John Welch Jones

John Welch Jones, (1826–1916) was a medical doctor, Civil War cavalry officer, superintendent of the Insane Asylum of Louisiana, and planter. Jones led the reform of the care of mentally ill people in late nineteenth century Louisiana.

John Welch Jones was born in Lancaster County, South Carolina (now Kershaw County) on October 17, 1826 to William Welch Jones and Edith Hilton. He was the fourth born of eight children. Jones' father, William Welch Jones (1799–1871), born in Lancaster County, was the son of Samuel Jones, who fought with General Francis Marion ("The Swamp Fox") in the Revolutionary War. The Jones family has been traced back to a William Jones, an immigrant from Wales, who settled near Roanoke, Virginia but removed to South Carolina.

Jones' mother, Edith Hilton (1800–1871), born in Lancaster County, was the daughter of Samuel Hilton, a member of a prominent South Carolina family, who also served with General Marion.

William Welch Jones moved his family to Opelika, Alabama in 1832. He either remained in Alabama, coming to Louisiana only near the end of his life, or moved his family to Feliciana Parish, Louisiana in 1832 and became a substantial planter. (Sources differ) Whatever the case, William and Edith Hilton Jones resided at Jackson, Louisiana near the end of their lives in 1871.

John Welch Jones enlisted in military service for the Mexican American War (1846–1848).

Jones came to Louisiana in 1848 and enrolled at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, from which he graduated in 1852. Jones entered medical practice at Jackson, Louisiana, which proved to be lucrative. Young Doctor Jones was soon faced with epidemics of yellow fever in 1853, 1855, and 1857.

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