On September 2, 1845, Richard, Ann and family (5 boys and one girl) immigrated to the United States.

[1] Richard purchased 480 acres of government land east of the village of Cambria, Wisconsin.

[1] In May 1852, David R. left Oakland for the city of Racine, Wisconsin, where he apprenticed with architect Lucas Bradley.

[2][3] His brother, Evan O. Jones, remained in Cambria and was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly and Senate.

[2] In 1871 he left Cambria to become the head draftsman for architect Abraham Radcliffe[3] of St. Paul, Minnesota.

One of his first commissions in Madison was a mansion for General David Atwood, the founder and publisher of the Wisconsin State Journal.

Jones designed the buildings for the Monona Lake Assembly Chautauqua and the Tonyawatha Resort Hotel during that time period.

He employed Edward Stark, Frederick W. Paunach, William Kleinpell and J. Albert Swenon.

One of the revisions eliminated the octagonal towers, and the lower ranks of iron columns were to be replaced with stone piers.

That inquest was led by Dane County District Attorney Robert M. La Follette.

The panel also found D. R. Jones and a consulting Milwaukee architect, Henry C. Koch, guilty of negligence "in designing the internal construction of the said south wing of the Capitol Extension without a due and proper regard for the safety during the erection .

When completed, the factory encompassed 25 acres of land in West Pullman, Illinois and employed 1400 workers.

Jones was considered a fine poet among many Welsh Americans, but because of the influence of Charles Darwin on his poetry, others found it unacceptable.