Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2012, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the US Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= U.S. Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================= Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== History of the Great Lakes Illustrated, In Two Volumes, Vol. II Chicago, J. H. Beers & Co., 1899 Page 11 AUGUSTUS JONES, one of the pioneer shipbuilders on the lakes, was born in Essex, Conn., in 1782, and belonged to a race of sea captains and ship builders. The early part of his career was passed in New England, and during the war of 1812, when the British burned the ships in the Con- necticut river, his vessels were destroyed. As a compensation the government granted him a tract of land at Black River, now Lorain, Ohio, and he started for the West- ern Reserve with an ox-team and covered wagon. No record is left of the perils and privations of this journey, but he certainly experienced all the hardships which the pioneers were forced to endure when travel- ing to what was then the Far West. After a struggle of two years he had established a shipyard, built a log house, and made a home for his family, who then joined him. Mr. Jones worked at various points on the lakes, but retained his home at Black River until his death in 1841, at the age of fifty-nine years. Mr. Jones married Saba Murdock, of Saybrook, Conn., a lady of education and refinement, who heroically endured her lot, and died from the effects of hardships inci- dent to life on the frontier. Their children were: William Augustus; Benjamin Buel; George Washington; Frederick Nelson; James Madison; Maria, wife of Captain Whittaker; Fannie, wife of Capt. Joel McQueen; Mehitable, wife of A. C. Jones, clerk on a steamboat; and Marie Antoinette, wife of Sir Francis Drake, a descend- ant of the celebrated English navigator. For several years the father and sons were associated in shipbuilding, but after his death they established individual shipyards Page 12 at Lorain, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Buffalo and Detroit. Altogether the Jones family was one of the most noted in the develop- ment of the lake marine. ==========================================================================