DR. WILLIAM A. JONES
1859

Dr. William A. Jones died at the Northwestern Hospital January 15, 1931, at the age of seventy-one years, of which forty-eight were spent in Minneapolis.  He was a very active man and in the course of his long life had an important part in many activities.  In addition to his private practice, he was for many years a teacher in the School of Medicine of the University: He was on the staff of various hospitals, including a heavy service at the Minneapolis City Hospital for years; he was for thirty years editor of the JOURNAL-LANCET and an active member of the State Board of Health for twelve years.  In addition to these, he had time to cultivate an extensive acquaintance among medical men, to give many public addresses and to rite many articles.  If, as Osler put it, the principal centers of a medical life in a city are: The medical school, the hospital,
the medical library, the medical society and the medical journal, then, Dr. Jones was certainly prominent in every field of medical activity. 

His parents were of Scotch and Welsh ancestry.  Both his paternal and maternal grandfather served in the Revolutionary War.  His father cane to St. Peter in 1854
and his mother in 1858 and both suffered the privations of pioneer life and the
horrors of the Indian outbreak of 1862.  Dr. Jones was born in 1859.

He attended grade school and high school in St. Peter and when only fourteen years old entered his father drugstore as a clerk and there gained a thorough and practical knowledge of drugs.  He later studied medicine at the University of the City of New York and was graduated in 1881 and directly afterward became assistant physician at the State Hospital for the Insane at St. Peter.  In 1883, he came to Minneapolis and practiced genera1 medicine until 1886 when, after his marriage to Anne R. Johnson, of Denver, he went to Europe and took special work in nervous and mental disease at Berlin and Vienna. On his return to Minneapolis, be began special practice and soon attained a prominent position in the field of nervous and mental diseases, which he retained to his death.  In his lifetime, he held many prominent positions, both local and national.

At different periods, he served on the staff of the Northwestern, the Minneapolis City, the Asbury, the St. Mary the Swedish and the Norwegian Hospitals.  In 1913, he founded the South Side Sanitarium and maintained it as a private hospital almost to the time of his death.

He was a member of the Hennepin County and the Minnesota State Medical Societies and of the Minnesota Academy of Medicine and was president of all three.  He was also a member of the American Psychiatric Association, and of the American Neurological Society and was a charter member of the Central Neuropsyhiatric Association and of the Minnesota Neurological Society and president of the latter. He was an active member of the American Medical Association, was Chief of the Section of Nervous and Mental Diseases in 1914, and in 1928 served as vice-president of the Association. 

By the very nature of his calling, a physician is more or less a public character.  Throughout his professional life, Dr. Jones was deeply interested in the preservation of health and the prevention of disease.  On January 1, 1906, he was appointed a member of the State Board of Health and served as such to December 31, 1918, being president from January 10, 1911, to December 31, 1918.  During his term of service in the course of some tempestuous activities, he was a loyal supporter of Dr. Bracken as secretary, and particularly so during certain difficulties which arose in the legislative session of 1917 and which resulted in failure to reappoint Dr. Jones.  The character of his work on the board is indicated by the statement of one of its officials that he was a masterful chairman and with his sense of humor, his absolutely frank attitude toward all questions and his
prompt action, he was the most accomplished and the most efficient member the board ever had.

 

In 1801, he was appointed by Governor Nelson a member of the Board of Trustees of the State Hospitals for the Insane and held this position till 1894.

 

He was editor of the Northwestern Lancet and of the Journal-Lancet from 1901 to 1931 and no one who knew, him could doubt his deep interest in and genuine affection for this publication.  The Journal catered to the special medical activities and interests of a limited geographic area and Dr. Jones’ editorials were its most striking feature. Many medical men have been heard to say that they subscribed to the Journal for W.A editorials.  To most men, the preparation of a series of editorials every two weeks would be a real task.  To Dr. Jones, it was a labor of love, quickly performed. Without a note at his command, the editorial was dictated as the ideas flowed from his mind and if it had any further corrections, they were made at the hands of the stenographer or the publisher.  That he had the confidence of the medical profession in his undertaking is shown by the following list of contributors to the first number: Drs. Frank Allport, James N. Dunn, James E. Moore, H.L. Staples, R.O. Beaz and A.T. Mann.

As a clinical teacher of neurology and psychiatry, he was always a favorite among the students and out of a very ordinary patient he could always make an interesting case. Though never a profound clinical investigator, he could quickly see the outstanding clinical features of his case and his diagnosis, whether in clinic or in private practice, though often of the snapshot type, was generally correct.  In 1889 he was made instructor of Nervous and Mental Diseases at the Medical School of the University, became professor in 1900 and served as such to his retirement in 1919. During the Great War he again took up the duties, of a teacher in the Medical School in the absence of the regular staff, and also served as a member of a medical advisory board during the war.

Dr. Jones had a large collection of books, both medical and general, and in the later years of his life in particular, when he was often confined to his room for short periods, the writer always found him with stacks of books about his bed.  Throughout his life, reading was his greatest hobby, his medical library was left to the Hennepin County Medical Society to which he had contributed liberally throughout his life.

 

 As a practitioner in functional nervous and mental disease, Dr. Jones more than ordinarily successful.  Possessed of a dominating personality, he impressed his ideas on patients to a very unusual degree and with his characteristic optimism and abounding vitality he inspired them with new courage and hope.  Though brusque at times and very blunt, he was always forceful in his relations with patients who accepted his advice and followed his directions as best they could.

Always very fond of music, for many years he had in his own home a pipe organ which he played with much pleasure and he used to tell how he contributed to his scant income in the early period of his profession, through his musical ability.

All his life, he was a hard worker and he had few vacation the last in 1921 and such as he had were purely urban.  He cared nothing for fishing, hunting or motoring, and his ideal vacation consisted in a trip to New York, where he spent his days on the top story of a hotel, reading and his evenings at the theatre.  He had a high intelligence and a ready wit and repartee and was always popular at medical meetings where he often presided easily and ably.  To the very last, he carried with him his unquenchable courage and cheerfulness and his refusal to accept the role of an invalid.

He is survived by his wife and a sister, Mrs. J.W. Bell.