Slaves in the Family – Review

Slaves in the Family, by Edward Ball

Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, New York

Edward Ball blows the doors off the spoken-of-only-in-inferences-and-whispers subject of the source of his family’s wealth, status, and generations long domination (economically and socially) of the South Carolina Low Country; i.e., their slaves.

The book is a thoroughly researched historical document specific to the Ball family, well-written, and candid. But more than all that, it is a look at All Our Histories,  putting a mirror in front of us and forcing us to look at the aftermath (for both black and white) of slavery, and the “cover-up” created by white descendants to romanticize and gloss over the grim facts of the past.

Bell’s is one of the bravest books on this subject that I have so far encountered. Near the top of my “Must Read” list.

Addie Gray Bowles (1881 – 1918)

Addie Gray Bowles – Gravestone in Shockoe Cemetery

Addie Gray Bowles (1881 – 1918)
Addie Gray Bowles enters the Jones family line on October 20, 1898, upon her marriage to F. Ellis Jones. She was born July 31, 1881, the fifth daughter of Drury Wood Bowles (1847 – 1910) and Regina Bowles (ne. Elmore) (1847 – 1906), of Richmond. Her father was the son of an ancient Virginia family whose seat was “Bowlesville”; a large plantation estate in Fluvanna County, Virginia. Her lineage is extremely well established and is documented in the various genealogies of Virginia’s oldest, colonial-era families. I will leave the specifics of her heritage for biographers whose purpose is different than mine. It will suffice to say that F. Ellis married significantly “up” in social class, if not in wealth (as most of the Bowles wealth was destroyed with the Confederacy.) Addie Gray was a warmly welcomed addition to the Jones family.

Like so many of the descendants of the old Southern families in the period after the Civil War, Addie Gray Bowles family’s wealth was history – but her principles and inherited sense of “place” in society was absolutely unshaken. She was raised in an ancient tradition of noblesse oblige that seems almost quaintly old-fashioned to us today. She was well-accomplished in the fine arts of domesticity, and upon entering the Jones household at just seventeen years old, took her place alongside her mother-in-law and her husband’s aunt “Deitz” (Lemira Virginia Smith), making herself indispensable in every way she could think of.

She was a famous cook, a gifted seamstress, and a devoted nurse. She extended her ministrations throughout the neighborhood, attending to the well-being of those less fortunate than herself. She was, as accounted by my Grandfather, one of the kindest and most unselfish individuals he ever knew, as well as exceedingly tolerant and sympathetic to the plight of former slaves and their children who struggled in post-Reconstruction Richmond. If this is true (and I have no reason whatsoever to believe it is not), then Addie Gray Bowles is to be credited – along with “Aunt Dietz” – with injecting into our family line the philosophy and principles of equality, fairness, and tolerance that have been carried through to the present generation.

My grandfather records in our family history that his mother’s life was unremarkable. I tend to believe that every generation is unfair to its parents, and perhaps makes too much romance around the myths of those long since dead. This has to be the case with Addie Gray Bowles, for her life and what little I know of it seem quite remarkable to me. If half of what he wrote about her character and abilities is true, then she was an exceptional person indeed.

In her absolute dedication to her husband’s family, her mother-in-law, Ella Cordelia Jones (ne. Smith), likened Addie Gray to the Biblical Ruth:

“…And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God…”
– The Book of Ruth 1:15

Addie Gray gave her husband just one child, my grandfather, William Ellis Jones (1899 – 1951.) He was named after his grandfather.

Her father-in-law, William Ellis Jones, died in April of 1910 when his namesake was just a month shy of his tenth birthday. Just a few months later in November of that same year, she lost her husband and was left a twenty-seven year old widow. Instead of remarrying to ensure her own financial security, she redoubled her dedication to her remaining in-laws, her neighbors, her church, and to her sense of duty toward the well-being of those around her. In 1917, she and her now-teenaged son lost yet another close friend and in-law, Lemira Virginia Gibbs (ne. Smith) – the beloved Aunt “Deitz”

This loss was felt especially keenly by young William, who was as devoted to her as to any other member of his extremely close-knit family.

In 1918 when the “Spanish Flu” pandemic swept over Richmond, Addie Gray became a nurse to most of her own family and the neighborhood at large. She opened her home, making it a hospital to her brother’s entire family who were sick with the dreaded and rapidly spreading infection, and she nursed her son through it and saw him recover his health. For months she toiled in hospital rooms and visited the sick all over her neighborhood, trying to bring aid and comfort wherever she could. The many weeks and months of exhausting toil wore down her constitution; by October of 1918 she had contracted the infection herself. She died on October 14, 1918 and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery next to her husband, F. Ellis Jones.

