Dwelling Place

by Erskine Clarke

  JONES, ELIZABETH SCREVEN LEE HART (1801–1870), third wife of Joseph Jones (1779–1846) and mother of fourteen children, of whom ten lived to maturity. See genealogical chart “John and Mary Jones.” Elizabeth Jones was the stepmother of Mary Jones and John Jones (1815–1893). She and Mary Jones lived with a suppressed tension as long as Joseph Jones was alive. After his death, Mary Jones never again called her mother but simply referred to her as Mrs. Jones.

  JONES, HENRY HART (1823–1893), planter and son of Joseph Jones (1779–1846) and Elizabeth Screven Lee Hart Jones. As a teenager, he had two children by a young slave woman. He married Abigail (Abby) Sturges Dowse in 1846. They had eleven children, only five of whom lived past childhood. A successful planter and respected political figure in Georgia, he and his family lived at Lodebar plantation (1846–1856) and then at the Retreat (1856–1862). In 1850 he and his wife hosted a wedding—to which whites and blacks were both invited to Lodebar—for the slave mother of his children. His new and unfinished house in Walthourville was burned in 1859 as the result of deep alienation with his sister-in-law Marion Anderson Jones, the unstable widow of Charles Berrien Jones. He moved most of his slaves in 1859 to Baker County in southwest Georgia, where he owned two plantations. In 1863 he and his family moved to Cuthbert, Georgia. He was often called Henry Hart.

  JONES, JAMES DUNWODY(1842–1904), eldest son of John Jones (1815–1893) and Jane Adaline Dunwody. He may have been dyslexic and was always something of a difficult child for his parents. They constantly worried about him and sought, through their influential connections, to ease his way into maturity. During the Civil War he fought in several of the early battles in Virginia, and while he showed much bravery, it was an experience he was eager not to repeat. Late in the war, he was made a guard at the infamous Anderson-ville Prison in south Georgia. After the war, he attempted unsuccessfully to plant and manage his father’s Bonaventure plantation in Liberty County. He moved to Atlanta in 1871 and assumed an eccentric and flamboyant role as a former Confederate officer mysteriously promoted to the rank of colonel.

  JONES, JAMES NEWTON (1825–1854), planter, son of Joseph Jones (1779–1846) and Elizabeth Screven Lee Hart Jones, and half-brother of Mary Jones and John Jones (1815–1893). He became engaged in 1845 to the lively Mary Elizabeth King [Wells]. She broke the engagement a few months later, an action that appeared scandalous to friends and family. In 1851 he married Sarah Jane Norman, a beautiful and affectionate daughter of a neighboring planter. Among all the children of Joseph Jones and Elizabeth Hart Jones, he was best known for his gentle and generous character. After his father’s death, he became the guardian of his younger brothers and sisters and managed the Retreat plantation. He was called James Newton by his family and often referred to as Jimma. In 1854, at the request of his sister Emma Jones Harris, he went to Savannah during a yellow fever epidemic in the city to secure some of her personal papers. He contracted the fever and died in his wife’s arms at Lodebar plantation.

  JONES, JOHN (1749–1779), father of John Jones (1772–1805) and Joseph Jones (1779–1846). His plantation Rice Hope, together with his mercantile business in Sunbury, established the foundation for his descendants’ wealth. He died a Revolutionary War hero at the battle of Savannah.

  JONES, JOHN (1772–1805), owner of Liberty Hall plantation and much land throughout coastal Georgia. He married Elizabeth Stewart (sister of General Daniel Stewart), by whom he had Elizabeth Jones Maxwell and John Jones, Jr. (1798–1813). After his first wife’s death, he married Susannah Hyrne Girardeau Jones, by whom he had Susan Mary Jones [Maxwell Cumming] and Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863). He apparently enjoyed acting the role of an English country gentleman. He served several terms in the state legislature. At the time of his death he had incurred substantial debts by the purchase of slaves and land.

