Joel Desaker Jones was born January 5, 1861, at Sweet Water (Exmore) and died June 28, 1946, at Dixons Mills. By profession, he was a surveyor, but his passion was genealogy. Locally educated, Joel Desaker Jones began surveying at age ten. He was appointed Marengo County Surveyor, a position he held for fifty years. During his life, he surveyed many miles of highway and railroad routes and town plats in Alabama. Locally, Joel Desaker Jones is better known for his weekly newspaper article called “Old Times” that was published in The Democrat-Reporter in Linden, AL. The Old Times articles were about the lives and histories of the people of Marengo County in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Joel’s granddaughter, Shirley Jones McCreedy, collected about 1000 of his articles and had them bound in three volumes. A copy is at the Alabama State Archives in Montgomery.
The small building that’s shown served as the office for Joel Desaker Jones. It is located on the east side of Highway 43 in Dixons Mills, AL (GPS coordinates 32.065202, -87.786634).
Sources: 1) Historical Marker on the Joel Desaker Jones Office Building ; 2) The Democrat-Reporter