One year later, in 1919, Ella Cordelia Jones (ne. Smith) passed away. Her grandson William was at her side when she took her last breath. She was buried next to her husband in Shockoe Cemetery.

William Ellis Jones, the only child of F. Ellis Jones and Addie Gray Jones (ne. Bowles) was not yet twenty years old when cherished Aunt “Dietz”, his mother, and then his grandmother died in close succession. In the course of less than ten years he had buried every single person who was near and beloved to him.

He was a boy left alone; utterly and completely alone.

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Primary Source: The Baby Book / William Ellis Jones Jr. Family History, By William Ellis Jones Junior (1936)

Lemira Virginia Smith (1844 – 1917) | Aunt “Dietz”

House on Smith’s Hill – Destroyed in the Evacuation Fire of April 2, 1865

Lemira Virginia Smith (1844 – 1917)
Lemira Virginia Smith was the older sister of Ella Cordelia Smith, who married William Ellis Jones (1838 – 1910). The two sisters were unusually close, and remained together under the same roof for the greatest part of their lives. Lemira was born on October 12, 1844, most likely in Petersburg, Virginia. We know nothing of her childhood, except that which can be assumed from her lineage and upbringing – which she shared in common with her sister.

Her story is noteworthy on several accounts, the first of which has to do with the circumstances of her marriage to a young Confederate Army doctor, William H. Gibbs. The marriage was planned for April 8, 1865, and was to take place at her father’s home on Smith’s Hill in Richmond. This date is quite significant, as it is one day after General Robert E. Lee’s surrender of the Confederacy at Appomattox, and just a few days after the Evacuation Fire that destroyed Richmond.

Her father’s home on Smith Hill was completely destroyed in the fires that leveled Richmond. According to the family lore, the property was used by Confederate forces to hide several gunpowder magazines. This was a common practice during the Civil War; the belief being that it was better to distribute armaments in small collections all over town than to risk the capture of one, centralized storehouse. When the fire touched the gunpowder, the whole cache exploded and took the house and everything on the hill with it in a dramatic fireball.

Despite the loss of the city, the loss of her family’s home, and the uncertain, bleak cloud that hung over the prospects of every Southerner in those dark days, the marriage between Lemira and Dr. Gibbs did, in fact, take place on the appointed date. This fact demonstrates a level of fortitude and determined optimism that’s difficult to conceive of today.

It has to be assumed that Dr. William Gibbs died young, as he exits the family lore almost as soon as he enters it. We know that Lemira took up residence in the Richmond household of her brother-in-law, William Ellis Jones (1838 – 1910) and went with them to Dumbarton in the early 1880’s when he built “Summerfield”. She remained with the family in complete partnership with her younger sister for the rest of her life.

According to William Ellis Jones (1899 – 1951) “Aunt Dietz”, as she was known to him and to his father, F. Ellis, was a most beloved and cherished person who was as much a mother to them in their separate generations as their own mothers. She did not have children of her own, and the impression given by my grandfather is that she looked to her sisters children as her own; caring for them, loving them, nursing them when they were ill, and educating them as they grew. She dedicated her life to the care and bringing up of her nephews and then later to the next generation of great-nieces and nephews.
In a particularly weighty entry, my grandfather records the following:

“…She taught me to read and what to read. Half the great books that I know were read to me by her; Shakespeare, Don Quixote, and Robinson Crusoe were read aloud to me before my teens. Whatever leaning I have in the direction of tolerance was drilled into my head by her example and precept. More than any other person, she educated me and gave me the character and personality I have today.

She died just before Christmas, 1917 and I was with her at the time. Her going left a void in the world that time has not filled. I would have my children cherish her memory with love and reverence, and tell their own children of her. I cannot hope that they will be like her, for she was the product of a culture now vanished from the face of the earth.”
– William Ellis Jones (1899 – 1951)

Aunt “Deitz” is recalled in these pages, her memory honored, and her contribution noted and deeply appreciated. I wish my grandfather was here to read his recollection of her published for future generations to appreciate.

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Primary Source: The Baby Book / William Ellis Jones Jr. Family History, By William Ellis Jones Junior (1936)

Ella Cordelia Smith (1851 – 1919)

House on Smith’s Hill – Destroyed in the Evacuation Fire of April 2, 1865

Ella Cordelia Smith (1851 – 1919)
For the first time in this lengthy family history we finally get to learn something of substance in regards to the character and personality of some of the women of the family.

Ella Cordelia Smith entered the family line upon her marriage to William Ellis Jones (1838 – 1910) in 1874, and the birth of their first son, Florence Ellis Jones in 1875.

