He was a plucky little riverboat captain come over to the American wilderness from his homeland of Wales. He was born the sixth of eight children on Aug. 4, 1810 — exactly 200 years ago today. His father was a miner in Halkyn, North Wales, but also a "blaenor" (elder or deacon) in the Methodist church. The land of Dan Jones' birth was one of poetry and music, qualities of the soul which sustained men against the bleak darkness of the mines and the harshness of their lives.
But at 16, Dan exchanged the rolling Welsh hills for the rolling hills of the sea and, as a mariner, traveled much of the world. Yet, it was to his home he returned to choose someone to marry — Jane Melling, who was 18 years old to his 26.
What caused him to pick up roots and immigrate to America? Perhaps some of the wanderlust still ran in his veins. 1841 found the young couple in St. Louis, Mo., plying a small, modest vessel, the Ripple, along the Mississippi. When she struck a rock and sank near Galena, Ill., Jones immediately began constructing another steamer. This one he named the Maid of Iowa, and she took her place on the river in October of 1842.
Surely the friendly, rather perceptive little Welshman had no idea that there was a destiny hovering over him — an eternal purpose to the choices which had brought him hither in the first place. He recognized the sincerity and goodness of the Mormon men and women who traveled upriver on his boat to reach the city of the Saints. He heard of the man Joseph Smith who called himself a prophet — and he read the accusations printed by Thomas Sharp in the Warsaw Signal against this man.
Then he thought it all over for himself: "Through a careful investigation of the accusations, I perceived clearly that it was impossible for them to be true, either because in their zeal they overstated the case, or because they contradicted themselves in some way."
Quite by accident, a letter written by Emma Smith, while visiting Joseph in prison in Missouri, fell into his hands. "I shall never forget the feelings which that segment of a letter caused me to have." He knew he had to learn more but, as he did, a reluctance to lose his status and livelihood on the river tempted his faith. Yet, on Jan. 19, 1843, Dan Jones entered the icy waters of the Mississippi and was baptized.
On April 12, 1843, Joseph, coming aboard to greet a group of Saints who had endured a particularly rough passage, came face to face for the first time with the captain, laid his hand upon his head, and said with grateful enthusiasm, "Bless this little man."
Dan Jones began to study Joseph Smith, trying to figure him out. Four years later he wrote what his impressions had been: "His fair countenance and his cheerful, guileless face rather convinced me that he was not the cunning and deceitful man I had heard about."
Thus began an affectionate friendship between the two, and Joseph even became a partner with the river captain, purchasing half interest in the "Little Maid," as Joseph affectionately called the steamer. The trusty steamship carried many converts from New Orleans to Nauvoo, despite mob efforts to detain or harm them: at one time the boat was actually set afire. Joseph and Hyrum enjoyed preaching from her decks, and among the precious cargo she carried were materials for the Nauvoo Temple.
Dan Jones spent the night of June 26-27, 1844, with Joseph and the other prisoners in Carthage Jail. The brethren listened while Hyrum read from the Book of Mormon, and while the Prophet bore a powerful testimony of the divinity of the book to the guards who were watching them.
As they lay side by side in the close, humid darkness of the Illinois night, Joseph whispered to Dan Jones, "Are you afraid to die?"
"In such a cause I do not think that death would have many terrors," came the immediate response.
These words must have touched Joseph's heart. But he replied, "You will yet see Wales and fulfill the mission appointed you before you die."
Sent on an errand for the Prophet the following morning, Jones reported to the governor the threats made against Joseph Smith, but he only sneered and refused to let him re-enter the jail. The prophecy was to be immediately proved, for three times during the next 36 hours Jones narrowly escaped death.
And the rest of the story is the rest of Daniel Jones' life! Within months of the Martyrdom he returned and served a four-year mission to Wales, his wife being able to accompany him. But his dedicated work and miraculous successes must be recounted at another time. He brought groups of Welsh Saints back from his missions with him, served as mayor of Manti, returned to Wales in 1852, published splendid works in his native tongue, and kept audiences spellbound both in Welsh and English literally for hours on end.
His life was never easy (for instance, only two of the 10 children his wife, Jane, gave birth to survived to maturity), but it was abundant with the flavor of dedication to the kingdom and love of the truth.
When he was plying his little vessel the Timely Gull across the waters of the Great Salt Lake, I would suppose that his thoughts often turned to the young prophet who was responsible for bringing him to this place. "God bless you, brother," Joseph had said when they first shook hands. The life about which Joseph Smith had prophesied from a prison cell, Jones freely gave back in service. He died January 1862, in Provo, Utah, not yet 52 years old — but from June 27, 1844, he had lived every day of that life richly and to great purpose — because he knew who he was — and he knew that the God of heaven most surely wanted him here.