Marcellus E. Jones House

Marcellus E. Jones House. Historic Wheaton. Marcellus Ephraim Jones built this handsome home in 1865. It originally stood at the southwest corner of Naperville Road and Indiana Street. Jones was a carpenter and house mover and held many important local public offices, serving as Township Collector, City Councilman. DuPage County Sheriff, and Postmaster. But Jones is most famous for his claim to have fired the first shot at the Battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War. , , Marcellus Jones (1830-1900) came to DuPage County in 1858 as a widower with a young son. Enlisting in the Eighth Illinois Regiment Cavalry, Company E. in 1861, he rose from a private to captain of his company by war's end. On the morning of July 1, 1863, Second Lieutenant Jones asked Sergeant Levi Shaffer of Naperville for his carbine. Jones took aim at a Confederate officer and fired the first shot at Gettysburg, a decisive battle during the Civil War. While others made the same claim, the prevailing view is that Jones' claim has the most merit. After the war he and two other veterans of the Eighth returned to Gettysburg to erect a monument of limestone quarried in Naperville and inscribed with an account of his deed. It stands to this day on the spot where Jones fired his famous shot. , , In 1864 in camp near Washington D.C., Jones wed Elvira Meacham, who had come to Dulage County in 1854. After the war ended, Jones returned to DuPage County, settling in Wheaton, where he built this house. The Jones lived here until 1899. , , After a succession of owners the structure served as the Wheaton school district administrative offices from 1947 to 1977. Saving the house from a planned demolition, in May 1977 the law firm of Peregrine, Stume, and Newman moved the structure and rehabilitated it for offices. ,

Established as a Wheaton Historic Site in 1985