  JONES, JOHN (1815–1893), Presbyterian minister and son of Joseph Jones (1779–1846) and Sarah Anderson (1783–1817). He was the brother of Mary Jones and the half-brother of the children of Joseph Jones and Elizabeth Screven Lee Hart Jones. Shortly after he graduated from Columbia Theological Seminary, he married Jane Adaline Dunwody (1820–1884), niece of John Dunwody and granddaughter of James Smith. They had four children, including James Dunwody Jones. Jane Jones brought thirty slaves into their marriage and later inherited additional slaves and land from her grandfather. With these slaves and through inheritance from his mother, John Jones became a large slave owner, although throughout his life he had deep reservations about the viability of slavery as an economic system. Shortly after his marriage, he sold to his father for $8,500 twenty-three of the slaves he had inherited from his mother’s estate. A greatly beloved pastor in a number of Presbyterian churches, he was particularly gifted in his ability to enter deeply into the sorrows of others and to offer them through his words and presence Christian hope. He was the owner of Bonaventure plantation in Liberty County and the Refuge in Baker County, as well as extensive property in Atlanta. His cheerful and gracious ways drew many friends to him in spite of their frustrations over his habitual procrastination. After the Civil War, as his eyesight began to fail, he served for a number of years as the chaplain to the Georgia senate.

  JONES, JOSEPH (1779–1846), son of John Jones (1749–1779) and Mary Sharpe (1753–1798). He was the master of the Retreat and a number of other Liberty County plantations and was for forty years the patriarch of the Jones family. He married in 1799 Mary Maybank (1781–1804). Of their four children, only Joseph Maybank Jones lived to maturity. In 1806 he married Sarah Anderson (1783–1817). Of their eight children, only Mary Jones and John Jones (1815–1893) lived to maturity. In 1820 he married Elizabeth Screven Lee Hart Jones. They had fourteen children, ten of whom lived to maturity. See genealogical chart “John and Mary Jones.” He was often called Captain Jones for his service as captain of the Liberty Independent Troop during the War of 1812. While he was famous for his business acumen and personal discipline, he was also known for his generosity to his family and friends and to needy whites of Liberty County. Having already given slaves and land to his older children, he left at his death 208 slaves and more than five thousand acres to be divided among his heirs. Throughout this narrative, he is referred to as Joseph in distinction from his grandson Joseph Jones (1833–1896), who is called Joe.

  JONES, JOSEPH (1833–1896), physician and educator, son of Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863)and Mary Jones. He was educated at the plantation school at Maybank and Montevideo, then at South Carolina College, Princeton, and the Medical College of the University of Pennsylvania. From an early age he developed great personal discipline and an intense interest in the natural world of the low country. Before his thirtieth birthday he had become an expert on the various fevers and diseases that afflicted much of the nineteenth-century South. After serving briefly at the beginning of the Civil War with the Liberty Independent Troop, he was commissioned as a surgeon with the rank of major and assigned to investigate the medical conditions in the armies, hospitals, and military prisons of the Confederacy. His work on gangrene was particularly important, especially with his emphasis on sanitation and prevention. In 1868 he was called to the Medical Department of the University of Louisiana (later Tulane). There he gained an international reputation for his study of tropical diseases. He married in 1859 Caroline Smelt Davis (1832–1868) of Augusta, Georgia. They had four children. In 1870 he married Susan Rayner Polk, daughter of the Right Reverend Leonidas Polk (1806–1864), Episcopal bishop of Louisiana and lieutenant generalin the Confederate Army. They had three children. Joseph Jones was an elder in the Presbyterian Church and reflected throughout his life the piety and values of his parents. Throughout this narrative, he is referred to as Joe in distinction from his grandfather, Joseph Jones (1779–1846), who is called Joseph.

  JONES, JOSEPH MAYBANK (1804–1831), son of Joseph Jones (1779–1846) and Mary May-bank (1781–1804), and half-brother to Mary Jones and John Jones (1815–1893) and the children of Joseph Jones (1779–1846) and E
lizabeth Screven Lee Hart Jones. The gift of slaves to him by his father precipitated a family crisis among the heirs of Joseph Jones.

  JONES, MARY (1808–1869), daughter of Joseph Jones (1779–1846) and Sarah Anderson, sister of John Jones (1815–1893), half-sister of Henry Hart Jones and the other children of Joseph Jones and Elizabeth Screven Lee Hart Jones. She married her first cousin Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863) in 1830. They had three children who lived to maturity: Charles Colcock Jones (1831–1893), Joseph Jones (1833–1896), and Mary Sharpe Jones. She functioned as a strong mother figure not only for her children but also for her brother and her half-brothers and sisters. At the time of her marriage she received from her mother’s estate a number of slaves who would become, with the slaves inherited by her husband and the slaves received from Andrew Maybank’s estate, the foundation of the family’s wealth. By 1854 Mary and Charles Jones owned jointly 128 slaves. She was highly disciplined, literate, and deeply pious, and she sought to be a thoughtful adviser and support to her husband in his ministry and in his management of their slaves. She had a profound love for her plantation homes, Montevideo and Maybank. She reflected throughout her life a sense of great privilege as a slave owner and great responsibility for the welfare of her family’s slaves. After the Civil War she struggled for several years to maintain her plantation home, but finally felt compelled to move to New Orleans, where her daughter’s family lived. She died there in 1869.

