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Kiler K. Jones

15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
The Scandinavian Regiment

Database Record Change Request

Name at Enlist

Kiler K. Jones

Birth Name

Kiler K. Jones

Other Names

Kiler Kent Jones

Lived

1825 – 1886

Birth Place

New York

Birth Country

USA

Resident of Muster-In

IL

Company at Enlistment

A

Rank at Enlistment

Lt. Colonel

Muster Date

21 Dec 1861

Death Location

Illinois

Burial Location

Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago, Cook County, IL

Mother

Anna Gregory

Mother Lived

2 Feb 1798- 15 Feb 1854

Father

William Jones

Father Lived

22 Oct 1789- 18 Jan 1868

Spouse

Ambolina Maria Hansen

Spouse Lived

1827-

Married On

30 Oct 1851

Marriage Location

Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, WI

Kiler K. Jones was born in 1825 in NY. His parents were William Jones and Anna Gregory. His father, William, was one of the earliest settlers to Chicago (the rest of the family moved out later). William also was one of the first Justices of the Peace for Chicago as well as a big donor, first member of the Board of Trustees, and President of the Executive Committee for the University of Chicago when it was founded.

In 1843, Kiler K. Jones was working at the periodical depot in Chicago. In the late 1840s/early 1850s, he moved to Milwaukee, WI. There, he married Ambolina Maria Hansen on October 30, 1851. By 1860, they were living in Ellington, Adams County, IL. He was working as a farmer and editor. Together, Kiler and Ambolina had at least seven children, including: William (1853), Louis (1857), Annie L. (1860), Hiram (1862), Harold (1865), Emily (1868), and Ambolina (1870).

Jones enrolled for three years on September 26, 1861 at Quincy, Adams County, IL.The army listed him as aged 37. He was a Republican politician and a prominent businessman who recruited among Scandinavians in Chicago and in the Manitowoc area in WI. He probably did this in partnership with Svend Samuelson and Andrew Thorkildsen. He was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel (Kolonel) of the WI 15th on December 21, 1861. He recruited Company A in Chicago. His commission was revoked on March 1, 1862. Jones mustered out of service on March 2, 1862 per the order of the War Department, but General Halleck would not recognize the muster out until March 5, 1862.

After the war, he returned to Ellington, IL where he worked as a real estate dealer. In 1880, the family was still living in Ellington. Jones died in 1886 and is buried in Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago, Cook, IL. His parents are also buried there.

 

Sources: Series 1200: Records of Civil War Regiments, 1861-1900, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, boxes 76-2, 78-1; Regimental muster and descriptive rolls, 1861-1865, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, vol.20, p.2; Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillige [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers], Ole A. Buslett (Decorah, Iowa, 1894), p.317; Lonn, p.136; The Military History of Wisconsin in the War for the Union, Edwin B. Quiner, 1866, Clarke & Co., Chicago, p.91, 614; Lars Gjertveit, Bodo, Norway; Payroll muster rolls of WI 15th Co E, saved by Captain T. A. Rossing; Blaine Hedberg, NAGC&NL, “Norwegians fighting for Freedom in America: Why Scandinavians had their own Regiment in the Civil War of 1861 – 65”, Ådne Løvstad; 1860 Census, Roll: M653_155, Page: 354, Image: 10, Family History Library Film: 803155; 1870 Census, Roll: M593_186, Page:134A, Image: 276, Family History Library Film: 545685; 1880 Census, Roll: 174, Family History Film: 1254174, Page: 118B, Enumeration District: 007, Image: 0239; findagrave.com; Wisconsin Marriage Index, Batch #I00724-6, GS Film # 1292026; Biographical Sketches of the Leading Men of Chicago, J. Carbuff (Chicago: 1868), p.60-62 .