Ella was born March 14, 1851 in Petersburg, Virginia. She was the daughter of John Wesley Smith (1818 – 1854) and Francis Sephronia Osgood (1817 – 1903), who prior to the Civil War built a fine house on Smith’s Hill in Richmond. Her grandparents were, on her father’s side; John Walton Smith (1787 – 1861) and Mary Budd (unknown); and on her mother’s side; Sewell Osgood (unknown) and Francis Courtney (unknown), who was daughter of Thomas Courtney of King William County, Virginia.

Unlike most other women in our line, her lineage was carefully recorded in the family record for one crucially important reason; she was a daughter of one of Virginia’s “old” family’s. She was a child of the upper classes (as was her sister Florence, William’s first wife of 1866), and as such she elevated William’s “status” in the very status oriented society of Virginia. Ella’s people probably possessed significant wealth and property in and around Petersburg and Richmond prior to the Civil War. Whether they retained that wealth after the war is less important to the story. In the South (as it is among some of New England’s oldest families), genealogical longevity, establishment in the community and good breeding had more to do with maintaining or building social standing than did actual wealth.

William Ellis Jones (1899 – 1951), recalled his grandmother fondly in The Baby Book. He knew her personally and I cannot improve upon his impression, therefore I will not attempt it:

“…I remember her as a stately old lady with charming manners. In her girlhood she had been beautiful, and she grew old gracefully. She had a gift for social life, and among a wide circle of friends was considered an amusing conversationalist.
She was not as tolerant of the changed order of things in the South after the War as was her husband. She was born a rabid rebel and continued so until her death. She loved the South passionately and had little patience with anything north of the Mason and Dixon Line. With northern people she was polite but constrained. I think she looked on them as undesirable aliens. She lived and died completely unreconstructed…

…She was proud, proud of her class, her state, and her sons. This pride served to create in her a sense of responsibility. It forced her to walk very straight and deal very high all her days. She demanded truth and courage from all persons with whom she had to do. She did not have much patience with weakness, none at all with her own…

…If the foregoing makes her seem a hard person, I have done her a great injustice. She was (one) of the most affectionate and lovable persons, but that side of her nature was reserved for her own. She simply had no taste for the hoi polio. She was an aristocrat by nature and she lived in awareness of that fact and under the obligation of noblesse oblige.”
– William Ellis Jones (1899 – 1951)

Ella Cordelia Smith was seized by a stroke shortly after her husband’s death in 1910. She suffered paralysis and involuntary muscle seizures and cramps, causing her a great deal of pain until her death on January 19, 1919. She was cared for in her final nine years of disability by her daughter-in-law, Addie Gray Bowles, and her sister, Lemira Virginia Gibbs (ne. Smith), who resided in the Jones household.

Ella Cordelia Smith is buried next to her husband, William Ellis Jones, at the Shockoe Cemetery in Richmond.

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Primary Source: The Baby Book / William Ellis Jones Jr. Family History, By William Ellis Jones Junior (1936)

William Ellis Jones (1838 – 1910), Printer of Richmond, VA | Bibliography

William Ellis Jones, Printer of Richmond, Virginia, USA

Catalog of surviving works at the Library of Congress, as well as other titles known to have been produced under his various imprints.

1869
1] Author: Monroe, Thomas M.
Title: Remarks of Thomas M. Monroe, of Dubuque, Iowa, before the National Board of Trade, at its meeting in December, 1868, in the city of Cincinnati, on the subject of continuous water communication between the valley of Mississippi and the Atlantic seaboard.
Description: 24 p.
Imprint: Richmond : Gary, Clemmitt & Jones, printers

2] Author: National Board of Trade.
Title: Report of the committee of the National Board of Trade on a continuous water line of transportation through Virginia.
Description: 37 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Gary, Clemmitt & Jones, printers, 1869.

3] Author: Hollywood Memorial Association of Richmond (Va.)
Title: Register of the Confederate dead, interred in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Va.
Description: 116 p. : ill., map
Imprint: Richmond : Gary, Clemmitt & Jones, printers, 1869.

4] Author: Rives, William Cabell, 1825-1889.
Title: An address delivered before the Society of alumni of the University of Virginia, July 1, 1869,
Description:
Imprint: Richmond, Gary, Clemitt & Jones, printers, 1869.

5] Author: Hollywood Memorial Association
Title: Register of the Confederate Dead, interred in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Va.
Imprint:  Gary, Clemmitt & Jones, Printers, 1869,

1870
1] Author: Virginia. General Assembly.
Title: Memorial relating to water communication between the Atlantic and Mississippi / the General Assembly of the State of Virginia to the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States.
Description: 7 p.
Imprint: Richmond : Clemmitt & Jones, 1870

2] Author: Cabell, James Lawrence, 1813-1889
Title: An account of the medicinal properties of the Healing springs, Bath county, Va.,
Description:
Imprint: Richmond, Clemmitt & Jones, steam book and job printers, 1875.
Richmond, Clemmitt & Jones, printers, 1870.
Richmond, Clemmitt & Jones, printers, 1871.
Richmond, Va., Clemmitt & Jones, printers, 1873.