  JONES, MARY RUTH (1861–1934), daughter of Charles Colcock Jones (1831–1893) and Ruth Berrien Whitehead (1837–1861). When her mother died a few days after Mary Ruth’s birth, her grandmother Mary Jones took her to Maybank and Montevideo to rear her as “my darling baby” during the hard days of the Civil War. Family called her Ruthie. When Ruthie went to the home of her father and her stepmother, Eva Berrien Eve (1841–1890), after the war, Mary Jones felt the removal of her granddaughter as a great personal loss.

  JONES, MARY SHARPE (1835–1889), the daughter of Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863) and Mary Jones. Throughout this narrative she is referred to as Mary Sharpe in distinction from her mother, who is called Mary. She was educated at the plantation schools at Maybank and Montevideo and at a private school in Philadelphia. Bright and articulate, she was never able as a woman to gain the academic and professional status of her brothers Charles Colcock Jones (1831–1893) and Joseph Jones (1833–1896). She married Robert Quarterman Mallard in 1857. They had five children. See genealogical chart “John and Mary Jones.” When her husband was called in 1863 to be the pastor of Central Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, she and her children moved to Atlanta a few months before the arrival of the Union Army at the outskirts of the city. When the battle of Atlanta began, she and the children fled to Liberty County, where her husband later joined them. She gave birth at Montevideo to a daughter as Federal troops were in the midst of plundering the plantation. A few weeks later, she fled to southwest Georgia as a refugee. She never again returned to Liberty County. In 1866 she moved to New Orleans, where her husband had accepted a call to be the pastor of a congregation.

  JONES, SUSANNAH HYRNE GIRARDEAU (1778–1810), second wife of John Jones (1772–1805) and mother of Susan Mary Jones [Maxwell Cumming] and Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863). When her husband died in a hunting accident in 1805, his brother Joseph Jones (1779–1846) became her guardian and the guardian of her children. She lived at Liberty Hall and at a summer home in Sunbury.

  JOSEPH. See Jones, Joseph (1779–1846).

  KING, BARRINGTON (1798–1866), planter and manufacturer and brother of Roswell King. In 1822 he married Catherine Margaret Nephew (1804–1887), who brought into their marriage a number of slaves and South Hampton plantation. He developed South Hampton into a prosperous rice plantation before selling it and forty-two slaves to his brother Roswell in 1838. Barrington King, together with a few other low-country capitalists, developed the town of Roswell in the former Cherokee territory of Georgia. Flour and textile mills were established, and Barrington Hall, a Greek Revival mansion, was built as his family’s residence. Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863) and Mary Jones often visited Barrington’s family when they were in Roswell.

  KING, JAMES AUDLEY MAXWELL (1829–1920), planter, son of Roswell King and Julia Rebecca Maxwell King. He was a childhood friend of Charles Colcock Jones (1831–1893), Joseph Jones (1833–1896), and Mary Sharpe Jones and attended with them the plantation school at Maybank and Montevideo. After his father’s death, he managed the family’s South Hampton and Woodville plantations. He married Elizabeth Catherine (Kate) Lewis (1839–1920) in 1860. Noted for his neat and orderly ways, he possessed a generous personality and a kind and winsome manner.

  KING, JULIA REBECCA MAXWELL (1808–1892), daughter of Audley Maxwell, and wife of Roswell King. Her brother James Audley Maxwell (1796–1828) was married to Susan Mary Jones Maxwell [Cumming]. She brought into her marriage Woodville plantation and a number slaves, and she inherited additional land and slaves at the death of her parents. She and Mary Jones were close friends and neighbors. She and Roswell King had eleven children, nine of whom lived to maturity, including James Audley Maxwell King and Mary Elizabeth King Wells. Kind, affectionate, and genteel, she often appeared a counterpoint to her eccentric and often blunt husband.

