Dr. Thomas Harold Jones was bornin Plumerville, Arkansas, May 5, 1898, the son of Dr. William Allen Jones and Sara (“Sallie”) Frances Steele Jones. His mother was the daughter of the late Dr. Marion DeKalb Steele, of Elm Springs, AR.
Receiving his early education in the Plumerville schools, he attended Henderson-Brown College (now Henderson State University), where he met his wife, the former Mary Ethel Jean, of Atlanta. They were married September 17, 1920.
He attended Louisville Medical School, in Louisville, Kentucky. While there, World War I was in progress, and he joined the Medical Reserves. He graduated in 1921, the second youngest doctor in his class. He interned at Youngtown, Ohio, and worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad as a physician in Steubenville, Ohio, and later in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
In 1924, he moved to Magnolia, Arkansas to set up a private practice. Later, he moved his practice to a nearby, smaller town, Waldo, where he built a clinic onto his home. The “Great Depression” soon hit the country, and, like many other doctors, he accepted payment from his patients in the form of chickens, hogs, horses, etc. One year he received forty gallons of sorghum molasses in lieu of money. He sold it for 50 cents a gallon, and thought he was rich!
He delivered babies for $75.00, and often the woman’s family would remain at the clinic during her stay, which was usually about four days. The medical bills, medicine, board and meals for the family were all included in his fees. “I delivered a lot of babies,” he said.
Never satisfied to be just a “country doctor”, he did his best to keep up on all that was new in medicine. He took many courses and attended seminars in such fields as surgery, X-ray technology and cardiology in such places as Chicago, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, and New York City.
Dr. Jones was active in many medical organizations. In 1975 he was one of the honorees at the Arkansas Medical Society’s convention for having practiced medicine in Arkansas 50 years or more. The highlight of the convention was a parade of the 50-yr member club in antique automobiles down the main street of Hot Springs.
In August of 1980, Dr. Jones retired from medical practice after over 58 years of service, most of that in Columbia County, Arkansas. He was honored with a retirement party. He and Mrs. Jones were also honored in September of that year for their 60 years of marriage. He died June 19, 1981.
Mrs. Jones, still living in early 1995, celebrated her 98th birthday in November, 1994.
They had three daughters, one, Mrs. Jean Addison, of whom is living in Seattle, Washington. She has two sons who are doctors in Seattle: Dr. John Addison and Dr. T. Brice Addison. Mrs. Addison also has a daughter, Elizabeth Addison, who has a master’s degree in nursing, and another daughter who is a Physical Therapist. This is the 6th generation of the Jones family in the medical profession.
Submitted by Loleta Jones Farish, niece of Dr. T. Harold Jones.
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