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Nathaniel Vary Jones was born October 13, 1822, in Brighton, New York ,the son of Samuel and Lucinda Kingsley Jones. Jones worked as a ship carpenter under his father until about age seventeen. In 1839 Jones moved to Wisconsin and there joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1843 he moved to Nauvoo, Illinois.

During the summer of 1843, Jones was called to serve as a missionary for the Church in the eastern states (Ohio and New York) and proselyted from 1843 to 1844. In 1845 Jones married Rebecca M. Burton in Nauvoo. After working on the Nauvoo Temple, he moved with the Saints to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he joined the Mormon Battalion on July 16, 1846, and marched to California under the command of Col. Cooke. After his discharge at Fort Leavenworth on August 24, 1847, he met his wife and child in Far West, Missouri. On May 6, 1849, they left Council Bluffs, Iowa, and arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, in August 1849. He served in the Nauvoo Legion as a 1st Lieutenant, served as a Salt Lake City Alderman, was bishop of the Latter-day Saints 15th Ward, and served a second Latter-day Saints mission in Calcutta, India, from 1852 to 1855. In the spring of 1856, Jones was called by Brigham Young to travel to Las Vegas and work in the Church's lead mines. In 1857 he returned to Salt Lake City and served in the militia during the "Echo Canyon War." He served a third mission to England from 1859 to 1861. In the fall of 1861, he was sent to Iron County, Utah Territory, to set up an iron-smelting operation, but he was called back to Salt Lake in 1862 to set up plants nearer Salt Lake City. In February 1863, Jones died of pneumonia. He left four wives and ten children. Source: Biographical sketch of N. V. Jones, by Rebecca B. Jones, Fd 9.