  KING, ROSWELL (1796–1854), planter, son of Roswell King (1776–1839), and husband of Julia Rebecca Maxwell King. Through his own business acumen and the lands and slaves of his wife, he became a large and successful rice planter. For a number of years he managed the vast holdings of Pierce Butler on the Georgia coast, where he fathered several slave children. He bought South Hampton plantation and forty-two slaves from his brother Barrington King in 1838. Pragmatic and eccentric, he was something of a “know-it-all” who delighted in his plainspoken and vivid language. He was a close friend to Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863) and Mary Jones, although he did not share their religious commitments. When he died in 1854, his will was long out of date; it was eventually annulled by the court. When his estate was finally settled, seventy-eight slaves were sold in order to divide his property among his heirs.

  MALLARD, ROBERT QUARTERMAN (1830–1904), Presbyterian minister, son of Thomas Mallard and Rebecca Eliza Burnley Mallard (1789–1861). He grew up at the Mallard Place and his family’s summer home in Walthourville. After graduating from Columbia Theological Seminary, he became pastor of the Walthourville Presbyterian Church. In 1857 he married Mary Sharpe Jones. Through his own inheritance and his marriage, he became the owner of a number of slaves. Tall and handsome, he was widely regarded as a fine preacher and excellent pastor. In 1863 he was called to be the pastor of Atlanta’s Central Presbyterian Church. He was involved in extensive relief efforts among prisoners and the wounded until the evacuation of the city. Taking refuge with his family in Liberty County, he was captured when Federal troops arrived in Walthourville. He spent several months in Savannah as a prisoner of war. After the Civil War, he and his family moved to New Orleans when he was called to be the pastor of the Prytania Street Presbyterian Church.

  MALLARD, THOMAS (1778–1861), planter and husband of Rebecca Eliza Burnley (1789–1861). They had nine children, eight of whom lived to maturity, including Robert Quarterman Mallard. For years they moved between their winter residence, the Mallard Place, and their summer residence in Walthourville, before they made their home in Dorchester in the early 1850s. Thomas Mallard was a leader in Midway Congregational Church and was an active supporter of the religious instruction of slaves. Having already given a number of slaves to his children, he left at his death 135 slaves to be divided among his heirs.

  MARY. See Jones, Mary.

  MAXWELL, AUDLEY (1766–1840), planter and father of James Audley Maxwell (1796–1828) and Julia Rebecca Maxwell King. He gave as gift and inheritance to his grandchildren Laura Elizabeth Maxwell and Charles Edward Maxwell a number of slaves and Social Bluff plantation. Other slaves and land went to his daughter, Julia.

  MAXWELL, CHARLES EDWARD(1826–1852),
son of James Audley Maxwell (1796–1828)and Susan Mary Jones Maxwell [Cumming], and brother of Laura Elizabeth Maxwell. His father died when Charles Edward was two, and for the next ten years he and his mother and sister lived in Savannah or with relatives in Liberty County. Much time was spent in the homes of his great uncle Joseph Jones (1779–1846), his aunt Elizabeth Jones Maxwell, and his uncle Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863). When his mother married Joseph Cumming in 1838, the family resided in Savannah. When Joseph Cumming died in 1846, the family resumed the practice of moving between are sidence in Savanna hand the plantation homes of relatives. In such an environment of mutual commitments and affections, cousins seemed as brothers and sisters, and aunts and uncles regarded their nieces and nephews with parental care. Charles Edward Maxwell showed great promise as a student and was admitted to Princeton as a sophomore. In 1848 he entered the Medical College of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in early spring 1852. A few days later, he started toward Savannah, where he intended to begin his medical practice. In Morristown, New Jersey, he contracted a severe case of diarrhea. Charles and Mary Jones rushed from Philadelphia to his side and secured the best doctors they could find, but to no avail. His body was returned to Liberty County and buried in the cemetery at Midway.

  MAXWELL, ELIZABETH JONES (1794–1856), daughter of John Jones (1772–1805) and his first wife, Elizabeth Stewart, sister of General Daniel Stewart. She married in 1811 William Maxwell (1785–1866). They had no children, but they thought of her half-sister Susan Mary Jones [Maxwell Cumming] and half-brother Charles Colcock Jones (1804–1863) as in some ways their children. Family and friends knew her as Betsy. She was much loved by a wide circle of relatives and friends and was a person of remarkable good humor, hospitality, and Christian graces. While well connected to some of the most socially prominent families of the low country, she was fundamentally a countrywoman who enjoyed church, good food, visiting with friends, and talking about the weather. The children of Susan Maxwell Cumming and Charles Colcock Jones regarded her as a grandmother figure.