Wayne County Press
January 7, 1943
p1, c6

John R. Jones, aged Mt. Erie township farmer, died early Monday morning in the Jackson hospital at Olney after having shot himself in the head  at his farm home, southwest of Mt. Erie, earlier that morning.

How the tragedy happened is not known.  Relatives say that Mr. Jones had been out the afternoon before shooting with his twenty-two rifle and that when he came in that evening he laid the gun on a chair near his bed.  They say it is their belief that during the night he got up, noticed the gun laying there, decided to put it away and in handling it  is [sic] accidentally discharged, the bullet striking him from an angle just above the temple.

Mr. Jones' daughter, Mrs. Ray Shelton, with whom he makes his home, says she did not hear the report of the rifle, but a short while later she got up, as had been her practice, and went to her father's room, where she found him.  A doctor from Olney was called, dressed the wound and then the aged man was taken to the hospital at Olney where he died a short while later.

Mr. Jones was born in Buffalo, New York on January 30th, 1855 and would have been 88 years old January 30th.  He is also the father of J. L. Jones, supervisor of Jasper township.

The remains were brought to the Haefele-Dixon funeral home here and services were held at the chapel there at two p.m. Wednesday (today) by Rev. Fred Lappin and burial followed in Maple Hill cemetery.

An inquest was held in Olney Monday, but the Olney paper has not yet carried a report of the verdict.