Robert M. Jones was born in Jefferson (now Hamblen) County October 28, 1847, and is the son of Thomas M. and Lavenia A. (McFarland) Jones. The father was born near the present Hamblen County line, in Cocke County, Tenn., in 1816, and was the son of Daniel Jones, who was a native of Virginia, who immigrated to Cocke County, Tenn., at a very early date in the history of the State, entering land in that county and becoming one of the pioneers of that county. He served in the war of 1812, and was a prominent citizen of that locality. Thomas M., the father, is a farmer by vocation, and removed to Jefferson County in about 1845. He followed farming in Hamblen County for a number of years, and then removed to Cocke County. He moved from one place to another until 1884, and then took up his home with his son, our subject. The mother-was born at Spring Vale, Jefferson Co., Tenn., and was the daughter of Robert McFarland, who was born on the same farm as his daughter (and was the son of Robert McFarland) who was a native of Scotland, and one of the first settlers of Jefferson County, and was the first sheriff of that county. She was a sister to Robert McFarland, who served as supreme judge of Tennessee. She died April 17, 1850. She was a member of the Presbyterian Church. Our subject was reared on the farm until his seventeenth year, and attended school in the public schools of the neighborhood and at Greeneville, where he secured a practical education. At the age of seventeen years he began railroading, beginning as a brakeman and working his way to fireman, then engineer and conductor, and was the first conductor on the Morristown road (western North Carolina branch of the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railway-Buncombe). He quit railroading in April, 1873, and engaged in merchandising the following year at Warrensburg, Greene County, where he remained for two and a half years, and then engaged in farming at his present farm, and has continued up to the present, making a success of the same. He is a public-spirited man, and always encourages worthy public enterprises, and takes an interest in the schools and churches. He is energetic and enterprising, and is universally esteemed and respected by his neighbors. He was married, June 23, 1874, to Ellen Bible, who was born April 9, 1856, and was the daughter of David and Diana (Foubion) Bible, both of whom are natives of Tennessee. To this union two children were born, both of whom are living. The wife died August 17, 1879, and December 28, 1882, he was united to Jennie Crosby, who was born in Lick Creek, near Midway, Greene Co., Tenn., October 3, 1852, and is the daughter of Lemuel Crosby, one of the leading citizens of the Fourth District of Greene County. She is a member of the Baptist Church.
