pertaining primarily to the family's move to Little Rock, January 22, 1865 - November 4, 1866, n.d. 7 items, 4 written by the Jones children.
  5. Other letters, December 18, 1869 - September 12, 1898. 6 items.
  6. Other letters, November 28, 1903 - January 17, 1920. 6 items.
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Series 2. Writings by Dudley E. Jones, [1849]-1898, n.d. Box 2.

Box 2
  1. "Off Cape Horn," various dates, probably 1849-1906. Dudley Jones made the cover of the book of playing cards while he was aboard the Nautilus near Cape Horn. Part of the book appears to be a diary, February 27, 1849 to April 29, 1849, but must have been copied from elsewhere or written somewhat later, as noted by Jones in entries dated April 17-29, 1906. The 1906 entries give further details of the trip to California, interspersed with comments on the San Francisco earthquake which occurred on April 18. The book also contains several pages of family history information and "Reminiscences of a 49er" (only a 5-page start). Several ledger pages, two with handwritten tables and numbers, are laid in.
  2. Book, "A Cronological [sic] Table of Events in the life of D. E. Jones. Commencing 1845. book opened 1853." Events briefly noted from April 1, 1845, to July 24, 1854.
  3. "Reminiscences of a 49er," written in 1895. Eighty-eight double pages (several fragile or torn pages have been replaced by photocopies.)
  4. "Biography of D. E. Jones," 1896. Eighty-five double pages (one fragile page has been replaced by a photocopy), pertaining mainly to Jones's early life and his trips to California.
  5. "To the Regent," no date. Eight double pages, one written on both sides, numbered pages 22 to 30, containing much the same material as "Reminiscences of a 49er," mostly about Nicaragua.
  6. "Soliloquies of a Candidate [In the Ante Room]," dated 1898. Twenty pages, apparently a short story. (Restricted due to fragility; photocopies provided for research.)
  7. Nineteen pages beginning "Brother Regent. . . . Did you ever take a long Sea Voyage?" Account of Jones's first trip to California. (Restricted due to fragility; photocopies provided for research.)
  8. Six pages concerning the Siege of Vicksburg in the form of a short story.
  9. Fifteen pages of handwritten biographical material, plus 3- page typescript of the same.
  10. "First Suspension Bridge Built in California," handwritten, plus typescript with corrections and additions. (Restricted due to fragility; photocopies provided for research.)
  11. Typescripts of shorter pieces, some apparently separated from original longer narratives, about the Gold Rush, trips to California, frontier justice, California Indians, pole raising, a stray dog, and "How to Reduce Your Grocery Bills." None are dated.
  12. "Saloon men called before the Grand Jury, 1898," 4 pages.
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Series 3. Other papers, 1851-1976. Box 3.

Box 3
  1. Photocopies of family record pages from two Bibles.
  2. Biographical material about Dudley E. Jones, prepared for John H. Reynolds by Jones's son-in-law P. H. Bernays, with letter from Reynolds and notes by Jones, 1908.
  3. "History of the 3rd Iowa Cavalry by General Cyrus Bussey," 11 pages.
  4. "Mr. Dudley E. Jones with Compliments of Thomas W. Newton," 3 pages pertaining to Jones's service as foreman of the Grand Jury in 1874.
  5. Bill of sale, Horse Shoe Bar, May 15, 1851, and hand drawn map (undated) of the American River and its forks, California.
  6. Account book, 1864-1865.
  7. Receipts, Keokuk, Iowa, 1856-1869.
  8. Undated material pertaining to Little Rock: booklet, "Little Rock, Prosperity City, Compliments Dudley E. Jones Co.;" advertisement for "The Sailor Cotton Elevator and Cleaner, Manufactured by Dudley E. Jones Company;" tablet of order forms for the "Dudley E. Jones Company. Machinery Supplies;" envelope from Dudley E. Jones Company, Little Rock, advertising their "Sailor Cotton Elevator;" map of Little Rock with outline drawn in; and cover sheet and three pages of a "Floor Plan Sketches for Residencial Hotel, Chas. L. Thompson, Architect."
  9. Ledger used as a scrapbook, containing clippings pertaining to the militia groups: Quapaw Guards (1881-1882, with handwritten list of reunion participants, 1915), and the McCarthy Light Guard (1892).
  10. Clippings (1894) originally laid in ledger, but never trimmed and pasted in.
  11. Materials pertaining to the family of Dudley E. Jones: essays by his daughter Katie, warranty deed (1905) for his son Arthur, "Story of My Life" by grandson Arthur Jackson Jones, Jackson family history information, and clippings.
  12. Clippings pertaining to the San Francisco earthquake, the Panama Canal, and "Barge Canal Dams" on the Mohawk River, New York.
  13. Clippings pertaining to the Civil War and the Third Iowa Cavalry.
  14. Clippings and other materials pertaining to the Jones house in the Quapaw Quarter of Little Rock, 1963-1976.
  15. N.B.  This item added 7/23/2002.  Diary, March 25, 1863 - June 21, 1863.  Writes of engagements of the Third Iowa Cavalry along the Mississippi near Helena.
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Series 4. Photographs, 1863-1929. Box 4.

Most of the photographs were unidentified. Unidentified pictures were chosen for inclusion in the collection on the basis of (a) a suspicion that they were of family members (resemblance to an identified picture, location, a series of pictures of the same person taken over a long period of time); and/or (b) some interesting aspect of the picture itself (an interesting pose, indications of an amateur photographer). Duplicates and modern photographs were returned to the donor.
Box 4
  1. Images 1-6: Dudley E. Jones, 1863-1912. Images 1-3 in uniform; image 6 taken by Arthur J. Jones.
  2. Images 7-13: Dudley E. Jones Company, Little Rock; houses in Little Rock. Dated 1892-1909.
  3. Images 14-18: Arthur C. Jones, dated 1889-1895. Image 14 shows six young men with ordinary (high front wheel) bicycles.
  4. Images 19-24: Arthur J. Jones, 1898-1929. Image 23 (oversize) is a group portrait, posed in front of trucks, of the "497th Motor Truck Co., Camp Pontanezen, July 19." It is with over- oversize photographs.
  5. Images 25-33: Other/related families, 1889-1911. Includes Jackson family (images 25-27), Bernays family (images 28-31), and Boosey family (images 32-33).
  6. Images 34-40: People identified on photograph, 1896-1912; relationship (if any) to Dudley Jones not known.
  7. Images 41-53: Unidentified men, family groups, 1890s - 1928.
  8. Images 54-58: Unidentified women, women and children, 1890s - 1926. Image 54 is stamped on verso: "Samuel W. Telford, Amateur Photographer, Little Rock, Ark."
  9. Images 59-67: Unidentified children, ca. 1900-1920.
  10. Images 68-76: Snapshots, possibly taken by one of the children, dated 1907-1924. Image 72 has typed on verso: "'The Picnic.' Taken with a No. 3 Folding Brownie. Instantaneous Exposure. Stop No. 8. Print made on 'Solio' paper."
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