Solomon Jones, I

History resides in Jones Cemetery

http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20050523/NEWS/505230325

Published: Monday, May 23, 2005 at 4:30 a.m.

By Jennie Jones Giles

Times-News Staff Writer

Brothers John Jones Sr. and Thomas Jones came to the wilderness of what is now Henderson County in 1790. The brothers married sisters, the daughters of Thomas Hicks who purchased land in the area in 1788, the same year as William Mills and other early pioneer settlers.

John Jones Sr. married Mary Jane Hicks and Thomas married Lucinda Hicks. Their descendants number in the thousands and are scattered through Polk, Henderson and Transylvania counties in North Carolina and the upstate of South Carolina.

The brothers were the sons of Solomon Jones I.

"Solomon Jones, from whom the Jones family sprang, was a Welchman, came to America in the eighteenth century, married Mary Plauser in Virginia, came to Spartanburg, S.C.," it states in a daybook or journal written by Solomon Jones II.

Shortly after the brothers married, they bought the land on Little Hungry Creek owned by their father-in-law and later expanded their holdings.

Thomas and his family later sold the land along Little Hungry Creek and moved to the area of Mud Creek.

John kept his land and bought land along Clear Creek, Wolf Pen Branch and Beaver Pond Branch of Green River. He owned 1,055 acres at one time. He was known in early records of the region as a businessman, money lender and farmer.

On the bank of Little Hungry Creek upstream from Oleta Falls, John Sr. built one of the first grist mills in the region. He also built the first power-operated sawmill in Henderson County. The sawmill was powered by water. The lumber the family produced here was used to build many of the summer homes of the planters from South Carolina at Flat Rock.
At the age of 94, in 1858, he turned his business over to a son, Robert Jones, and a son-in-law, Hiram King.

John Jones Sr. and his wife, Mary Jane Hicks, are buried in the Jones Cemetery at Sugarloaf. He established the cemetery on his homeplace before his death. A son, Thomas, purchased the homeplace after his father's death.

The cemetery is held in a trust by family descendants and is located on .74 acre off Marshall Road Take Ridge Road to Lamb Mountain Road and turn left onto Marshall Road. The cemetery is on the left behind an apple orchard. It is well maintained.

Those buried in the old graveyard are descendants of John Sr., including the Rev. John Brown and his wife Mary Ann Jones Brown; Burgess Lamb and Bailous Edney Laughter, who fought for the Confederacy; and Baylus H. Laughter, 1879-1945, a veteran of World War I.

Children and grandchildren of John Sr. married into families with the surnames King, McGuffie, Stepp, Kilpatrick, Maxwell, Lyda, Brown, Miner, Jackson, Laughter, Hill, Owenby, Lamb, Marshall, Morrison, Case and Justice.

There are about 137 graves within the cemetery, the oldest legible inscription that of Elizabeth Case, wife of Thomas Case, who died in 1839.

Jones Cemetery at Upward

One of John Sr.'s sons was Robert T. Jones, who owned land in the Little Hungry, Big Hungry and French Broad areas at one time. His home was at the "crossroads" of Ridge Road and Howard Gap Road. For years, the location was called Jones Crossroads, later the community became known as Upward.

Robert, 1794-1890, was appointed by the state legislature as an original commissioner when the county was created and was appointed one of the first school committeemen. He was captain of the Home Guard, or local militia, for 50 years.

He married Elizabeth McGuffie, a granddaughter of another of the first settlers into the region, Abraham Kuykendall.

He and his wife, along with more than 200 descendants, are buried at the Jones Cemetery at Upward on land he donated for the cemetery. Burials are still conducted at the cemetery, which is on about 1.96 acres on Jones Cemetery Road off Upward Road.

The land is held in trust by family descendants and is well maintained.

There are three Civil War veterans, four World War II veterans, two World War I veterans and a Korean War veteran buried in the cemetery. The Civil War veterans fought for the Union.

Robert's son John died from disease at Cumberland Gap, Tenn. John's son, Levi, also fought for the Union and later became a doctor. Govan Tabor, 1825-1897, also fought for the Union and is buried in the cemetery.

A Revolutionary War monument is in the cemetery recognizing Joel Blackwell, 1755-1839. Blackwell was one of the first itinerant Baptist ministers in Western North Carolina. He served with the Continental Army during the Revolution and received land in the Mill Spring community of Polk County.

"He traveled by foot and horseback throughout Western North Carolina, preaching the gospel, and was widely known," states information from a history of the Baptists in the area.

Many of Blackwell's family members moved into the Big Hungry region of Henderson County and some married into the Jones clan.

