reformer, Unitarian clergyman, author, b. Cardiganshire, South Wales. He migrated with his parents to the U.S. and to Wisconsin in 1844, settling in Ixonia, Jefferson County. During the Civil War he served in the 6th Battery, Wisconsin Volunteer Artillery (1862-1865), and from 1865 to 1866 taught school in Wisconsin. He graduated from Meadville (Pa.) Theological School (1870), was ordained the same year, and was pastor at Winnetka, Ill. (1870-1871). In 1871 he became pastor of the Unitarian church in Janesville, and served in this capacity until 1880. From 1875 to 1884 he was secretary of the Western Unitarian Conference. From 1885 until his death he was pastor of All Souls Church in Chicago, and was editor of Unity magazine (1880-1918), a religious and reform weekly. He was co-author of The Faith That Makes Faithful (1886) and author of A Search for an Infidel (1901). To promote his ideal of universal religion, Jones founded the Tower Hill (Wis.) summer school (1889) near Spring Green. He was a member of the Ford Peace Ship Mission (1915-1916). A militant pacifist and social reformer, in his religious views Jones believed in ethical rather than theological unanimity; he was also one of the most colorful figures in western religious and social reform. Dict. Amer. Biog.; U.S. Biog. Dict. ... Wis. {Chicago, 1877); Madison Wis. State Journal, Sept. 13, 1918; J. L. Jones Papers.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the Jenkin Lloyd Jones Diaries for details. See also the Jenkin Lloyd Jones Photographs.  See also the Jenkin Lloyd Jones Reminiscences.

View a related article at Wisconsin Magazine of History Archives.

View newspaper clippings at Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]