USA > West Virginia > Genealogical and personal history of the upper Monongahela valley, West Virginia, Volume II > Part 45
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The earliest known ancestor of the Jones family was the JONES mother of Jacob Jones, who married (second) Samuel Lewellen, and removed with him from near Wilmington, Delaware, to Loudoun county, Virginia, where they lived until about
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1770. The Lewellens then moved across the mountains and settled on Cheat river, establishing the old Lewellen Ferry, in Monongalia county, Virginia, now West Virginia, near the Pennsylvania line. Samuel Lewellen obtained a grant of land there in 1771, and his name is promi- nently mentioned in the old records among the early settlers of the county. Of the children of Samuel Lewellen the names of the follow- ing have been preserved: Philip, Jacob, Benjamin, Thomas, David, Asa, Mary, Samuel, Doctor, who is said to have been the eighth child. Their descendants settled in West Virginia, western Pennsylvania and Indiana and were scattered throughout the United States.
(II) Jacob Jones was born in 1732, near Wilmington, Delaware. He was fatherless almost from his birth, was adopted by a wealthy planter of the neighborhood of Wilmington, and lived with his foster parents until he came of age. Soon after his marriage he removed to Loudoun county, Virginia, near the home of his mother and stepfather, and afterward went with them across the Allegheny mountains. He settled on the west side of the Monongahela river, on Dunkard creek, near the present town of Pentres, West Virginia. This was then known as the Indian side of the river and his home was on the extreme frontier. The Dunkard valley is now one of the richest in the world, splendidly timbered, its fertile soil underlaid with coal of inestimable value and with oil and natural gas wells which have been giving forth wealth for a generation without apparent diminution of supply. The settlers suf- fered from Indian raids in 1774-77-78. In 1774 they were warned by scouts of the approach of the savages, and had time to find refuge in the fort at Morgantown, about seventeen miles distant, but as the wife of Jacob Jones was not in condition to make the journey, he sent the children to the fort and remained with her in the cabin. A scout named Morgan gave them a second warning, and they also started for the fort. After travelling about five miles the wife gave birth to a son, William. Morgan carried the new-born babe and the guns, while Jacob assisted the wife in the long and hazardous journey through the wilderness. In 1775 or 1776 a fort was built near their home on the old Statler farm, and during the Indian outbreak of 1777 the settlers were sheltered there.
On the evening of June 13, Jacob Farmer and his daughter Susie, Jacob Jones and his eldest children, Mary and John, together with iii-5M
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Alexander Clegg, Nathan Worley and John Marsh, went to the home of Jacob Farmer, planning to spend the night and hoe corn the next day. During the night the house was surrounded by a band of about thirty Indians and an attack began at daybreak. Nathan Worley and Jacob Farmer were killed; Susie Farmer and Mary and John Jones were taken captive. Jacob Jones escaped by making a rush past the Indians to the bank of the stream and thence along the water's edge under shelter of the bank. He was followed by three Indians and finally forced to leave the stream, whence he ran up the hill along the fence of the clearing. At first the Indians tried to take him alive, but at length began to fire at him. One shot passed through his ear, an- other hit his belt and a third passed between his legs. No fewer than fifteen shots were fired at him from the time he left the cabin until he escaped. On the hill Jones met Marsh who had gone hunting before breakfast. They saw the captured children dragged up the hill on the other side of the creek. Alexander Clegg escaped also by running to the stream and found his way safely to the fort. The children were taken westward across the Ohio river. Susie Farmer was unable to keep up with the party, and was tomahawked and scalped before the eyes of the other children. John and Mary Jones were adopted into different families of the Wyandottes near Sandusky, Ohio. After arriv- ing at the Indian village the children were made to run the gauntlet, which they did to the gratification of their captors, and they were, on the whole, as kindly treated as the Indian ways of living would permit. Mary was obedient, and was held in high esteem, but John never be- came reconciled to his lot, and was always planning to escape. He could not persuade his sister to attempt the journey, but, after enduring five years with the Indians, he ran away and succeeded in reaching De- troit, where he was taken into the family of a physician named Harvey, who treated him like a son and gave him all the advantages of educa- tion within his power. Dr. Harvey trained his adopted son in his own profession and planned to send him to England to complete his medical education. John set out, but when he reached Montreal, a desire to see his people, if any were still living, caused him to turn southward. His father heard of his arrival at Pittsburgh, and met him there, after a separation of eleven years, five of which had been spent by the son at Sandusky and six at Detroit. John Jones afterward became a valued
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scout in later Indian wars. In 1796 he married Nancy, daughter of James Thomas Gough (or Goff), a pioneer, and made his home on Three Fork creek, two miles and a half east of the present town of Grafton, West Virginia. He died in 1850, aged eighty-four years, and was buried in the cemetery at Knottsville, West Virginia. His children were: Lunceford, Stanton, Charity, Elizabeth, Rebecca and Mary.
