Ilion High School - Class of 1911

Herkimer Evening Telegram - October 8, 1960

THE CLASS OF 1911

Dr. and Mrs. Louis P Jones 41-Year Medical Practice Ended

Article 2

Dr. and Mrs. Louis P Jones 41-Year Medical Practice Ended

41-Year Medical Practice Ended
By MARY EDWARDS

Ilion - After 41 years of practice and delivery of some 1,000 babies, one of Ilion's prominent physicians, Dr. Louis Parry Jones, has retired.

Dr. and Mrs. Jones plan to leave their West St. home where they have lived for the past 39 years, and move to Indian Lake Estates in Central Florida on Oct. 19.

They have sold their property adjacent to Annunciation School to the Church of Annunciation parish which will be used temporarily as a convent for the Sisters.

Dr. Jones, regarded by many as Ilion's "baby doctor" is sorry to leave is many friends and social life here, but is looking forward to making a new home in Florida where they have purchased a ranch style house.

The native Utican, a son of the late Robert and Margaret Parry Jones, moved here with his family when a young boy and graduated in 1911 from Ilion High School where he was a member of the football team.

His father operated a five and ten cent store on the site of the present Ilion Branch of Marine Midland Trust Co., near the corner of Otsego and E. Main St..

After graduating in 1916 from New York Medical College and interning one year at Hahnemann Hospital, New York, he returned here to practice medicine for several months, then enlisted in the Army Medical Corps as a first lieutenant.

The doctor served for two years in France and became commanding officer of the first gas evacuation hospital in Rambluzin, France.

While in the service he married the former Eliza Cady of Middlebury, Vt..

He came back to Ilion with his wife in 1919 and opened an office for practice on Morgan St., next to the Masonic Temple. He recalls there were eleven doctors in Ilion when the population was 7,000. Now there are only five doctors to care for over 10,000 people.

"There was plenty of competition in those days and when a call came the doctor jumped," he said.

In keeping abreast with the ever changing medical methods, Dr. Jones took an advance course in general surgery at New York Post Graduate Medical College in 1931.

It was the second time in his nearly half-century of practice that he left Ilion for any length of time. In 1927, he and his wife visited his relatives in Wales and toured several European countries for three months.

Several times president of the Ilion Hospital medical staff. Dr. Jones recalls when the hospital accommodated only 20 to 25 patients and had no maternity ward such as today. Babies were delivered at home then, he said.

He also remembers using a horse and buggy to make calls, rented from a local livery. For a good many years rural people would meet the doctor at the village limits in a horse and sleigh. "And many times it was the manure wagon at that," he added.

One of this hobbies until recent years, besides fishing and golfing, was sailing his yacht, which he sold when the couple's three children had grown and lost interest in boating. He is an avid photographer and plans to devote one room in his new home just for the hobby.

There is no wonder he had no time for other hobbies. He was plant physicians for Remington Rand Co. for 40 years and village registrar of vital statistics for about 15 years. He also served as school doctor for one year.

He is a member of the Herkimer County Medical Society, Utica Academy of Medicine, Conversation Club, the Community Club, all of which he is a past president.

He is also a director and vice president of Ilion Savings and Loan, a member of the American Legion, American Medical Association, the local Masons, and First Presbyterian Church.

Mrs. Jones has been active in the American Legion Auxiliary, Mohawk Valley Chapter, DAR; the Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, Daughters of 1812, the Travelers Club and the First Methodist Church.

The couple has three children, Louis Parry Jones, Jr., of Madison, Conn.; Willis, serving in the Air Corps in Amarillo, Tex.; and Mrs. Eiluned Green of Vallejo, Cal., an occupational therapist. They also have four grandchildren.