John R. Jones, Wilkes County, 1936

“Jones Is the Name” by Lula M. Weir in the March, 1936, issue of Carolina Co-Operator

Jones is the name, John R. Jones, to be exact, and he owns and operates one of the finest dairies in Northwest North Carolina.

Almost every city, town, and hamlet has its John Jones. But only Wilkes County has a John R. Jones.

So familiarly known is he, all over the country, that a letter simple addressed to “John R.” would probably arrive at its destination without delay. John R. is the only Republican solicitor in the State of North Carolina. He is serving his third term as solicitor in the 17^th judicial district, composed of the counties of Wilkes, Yadkin, Davie, Alexander, Avery, and Mitchell. He was unopposed in his candidacy in the last campaign and was supported by friends of both parties.

But it is not John R. Jones the prosecuting attorney whom we are attempting to introduce to the Co-operator family—the man who has brought more notorious criminals to justice and rounded up more murders, bandits, and major offenders of the law than any solicitor in the State, perhaps—but it is John R. Jones, dairy farmer and proprietor of the famous “Meadow Brook Dairy,” one of the outstanding Grade “A” dairies in Northwest North Carolina.

John R., when outside of the atmosphere of the courtroom, has his hobbies. Chief among them are his fondness for country life and pure-bred live stock. Perhaps this is due to the fact that he is a son of the soil, for he was born in the sticks of Stokes County, in the shadow of Old Pilot Mountain, the son of an obscure farmer.

Purchased a Farm

To satisfy his pet hobby, John R. deserted his town home in North Wilkesboro several years ago, purchased a 200-acre tract six miles out in the country on State Highway No. 18, built a beautiful eight-room residence of logs and stone, and equipped it with every modern convenience of the city home, such as electricity, hardwood floors, running water, etc. No Sovereign ever enjoyed his Royal Palace more than does John R. his “log cabin” as he insists upon calling it.

The surroundings of the home, the beautiful natural grove where many species of native mountain shrubs and trees, including dogwood, holly, maple, hemlock, pine, rhododendron, and azalea, make an ideal setting for the rustic structure.

From the home is afforded a marvelous view of the Blue Ridge Peaks of Wilkes and Alleghany. The family living room with its broad floor space, high ceilings, huge fireplace, and chimney of jagged stone, is most attractive and a spot where solid comfort is pictured. The sun-room and other room sof the home have the attractive, native stone fireplaces for the solicitor is partial to big open fireplaces where he can bask in the warmth and cheer of crackling log fires, chew his tobacco at will, and spit with convenience.

Meadow Brook Dairy Farm with its 200 acres of rolling land, 100 in a high state of cultivation, and with a one mile frontage on the highway, is located in a picturesque spot of the Wilkes County foothills, within easy view of Little Grandfather and Grandmother, Chestnut Mountain, Flat Top, and other beautiful peaks of the western hills. Solicitor Jones purchased the tract 10 years ago and two years later started a dairy in a small way with half a dozen grade cows. From this small beginning has grown one of the finest dairy farms in Western North Carolina, with a herd of 50 pure-bred Jersey cows, many of which are descendants of Gamboge, Sensational Fern, Oakwood’s De. Fox, Black Fox, and other noted strains.

Fertile Soil

Brought up to a high state of fertility through scientific cultivation, the farm produces such necessary food crops as lespedeza, corn, wheat, the different varieties of clover, blue grass, soy bean, and others for the daily ration of the dairy herd and other live stock.

The farm buildings are modern in every particular, the main dairy barn having been designed by the State Board of Agriculture. Equipped with concrete floors, steel staunchions, individual drinking receptacles for the cows, the barn is designed to house more than 100 tons of feed with a 100p-ton capacity silo. The milk house is equally modern, with washing, rinsing, and sterilizing equipment, modern coolers, fillers, bottlers, and capper. Every sanitary precaution is observed at Meadow Brook Farm where healthy, blood-tested, friendly, contented cows produce no less than six gallons each day. Concrete floors are thoroughly scrubbed each morning; the cows come into the milking barn only after careful grooming; the sacks are sterilized; milking is done with De Laval Blue Ribbon electrically-driven milkers. The milk is never touched by human hand.

After the milk has been run through the cooling system, reduced to a low temperature, and place in cold storage, it is delivered to the customer’s door on ice manufactured in the farm’s own refrigerator plant. Butter, eggs, and dressed poultry likewise are supplied upon order, to scores of city customers who have learned to appreciate the superior flavor of milk-fed fowls. Daily patrons include the leading hotels, cafes, and drugstores of the Wilkesboros. The city schools also are supplied with milk prepared with scientific care, in the interest of the health of the school children.

Self-Made Man

John R. is a striking example of the proverbial self-made man. It has been through pluck and hard work that he has climbed to the rung that he now occupies, and not by luck or “pull.” He worked his way through preparatory school and college by grabbing any job, however rough it might be, to earn his board and tuition.

The family live of the Jones’ is a striking example of the value of cooperation. It is to the constant cooperation, companionship, and sympathy of his wife, Mrs. Rosa McNeill Jones, who has stood by him through storm as well as sunshine, that John R. ascribes major credit for the success he has attained. Mrs. Jones has worked side by side with her husband, as his private secretary, in the office and in the home all of their married life. She draws his bills for the courts, she attends to the buying of supplies for the dairy, posts the books, supervises the paying and collecting of bills and attends to a thousand and one things that loom during the week. Having no children of their own, they have reared and educated several orphans and fitted them to make their way in the world. Hospitality permeates the atmosphere of the “Log Cabin” out at Meadow Brook Farm and the latchstring always hang outside the door.