Mary Jones remained with the Wyandottes for ten years. After the death of all the family into which she had been adopted, she was rescued and removed to Detroit, where she was taken into the family of General McCoombs. Three years later she married Peter Malott and settled on Grosse Isle, afterward removing to Kingsville, Ontario. After the death of her husband, in 1816, she decided to return to the home of her childhood, crossed the lake to Cleveland in 1817, and made the remainder of the journey on foot. After a separation of forty years she again met her brothers and sisters. On her return two of her brothers accompanied her on horseback as far as Cleveland. It is now a custom of the Jones family to hold triennial reunions with the Malotts, her descendants, at Kingsville, Ontario.
After the capture of his children Jacob Jones removed to a safer situation on Cheat river, and served in the militia on the frontier until the close of the revolutionary war. For some time after he lived on Cheat Bottom, now in Tucker county, West Virginia, where he had a grant of land. He afterward bought land on Wickwire creek, and for a short time made his home there. About 1794 he obtained a grant near Knottsville, West Virginia, where he spent the remaining years of his life, in peace and comfort. Both he and his wife died in 1828 or 1829, aged ninety-six and ninety-three, respectively. In 1904 a family reunion was held near the spot where they were buried and a monument to their memory was formally dedicated.
Jacob Jones married, in early manhood, Dinah Stanton, who was born in 1729, in Delaware, and their children were: 1. Mary, born in 1764, in Virginia, died in Kingsville, October 16, 1845. She married Peter Malott and had six children : Joseph, Mary, Anne and Peter, and two, Sarah and Theodore, who died in infancy. 2. John, born in 1766, mentioned above. 3. Benjamin, born about 1768, in Virginia, married and had the following children : Jabez, John, James, Abigail, Lewellen, Levi, Benjamin, Richard, Jacob (3), Samuel, Susan Grimm, Elizabeth
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Current and Jemima. 4. Samuel, born January 16, 1772, at Dunkard Creek, now Pentres, and died in Henry county, Indiana. He married, March 13, 1794, Rachel Lewellen, and lived at Three Fork Bottom, near No. 96 water station, on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. His children were: Mary, married Noah Warder; Rebecca, married Peter Current; Nancy, married Bryan; Dinah, married Thomas Gough; Martha, married Peter Dragoo; Arah, married Frank Gough; Sarah, married (first) - Boyles and (second) - - Furbee; Elizabeth, married Daniel Gough; Abigail, married Uriah Jones; Matilda, married Anthony Shroyer; and Patty. 5. William, mention- ed below. 6. Jacob (2), removed from the homestead to Indiana, in 1838, and about 1855 went to Missouri. He was twice married, his first wife being Lucy Gough, and of his eighteen children the following lived to maturity: Nancy, married Owen Haymond; Benjamin, Sus- anna, Allen G., Thornton, John F., Elizabeth; the two last being by his second wife. 7. Rebecca, married William Powers, and lived at Fairmont, on Booth's creek, now Marion county, West Virginia, and also in Indiana. Their children were: Rebecca, Uriah, Jacob, Mary, Naomi, Patty and Sina. 8. Martha, married John Powers, removed to Indiana, and was the mother of two children: Stanton and Josiah.
(III) William, son of Jacob and Dinah (Stanton) Jones, was born May 4, 1774, in Monongalia county, West Virginia. He follow- ed the calling of a farmer. He married Sarah Anderson, who was born near Green Castle, Pennsylvania, and the following were their chil- dren: 1. Jacob, born in 1797, died in 1879; was a farmer at Parker City, Indiana. 2. Jane, born in 1799, married Jacob Means, and lived near Grafton. 3. Delight, born in 1801; never married and died in 1856. 4. Anderson, born in 1803; was a farmer and lived between Bridgeport and Clarksburg. 5. Fleming, born about 1805; moved to Ohio in 1872, and later to West Branch, Michigan. 6. Samuel, men- tioned below. 7. Uriah, born in 1810; was a farmer and moved to Parker City, Indiana. 8. Rebecca, born in 1812; married Melker Shroyer, a farmer of Indiana, and died in 1849. 9. Nathan, born in 1815; moved to Selma, Indiana, about 1864, and died in 1906-07. 10. Eliza, born about 1817; married Andrew Miller, and lived in Iowa. William Jones, the father, died near Knottsville, May 17, 1843.
