The three masted, wooden schooner John V. Jones was built in 1875 at Manitowoc, Wisconsin by the shipbuilders Rand & Burger for Thomas Jones the manager/owner. The Jones was engaged in the lumber business hauling lumber from northern Wisconsin and Michigan to as far south as Chicago.

October 1877: Collided with the propeller Wissahickon near Chicago.

1887: Received new sails.

1889: Repaired.

1898: Repaired; timbers fore & aft, new ceilings.

1903: Recaulked the deck; center board trunk repaired.

Last Document Of Enrollment Surrendered: Milwaukee: 5/31/1905: "Vessel Lost".
On October 20, 1905, about midlake Lake Michigan, the schooner John V. Jones, bound from Traverse Bay to Milwaukee with a cargo of hardwood lumber, was thrown on its beam end when struck by a storm. The vessel became waterlogged and sank. The crew of six took refuge in the rigging for twenty hours, two fell into the water. The carferry Pere Marquette No. 18 sighted the wreckage and saved the four survivors using small boats to make the rescue and pick up the two dead and returned to Milwaukee.

The wreck was towed back to Milwaukee by the revenue cutter Tuscarora to the Milwaukee Dry Dock Company. Considering that the day of sail was past, it was determined that the vessel was not worth repairing and the John V. Jones was scuttled at Jones Island, Milwaukee on or about October 26, 1905