The consensus of biographies on Melvin Jones appears to confirm that he was born in 1879 at Fort Thomas, in what was then known as the Arizona Territory. His father, John Calvin Jones, was said to be a captain in the U.S. Army commanding a troop of scouts. Numerous skirmishes with Indians were a constant threat, and life on the frontier was a harrowing experience for the military family. According to Melvin’s Timeline on the website of LIONS UNIVERSITY, he lived at Fort Thomas until he was seven years of age.
While Lions Clubs International (LCI) provides precious little information about Melvin Jones’ early years, other sources reveal a rather unsettled childhood. As per ‘Ancestry.com’ and ‘Geni.com’, John Calvin Jones actually had ELEVEN children by two marriages. Melvin was one of eight by the first marriage, and three more followed with wife # 2. John Calvin’s second wife, Cicily Josephine Tanner, was 29 years younger than her husband. At some point, she ultimately became Melvin’s step-mother and birth records show a bizarre comparison : Melvin and Cecily both were born in 1879 and both died in 1961. And strange at it may seem, a daughter by the second marriage, Annette Naomi Jones (1903-2000), died 150 years after her father was born.
In 1886, according to the Lions U. Timeline, Melvin moved to a farm just North of Fort Thomas. Then in 1888, at the age of nine, he went to study in St. Louis, with his mother and other brothers. His father went to Colorado. Then he studied at the Union Business College. It was during this period of time that a major conflict develops over events recorded on the L.U. Timeline.
The SAN DIEGO UNION ran a short feature story in their January 22, 1932 edition that revealed a visit to that city by Melvin Jones. An earlier edition alerted Mrs. Isabella Reed, 85, and “dangerously” ill from pneumonia, that Melvin would be arriving to visit a couple of Lions Clubs. She saw his photo in the paper and referred to him as “her boy”. The newspaper identified the man as Melvin Jones and the founder of the Lions Clubs. Mrs. Reed made it a point to make contact with him upon his arrival. The ‘Union’ reported:
And Mrs. Reed has some justification in her claim that Melvin is ‘her boy’, because she took him when he was 12 years old and treated him as her own for more than 10 years. The Reed family lived at Quincy, Ill. That was almost half a century ago. But all of these years Grandma Reed has held for Melvin a love that was almost parental. It was hard to tell which one was the happier over the meeting when Melvin Jones called at the Reed home.
The aged woman’s eyes glistened with tears as ‘her boy’, now a nationally known character, approached her bedside. ‘You are still my boy,’ said Mrs. Reed. ‘That is true,’ replied Mr. Jones, ‘and I will never cease to love you for the wonderful mother you were to me when I needed a mother’s care and love.’
Then the two talked over old times when Melvin worked on a farm and later got a “good job” under the son when he was in charge of a freight house. The pay then was $12 a month. “Happy days ?”, asked to Melvin. “I say they were. And the real bright spot in my visit to San Diego was my visit for a half hour with Mrs. Reed.”
The SAN DIEGO UNION story filled in a number of gaps in Melvin’s early years, but also left a number of questions unanswered. Under what circumstances did Mrs. Reed take charge of Melvin Jones until he was 22 years old ? What became of his real parents and siblings ? Could his family not adequately care for so many children and arrangements were made with other families ? Did Melvin have a health problem that kept him from traveling with his family ?
Nevertheless, the above story does not coincide with a number of events of the Lions University Timeline. One would have to question how a boy of nine years would be studying at the Union Business College in St. Louis. If in fact Melvin was being cared for by Mrs. Reed from 1891 to 1901 or 1902 in Quincy, Illinois, and working menial jobs, the Timeline has Melvin earning his law degree from Chaddock College in Quincy in 1899. The Internet did make it easy to check the enrollment of the law class of 1899 at Chaddock College and the name of ‘Melvin Jones’ was conspicuously absent. A check of the enrollments of 1888 and 1900 produced the same results.
Melvin Jones, through no fault of his own, lived an early life of events of which he had little to no control. It’s unfortunate , however, that LCI and Lions University have seen fit to alter the facts of his life to create an image more appealing to represent the founding of which he is credited.