(IV) Samuel, son of William and Sarah (Anderson) Jones, was
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born February 2, 1808. He passed his entire life on the Jones home- stead, near Knottsville, following in early life, in addition to his agri- cultural labors, the trade of a shoemaker. He married Frances Limber, who was born January 14, 1818, and came from Pennsylvania with her parents. The children of this marriage were: I. Jane, married Hugh Evans, sheriff of Taylor county, and lived at Fetterman, West Virginia. 2. Uriah, mentioned below. 3. Sarah, married Isaac Evans and lives at Grafton. 4. Nathan, a contractor at Grafton, West Vir- ginia. 5. Rebecca, married J. C. Lewellen, of Grafton, farmer, banker and formerly member of the state board of agriculture. 6. Rachel, married James K. Means, a farmer, formerly county commissioner. 7. Catherine, married Hugh Evans, a farmer, retired banker, sheriff of Taylor county several terms, resides near Pruntytown. 8. Martha, married A. S. Jenkins, of Grafton, who at the time of his death was justice of the peace. The mother of this family died November 22, 1888, and the father passed away January 26, 1897, one week before the completion of his eighty-ninth year.
(V) Uriah, son of Samuel and Frances (Limber) Jones, was born January 14, 1839, near Knottsville. He was a farmer throughout his active life, but has now retired. During the civil war he served in the Seventeenth West Virginia Regiment of Volunteers. For many years he was a member of the board of education in Knottsville district, Tay- lor county. Mr. Jones married Pernissa Jane Ford, whose ancestral record is appended to this sketch, and their children were: I. Harry H., mentioned below. 2. Clement Ross, mentioned below. 3. George E., born July 10, 1873 ; painter and contractor of Grafton. 4. Fannie Re- becca, born September 13, 1877; graduated in 1901 from the Confer- ence Seminary, now West Virginia Wesleyan College; was for a time a teacher, and later married one of her classmates, Charles L. Lynch, of Mount Clare, West Virginia. 5. Ethel Belle, born November 13, 1883; graduated in 1908 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the West Virginia University. While still a student she was an assistant in English, and after graduation was for two years head of the depart- ment of English in the Grafton high school. She married Dwight E. McQuilkin, vice-principal and head of the English department of the Roanoke high school, Roanoke, Virginia.
(VI) Harry H., eldest child of Uriah and Pernissa Jane (Ford)
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Jones, was born March 19, 1867, died March 15, 1907, at Datona Beach, Florida. He graduated in 1887 at the Grafton high school, and later took a course at Eastman's Business College, Poughkeepsie, New York. He first spent three or four years in mercantile work and about the same length of time in the office of the division superintend- ent of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, at Grafton. He left the rail- road company to accept a position in the First National Bank of Graf- ton, and later became cashier of the Citizens' National Bank of Beling- ton. His wide acquaintance, minute knowledge of business and business law, his genial manner and uniform courtesy, to the rich and poor alike, made him extremely popular as a citizen and eminently successful as a banker and business man. He was in the forefront of every movement for the betterment of his town.
(VI) Clement Ross, son of Uriah and Pernissa Jane (Ford) Jones, was born April 19, 1871, on the old Jones farm near Knotts- ville. He attended the Jones school in the Knottsville district, Taylor county, graduating from the Grafton high school in the class of 1889. He entered West Virginia University and was graduated in 1894 with the degree of Bachelor of Science in civil engineering. He continued at the university as assistant in mechanical engineering and received the degree of Mechanical Engineer in 1897. In the summer of 1896 he was a student at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and in the follow- ing year at the Stevens Polytechnic Institute, and in 1899-1900 was a member of the graduate school of Cornell University, receiving in June, 1900, the degree of Master of Mechanical Engineering. In 1894-95 he was engaged in practice as a civil and mechanical engineer; from 1895 to 1897 he was assistant in mechanical engineering at the West Virginia University and from 1897 to 1899 was an instructor there. At the opening of the Spanish-American war the head of the depart- ment, Professor William S. Aldrich, a graduate of the naval academy, was called into active service in the navy, and Mr. Jones became the acting head. In March, 1899, the old mechanical hall, with all of its records and equipment, was destroyed by fire, and at the end of the year Professor Aldrich resigned to accept a position in the University of Illinois. It then fell to the lot of Mr. Jones to plan for a new equipment and to reorganize the work. During the next two years he was assistant professor in charge of the department of mechanical
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engineering and since 1901 he has been professor of mechanical engi- neering and mechanical arts at the university. In 1911 he was made dean of the Engineering College of the University of West Virginia. His best work has been in connection with the rebuilding and installa- tion of the present splendid equipment of the engineering college and the reorganization of his courses of instruction. Under his leadership and supervision, with only limited state appropriations, a new, modern- ly equipped structure has arisen from the ashes of the old, and the state may justly take pride in the extensive facilities for research and indus- trial and technical instruction to be found in its shops and laboratories. Since Professor Jones was made dean of the College of Engineering the departments have been reorganized and unified and instruction in all the various branches brought to a high state of efficiency. He still retains the chair of steam and experimental engineering, and is a mem- ber of the University council of administration and of the committee on classification and grades.