Children of Robert T. Jones married into families with the surnames Justus, Duncan, Tabor, Pace, Lamb, Jackson, Morrison, Guice, Clark, Case, McCraw, Bradley, Hollifield, Hoots, Hyder, Bishop, Smith, Davis, Moss, Young, Merrell, McGraw, Keisler, Holbert, Stewart, Lively, Thompson, Wilson, Parker and others.

One of John's son, Hiram King Jones, 1820-1910, continued the sawmill operation begun by ancestor John Sr. He sold the first sawmill to the Stepp family. Hiram King Jones owned land at Upward, along Green River, Big Hungry River, French Broad River and in the Pink Beds of Pisgah National Forest.

He raised his family along Big Hungry. Much of the family land is now owned Pisgah National Forest and the N.C. Gamelands.

The original log cabin still stands. It was moved and renovated and is at the corner of Shepherd Street and U.S. 25 South.

Many of his descendants became educators, builders and carpenters. They built many of the old schoolhouses still standing in the county, such as the newly renovated East Flat Rock Elementary School.

Another descendant was Ernest Justus, who served as a teacher, principal, administrator and school board member in the county for more than 50 years. The athletic field at East Henderson High School is named for him.

W.D. Justus, another descendant, was a sheriff in Henderson County and a state legislator.

Solomon Jones gravesite

There is a grave in the development Paths of Solomon Jones. On the marker it reads, "Here lies Solomon Jones, the Road Maker, a true Patriot. He labored 50 years to leave the world better than he found it."

Solomon, the son of Thomas Jones, was born in 1802 and grew up along the headwaters of Mud Creek. He married Mary Hamilton.

Using no instruments, he built roads throughout the area: Jones Gap Turnpike by way of Cedar Mountain and Caesar's Head to Greenville, S.C.; Cashier's Valley Road in Transylvania County; and the Flat Rock and Green River Turnpike.

Jones Gap State Park in Greenville County, S.C., is named for Solomon Jones.

He also built Jones Pleasure Drive from Hendersonville to Mount Hebron. He bought the mountain peak near Laurel Park and named it Hebron.

"It was almost identical in height above sea level to the biblical Mount Hebron, 3,000 feet," a descendant wrote in the Henderson County Heritage Book.

For many years he and his wife lived on Salem Plantation in Greenville County, S.C. When his wife, Mary, died, he returned to the Mount Hebron area and married Assena Tentaline Jimison.

His children married into families with the surnames McCrary, Burns, Potts, Mullinax, Anders, Hart, Reagan, Cox, Tankersly and Anderson.

Jones reportedly built the old observation atop Mount Hebron and a carriage road to get to the tower.

He died at the age of 97 and was buried beside this carriage road below his tower, where the monument today marks his resting place.

The old homeplace, with his famous spring, can be found below his grave.

This gravesite is not on the county's GIS cemetery layer.

Jones Cemetery Mills River

Another Jones cemetery can be found on the old Nesbitt Dairy off Jeffress Road in Mills River.

"We can find no relationship between this family and the rest of the Jones' in the county," said George Jones, a founder of the Henderson County Historical and Genealogical Society, who is a descendant of John Jones Sr.

In the lawn of veterinarian Joe Nesbitt can be found headstones of Nancy, wife of J.W. Jones, 1806-?; James Walker Jones, 1806-1872; Rachel M. 1853, daughter of J.W. and M.A. Jones; and Juriah A. Jones, 1860-1861.

It is known that a descendant of this family, Alexander Jones, was elected to the U.S. Congress twice immediately after the Civil War for this district.

"He was later an ambassador and his last position was with the Port Authority in San Francisco," Jones said.

All the graves are marked with head and foot stones, said Norman Miller, who chairs the cemetery project for the Sons of Confederate Veterans and serves on the county's Cemetery Advisory Committee.

The headstones were standing upright when the cemetery was surveyed by a team with the Historical and Genealogical Society in the late 1980s. The graveyard was then overgrown and not maintained.

"There were a number of unmarked graves," Jones said.

A house was built adjacent to the cemetery and a well-maintained lawn now covers the old cemetery. All the stones are lying flat and grass must be pulled up and brushed aside to read the inscriptions. Four inscribed stones were recently located, with footstones, but no unmarked stones.

The cemetery can be found on the county's GIS cemetery layer.

Information for the stories was obtained from the Henderson County GIS System, Henderson County North Carolina Cemeteries book, the Heritage Book of Henderson County Volumes I and II, other local history books, Register of Deeds office, archivists, preservationists, historians and genealogists. For help or advice with cemetery clean ups, call 698-7392. To announce a clean up, call 694-7867 or e-mail Jennie.Giles@hendersonvillenews.com.