Copyright 2001, Janine M. Bork
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Walla AHGP
The alumni of McGill University are found in all sections of the American continent. The thorough training of that school well qualifies its students for the various lines of work which they may undertake and in the main the graduates of that institution have been most successful. Dr. Bert Logan Jones is among the number who are actively engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery in Walla Walla. Pennsylvania numbers him among her native sons, his birth having occurred in Allegheny on the 11th of May, 1882, his parents being Reuben Reynolds and Maggie Elizabeth Jones. With the removal of the family to the west he became a pupil in the public schools and was graduated fro the Baker school in 1898. He then continued his education in the Washington State College and won the Bachelor of Science degree in 1907. He afterwards entered McGill University as a medical student as was graduated from the Montreal institution with the degree of M.C., C.M. He has since practiced his profession in Walla Walla and in 1914 he was appointed surgeon in the state penitentiary. In general practice he has made for himself a creditable position. He is thoroughly conversant with the latest discoveries and scientific researches that have to bear upon medical and surgical practice, is most careful in the diagnosis of his cases and seldom if ever at fault in matters of judgment regarding the outcome of disease. Moreover, he holds to the highest professional standards and his course has been an expression of the most advanced ethics of the profession.
On the 25th of December, 1916, in Pullman, Washington, Dr. Jones was united in marriage to Miss Jessie Elliott Hays, a daughter of the Rev. W.G.M. Hays, D.D. Dr. Hays was the founder of the United Presbyterian church and the academy at Waitsburg, Washington, in 1886 and was the organizer of the United Presbyterian church at Olympia in 1895. He also founded the United Presbyterian church at Pullman, Washington, in 1898 and remained as pastor there for eighteen years. He has thus had much to do with the moral progress and development of this section and in his labors has not been denied the full harvest nor the aftermath of his efforts. Mrs. Jones was graduated from the Washington State College in 1906, from the State Normal School at Cheney, Washington, in 1912, and from 1906 until 1916 taught in the graded and high schools of this state.
Dr. and Mrs. Jones hold membership in the First Presbyterian church of Walla Walla and he belongs to the Walla Walla Commercial Club and to the Masonic fraternity, associations which indicate much of the nature of his interests and the rules which govern his conduct. He is a man of genuine personal worth, esteemed by all who know him and most of all where he is best known. While he holds to high professional standards and gives the greater part of his attention to his profession, he also recognizes and meets the duties and obligations of citizenship and in many ways has cooperated in bringing about public welfare and improvement.
Lyman's History of Old Walla Walla County - 1918
Page 751, 752
John D. Jones is an important factor in the industrial circles of southeastern Washington as he is president of the Self-Oiling Wheel & Bearing Company of Walla Walla, many of whose products are manufactured under patents which he has taken out. He was born in Wales, November 15, 1863, a son of Richard N. and Ellen Jones, who in 1881, emigrated to Canada. For a year they resided in Montreal and then removed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where they have since made their home.
John D. Jones was educated in the public schools of his native country and in the night schools of Minneapolis. When he accompanied his parents to the United States at the age of nineteen years he entered the shops of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. When fifteen years old he had apprenticed himself to the machinist's trade in Wales and during his residence in Montreal he worked in the shops of the Grand Trunk Railway. While there he assisted in putting the first air pump on an engine on the Grand Trunk system. For several years he was connected with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul and the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie railways and was the first machinist to be employed by the latter road in Minneapolis. In the fall of 1888 he came to the Pacific northwest, entering the shops of the Oregon-Washington Railway & Navigation Company at The Dalles, and later he worked at various points along their system. On severing his connection with that road he engaged in the butchering and restaurant business in La Grande, Oregon, after which he went as far east as Marshaltown, Iowa, where he was employed by the Iowa Central Railway. However, after his life in the west he found the east too restricted and unenterprising and again came west. He entered the shops of the Oregon-Washington Railway & Navigation Company at Portland and was later transferred to the Umatilla shops. In 1895 he left there and came to Walla Walla, where he entered the employ of Gilbert Hunt. Subsequently he was appointed master mechanic of the Washington & Columbia River Railroad under Joseph McCabe and about that time was also appointed chief engineer of the state penitentiary by Governor Meade, which appointment, however, he refused to accept. He became superintendent of the Mill creek Railway and held that position during the time that its track was changed from narrow guage to standard guage. In addition to his other railroad experience he has at times served as an engineer and ran one of the first narrow gauge engines that entered Walla Walla, it running on the old Dr. Baker railway.
In 1905 Mr. Jones went into business for himself, opening a machine shop on South Second street, Walla Walla. He built up a large business and also took out a number of patents and in 1914 he organized the Self-Oiling Wheel & Bearing Company, which manufactures goods under his patents. Up to the present time he holds about twenty-eight patents on automobile parts and harvesting machinery. The plant of the company is one of the best equipped in Washington and the employees are skilled mechanics. The goods manufactured include farm machinery of all kinds, gas engine pistons and ring stocks, self-oiling devices for pulleys, hay blocks and warehouse truck wheels. The company's most important product is without doubt one of the most successful combined harvesters ever built. This machine, which is manufactured under patents owned by Mr. Jones, is capable of harvesting and sacking grain under four cents per bushel and is so simple in its design that it can be operated with only a third of the usual horse power. The great wheat country of eastern Washington, of which Walla Walla is the center, affords an unsurpassed market for improved farm implements and it is but natural that the Self-Oiling Wheel & Bearing Company should have built up a large trade, even within the few years of its existence. From the organization of the concern Mr. Jones has served as its president and has given his entire time and attention to looking after its interests. To his thorough and practical knowledge of mechanics he adds executive ability and keen business insight and is generally recognized as an industrial leader.
In 1887 Mr. Jones was married to Miss Catherine L. Morris, of Langollen, North Wales, and to them have been borne three sons: Griffith, who is athletic instructor in the high school at Pendleton, Oregon; Wynne, superintendent o the foundry of his father's plant; and Richard L., a student at Whitman College.
Mr. Jones belongs to Walla Walla Lodge, No. 7, F. & A.M., and to Oriental Consistory, A.&A.S.R., of Spokane. He is also connected with the Woodmen of the World and has many friends in fraternal circles. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Christian Science church and give their support to all good works. His career from the time that he apprenticed himself to the machinist's trade has been one of continual advancement, gained through his industry, determination and sound judgement.
Lyman's History of Old Walla Walla County - 1918
Page 832, 835