Professor Jones is the author and joint author of a number of text and reference books and notes used in the College of Engineering, and has been a frequent contributor to a number of magazines, besides read- ing papers containing the results of personal research and investigation before the various technical societies of which he is a member. In addi- tion to his duties as a teacher, Professor Jones has followed his pro- fession as consulting engineer. He is a member of the American Soci- ety of Mechanical Engineers; a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and belongs to the following organizations : The Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education, of which he has been vice-president ; the American Society for Testing Materials ; the International Society for Testing Materials; the West Virginia Mining Institute; the Sigma Xi (Honorary) Scientific Society; the Phi Beta Kappa Society; the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity; the Morgantown Union Lodge, No. 4, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Morgan- town Chapter, No. 30, Royal Arch Masons; Morgantown Command- ery, No. 18, Knights Templar. Professor Jones is a director of the Federal Savings and Trust Company of Morgantown; of the Citizens' National Bank of Morgantown; and of the Randall Gas and Water
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Company. He is on the official board of the First Methodist Epis- copal Church of Morgantown. In politics he is an Independent Repub- lican, though in no sense a politician.
(The Ford Line).
William Ford, great-grandfather of Mrs. Pernissa Jane (Ford) Jones, moved late in life from Fauquier county, Virginia, to the west side of Tygart's Valley river, near Webster, and died about 1821, aged it is said one hundred and fifteen years. He is said to have served in the revolutionary army, but if the age is correct he was rather old even in 1775 for active service. William Ford married and his children were: William, a soldier in the revolution; Henry; George, mentioned below; Lewis; Mrs. Henry Warder.
(II) George, son of William Ford, was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, and was a farmer on the west side of Taylor county. He married --- Colbert, of Virginia, and among his children were: John; Henry; Lanty, mentioned below. George Ford died at the home of this last-named son, having reached the age of eighty-four.
(III) Lanty, son of George and - (Colbert) Ford, was born in December, 1800. He was a farmer at Knottsville district, two miles south of Grafton. He married Rebecca, born in 1804, daughter of John and Nancy (Gough) Jones, and granddaughter of Jacob and Dinah (Stanton) Jones, mentioned above. Following are the children of Lanty and Rebecca (Jones) Ford: Elizabeth, married Peter Wolf; Emily, married Thomas Wilson and resides in Haymond Settlement, Taylor county; Shadrach, a tanner at Pruntytown, died unmarried; William Henry, farmer near Grafton; John, farmer at Moran, Kansas; Rebecca, married Louis Walter, of Philippi, West Virginia; Pernissa Jane, mentioned below; Catherine, married Henry Thomas, a farmer of Knottsville; Harriet, married Nathan Poe and is the mother of B. F., Clarence, Lucy Poe and Mrs. Clay V. Miller, all of Grafton. Lanty Ford, the father, died in 1881, and the mother passed away in 1888.
(IV) Pernissa Jane, daughter of Lanty and Rebecca (Jones) Ford, was born September 22, 1843, on the Ford farm, and became the wife of Uriah Jones, as mentioned above.
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Originally this family lived in Old Virginia, but later STUART generations settled in West Virginia. One of the scions of this family tree is now prominent in business affairs at Clarksburg.
(I) William Stuart was born in Bath county, Virginia, but was reared and spent most of his life in Harrison county, this state, where he followed farming. He reached a good old age and died about 1887. He served in the war of 1812.
