Wylie B. Jones, a resident of Frost, Navarro county, was born in Smith county Mississippi, December 13, 1852, a son of Britton and Gatsey (Stringer) Jones. The father was born in England, and but little of the family history is known. The maternal grandfather, Simon Stringer, was a native of Georgia, and a prominent farmer and slave owner. Mr. and Mrs. Jones were the parents of four children, of whom our subject is the youngest child. He has one brother living in this county, a farmer by occupation.

Wylie B. Jones was reared to farm life, and when nine years of age his father died and he was raised by his widowed mother. He came to Navarro county, Texas, in 1874, carried on farming and blacksmithing until 1876, when he followed the later occupation at Blooming Grove until 1880, and was then engaged in ginning with a Mr. Trulove; he then moved to Cross Roads, a village four miles distant. In partnership with Dr. Sewall, Mr. Jones bought a gin and fifty acres of land, but after two years the doctor sold his interest to Mr. Price, and after another two years our subject bough the entire business. He continued this occupation until 1887, also selling town lots; and it was during this time that the railroad was built from Corsicana to Hillsboro. In 1878, the town of Frost was started and Mr. Jones moved his gin to that village, where he was among the first settlers. In 1887 he bought 150 acres of land from the Jones ranch, where he erected a gin, which he shortly afterward sold, but retained and still owns the land. He now owns one of the finest gins at Frost, containing all modern improvements, which he runs in connection with a mill. In 1890 he completed a system of water-works for supplying the town with water from an adjoining lake, the power for the works being furnished by his engine at the mill and gin. The lake covers about fifty acres of land, is inexhaustible, pure and fine.The town of Frost, about five years old, is situated in the northwest corner of Navarro county, and contains about 350 inhabitants. It has a fine graded school, thirteen business houses of various kinds, a Methodist and Baptist Church, a good market for cotton and other country produce, and is surrounded by a beautiful country of black soil.

He has about seventy-five acres of his farm under a fine state of cultivation. He has erected another gin, and with his present plant he gins about 2,500 bales. He has purchased 135 acres of timber land on the Trinity river, which supplies his wood, fuel and timber for other purposes, and this he transports to Frost by railroad. He has also purchased 134 acres of bottom land on the Trinity, and after utilizing the timber will put the land under cultivation, of which he now has about fifteen acres. He is making additional improvements to his gin, which will give it a capacity of about seventy bales per day.

Mr. Jones is a natural mechanic, and has built a steam yacht for boating on the lake, for the accommodation of picnic and pleasure parties, - all his own construction. He was married in Mississippi, August 29, 1871, to Mrs. Bennett, a daughter of Abner Shepherd, a native of Georgia, who came to Navarro county, Texas, in 1874, where he died in 1888. Mr. Jones is a member of the Masonic order, the Knights of Honor, is a Democrat in his political views, and both he and his wife are members of the Baptist Church.

Notes:

• Memorial and Biographical History of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon Counties Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1893