Jones, Malden

Born: 1818-02-08 Lee County, Virginia

Died: 1904-11-01 Bourbon, Illinois

Flourished: Bourbon, Illinois

Malden Jones was a clerk, farmer, merchant, sheriff, and state legislator. As a youth, Jones moved with his family from his native Virginia to Kentucky, where he spent his childhood. At the age of seventeen, Jones became a clerk in a store, holding that job for three years. In 1840, he moved to Illinois, settling with his brother near Arcola, where he engaged in farming and stock raising. Jones opened a general store near Bourbon in 1848. A year later, he built a store in Bourbon and laid out the town. In 1858, he won election as sheriff of Coles County and moved to Charleston. He remained there for three years before returning to Bourbon in 1861. In 1864, Douglas County voters elected him to the Illinois House of Representatives.

John Gresham, Historical and Biographical Record of Douglas County Illinois (Logansport, IN.: Wilson, Humphreys, 1900), 225-27; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 226; Gravestone, Bourbon Cemetery, Bourbon, IL.