(II) Franklin C., son of William Stuart, was born in Virginia. He accompanied his parents to Harrison county, in what is now West Virginia, when a small boy. Following the footsteps of his father he was also a sturdy farmer during his active years, and drove cattle to Baltimore, Maryland, before the building of the railroads. He died on Easter Sunday, 1903, aged seventy-five years. He was a Demo- crat in politics. He married Joanah M. Dever, born and reared in Harrison county. She still lives in Clarksburg. John Dever, father of Joanah M. (Dever) Stuart, was born in Harrison county, where he lived and died. He was a farmer, a pioneer, who died while yet in the prime of his life, having been thrown from a horse, from which injuries he died. He had three daughters. Children : John William, of whom further; Clinton J., living in Harrison county, a farmer; Mason Dever, living in Clarksburg, a cattle dealer; Charles Hunter, living with his mother; Mrs. Robert Sydney Hornor, of Clarksburg; Mrs. Rossie Ann Carter, of Clarksburg.
(III) John William, son of Franklin C. and Joanah M. (Dever) Stuart, was born in Harrison county, West Virginia, on his father's farm, in what was at that time Old Virginia, May 30, 1853. He at- tended the public schools, after which he entered the West Virginia University at Morgantown. He assisted his father on the farm until twenty-three years of age, then began shipping cattle and leased some land, near that of his father's, and so continued busy until his removal to Clarksburg in 1887. Here he engaged in the livery business and dealt in horses for fourteen years. Since the date last named he has been an extensive buyer and shipper of cattle, sheep and horses. He is a stock- holder in the Union National Bank; also the Clarksburg Ice and Stor- age Company. He lives in his own residence in Clarksburg. In poli- tics he is a Democrat.
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He married, in Harrison county, at Quiet Dell, September 26, 1899, Fanny Virginia Pickens, born in Barbour county, West Virginia, daughter of James Pickens, a native of the same county, who died Jan- uary 22, 1887, at the age of seventy-two years. He was a farmer by occupation and died on his farm in Barbour county. He married Ann M. Dever, who died May 2, 1899.
MARTIN The Martins of Morgantown, West Virginia, came to this state from Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where the family was founded in 1796, by Samuel Martin, born in Ireland. After a few years spent in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, he settled in Fayette county at what was then Union Furnace, the present site of Dunbar Furnace, where he was engaged as one of the early furnace men or iron workers of the county; also was employed as a teamster. He is on the first assessment roll made for the township of Dunbar, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, bearing date 1799, and is assessed as the owner of two horses, one cow and one hundred acres of land.
Colonel Isaac Meason, Dunbar's largest land owner and first iron manufacturer, was the owner of Union Furnace, and Samuel Martin was in his employ at the furnace, also cultivating his farm with the aid of his sons. There is an old graveyard at Dunbar Furnace that is said to have been the burial place of those who died while in Colonel Mea- son's employ and it is here that Samuel Martin is believed to have been buried.
He married Mary Brown, a native of Fayette county. Children: William, of whom further; Alexander, a furnace worker at Union Furnace; John A., born in 1790, in Westmoreland county, Pennsyl- vania, married Elizabeth Cottom; James, an iron worker of Fayette county; Samuel, also a worker at Union Furnace. These sons married and left issue. There is no record of the birth of daughters.
(II) William, son of Samuel and Mary (Brown) Martin, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. He was brought in very early childhood to Fayette county by his parents. He grew up on the farm and does not appear to have worked with his brothers at the iron furnaces. He evidently cultivated the farm, while the other boys were iron-workers. William Martin married and had male issue, but the
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name is not found in public records, but is, no doubt, preserved by some member of the family. He lived and died in Fayette county. Among his children was a son James, of whom further.
(III) James, son of William Martin, was born in Dunbar town- ship, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, about 1810-15. He learned the trade of wheelwright, which he followed all his life in connection with farming. After his marriage he located in George's township, Fayette county, where he purchased the shop of Edward Coombes, on the Mor- gantown road, at Smithfield. Here he was in business many years. Po- litically he was a Democrat. He married, in 1836, Susannah Roderick, born in Fayette county, of German parentage. Children : Anne E., born November 18, 1837; William H., April 27, 1839; Frederick R., March 14, 1841; Margaret E., February 20, 1843; James K., Febru- ary 22, 1845; Nancy C., March 4, 1847; Mary L., July 20, 1849; John C., September 8, 1851; Benjamin F., of whom further; Ewing, April 30, 1856.
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