Wilson W. Jones

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Wilson W. Jones was an early California Gold Rush settler who helped shape Los Angeles. He worked as an assistant to Benjamin D. Wilson (Don Benito), the first Los Angeles County Clerk, doing the clerk’s duties while Don Benito held the title.

In 1850, Jones was elected to the Los Angeles city council and served until May 1851. He owned part of Rancho San Jose de Buenos Ayres with William T. B. Sanford and sold his share to Don Benito in 1852. Jones served in the California State Assembly for the First District in 1855–56, and around 1861 he was involved with tin mining in Temescal, California.

Jones is connected to the Goldwater family of Arizona. It is said his friendship with a Los Angeles doctor helped Michael Goldwater decide to move to Arizona, where he and Jones began freighting from La Paz to Prescott around 1863. On one trip they were ambushed by Mohave Apaches; the doctor treated Michael and Joe Goldwater after injuries, and Joe carried the bullet from the wound on his watch chain for years.

Jones also lived in Phoenix, where his home at 1008 East Buckeye Road is known as the oldest standing building in the city.