Johnstone Jones, born in Hillsboro, North Carolina, enlisted in the Confederate army during the Civil War, and afterwards began practicing law, worked in the Norther Carolina state government, and helped found the National Guard Association of the United States in 1879.

In 1873, he married Elizabeth Waters Miller, and due to his wife's health, they moved to San Diego, California in 1889, and to Los Angeles in 1893. In California, Jones established his law practice and ran for political office, gathered a regiment of men from Southern California cities during the Spanish-American War, and penned a theater adapatation of Helen Hunt Jackson's novel "Ramona."

The collection consists of three scrapbooks containing clippings of newspapers, periodicals, playbills, and other assorted documents, including articles on the Democratic party, world events and history, California, law and politics, Johnstone Jones' election as District Attorney of San Diego, and his adaptation of "Ramona."