Early as 1811, folks began the settlement to a new territory, called the Washington Territory. Using the Colombia River they expanded their activities which at first clustered with Oregon and Louisiana Territories.
An interesting set of information can be found in the Census of 1880 for this territory. [Not sure if there are official records prior to this census?] Enough folks must have joined together, for some nine years later they became a State of the Union. At any rate, this census contains a fair number of families with the surname JONES. It listed each family member by name, their age, their place of birth, and the location of their parents place of birth. Using those identified as being born in the Washington Territory, I tired to figure out who might be the earliest JONES family. For example, there was in Wahkiakum Co., a John Jones listed as "boarder, fisherman". His age was given at 26, and it was documented that he was born Washington Territory. This would place [at least his mother] present 1854. This was the oldest JONES born in the Territory listed in the 1880 census. A variety of occupations including "works in mill", "laborer", "farmer", "tinsmith", "housekeeper", "merchant", "employee", "stock herder", and "coal miner". There were those born in Wales, England, Ireland, Finland, British Colombia, and Hamberg. Multiple states of the Union are listed as place of birth [for both father and mother]. These states included OH, IA, NY, IN, MO, TN, VA, PA, MA, OR, IL, WI, VT and of course KY. What a group of folks it is.
The information is taken from Jones Journeys, Vol. 16, 1988 - 1989, pp. 1474-1476. It is titled "Washington Territory, Census of 1880".