3] Author: Thompson, John R.
Title: Poem Read Before The Society of Alumni of the University of Virginia
Description:
Clemmitt & Jones, 1870

4] Author:
Title: Journal of the Seventy-Fifth Annual Council of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia, Held in St. Mathew’s Church
Description:
Imprint: Clemmitt & Jones (Printer), Richmond, 1870,

1871
1] Author: Van Lew, John N.
Title: Natural force. A new view, by John N. Van Lew …
Description: 36 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Clemmitt & Jones, Printers, 1871

2] Author: Uncredited (Probably the Diocese of Virginia)
Title: Journal of the Seventy-Sixth Annual Council of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia, Held in Grace Church, Petersburg ,
Description: Clemmitt & Jones (Printer), Richmond, 1871,

1872
1] Author: Imboden, John Daniel, 1823-1895.
Title: The coal and iron resources of Virginia; their extent, commercial value and early development considered. A paper read before a meeting of members of the Legislature and prominent citizens in the Capitol at Richmond, February 19th, 1872.
Description: 28 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Clemmitt & Jones, printers, 1872.

1873
1] Author:
Title: Continuous water line communications between the Mississippi and the Atlantic.
Description: 42 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Clemmitt & Jones, printers, 1873.

2] Author: Mayo, Joseph.
Title: Virginia abstractions. An address before the society of alumni of the Virginia Military Institute. Delivered July 3, 1873.
Description: 20 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Clemmitt & Jones, book and job printers, 1873.

3] Author: Craighill, Wm. P. (William Price), 1833-1909.
Title: The James River and Kanawha canal or central water line of Virginia. Report of the examination and survey of the Kanawha River, from the falls to the Ohio River. By William P. Craighill … to the third session of the Forty-second Congress of the United States.
Description: 12 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Clemmitt & Jones, book and job printers, 1873.
Richmond, Gary, Clemmitt & Jones, printers, 1869. 2d ed.
Richmond, Clemmitt & Jones, book and job printers, 1874.

1874
1] Author: Published by order of the president and directors of the James River and kanawha company.
Title: Transportation to the seaboard – The central route, from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean, by the Ohio, Kanawha and James rivers.
Description: 55 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Clemmitt & Jones, book and job printers, 1874.

2] Author: McDonald, Angus W.
Title: Reports relative to the boundary line between Maryland and Virginia.
Description: 47 p.
Title: Richmond, Clemmitt & Jones, Printers, 1874

1875
1] Author: Ainslie, Peter
Title: Life and Writings of George W. Abell
Description:
Imprint: Clemmitt and Jones, Richmond Virginia, 1875

2] Author: Ainslie, Peter, 1816-1887.
Title: Life and writings of George W. Abell1818-1874: by Peter Ainslie.
Description: xi, 227 p. front. (mounted photo.)
Imprint: Richmond, Clemmitt & Jones, 1875.

3] Author: Virginia.
Title: Boundary line between the states of Maryland and Virginia,
Description: 21 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Clemmitt & Jones, printers, 1875.

4] Author: Southern fertilizing company, Richmond, Va.
Title: Cotton
Description: 20 p. incl. tables.
Imprint: Richmond, Va., Clemmitt & Jones, printers, 1875

5] Author: Southern Fertilizing Company (Richmond, Va.)
Title: Tobacco: the outlook in America for 1875; production, consumption and movement in the United States, the German Empire, Hungary, Turkey, Cuba, Brazil, Japan, and the other tobacco-growing countries; with some observations on farm labor in the South, and a general statement of the agriculture of the United States. Presented by the Southern Fertilizing Comp’y, Richmond, Va.
Description:
Imprint: Richmond, Clemmitt & Jones, printers, 1875

6] Author: Southern Fertilizing Company (Richmond, Va.)
Title: Grain: a comparison between the cereal production of the United States and other countries, with some observations on the drift of the grain question in this country, and the ability of Virginia to continue a wheat grower with profit. The Southern Fertilizing Company, Richmond, Va.
Description: 28 p. incl. tables.
Imprint: Richmond, Clemmitt & Jones, printers, 1875

7] Author: Southall, James Cocke
Title: Cheap transportation.
Description: 39 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Clemmitt & Jones, 1875.

1876
1] Author: Corey, Charles H. (Charles Henry), 1834-1899.
Title: Historical sketch of the Richmond Institute : founded at Richmond, Va., in 1867, one of the seven institutions sustained by the American Baptist Home Mission Society for the education of teachers and preachers among the freedmen of the South / by Charles Henry Corey.
Description: 31 p. : ill.
Imprint: Richmond : Clemmitt & Jones, 1876.

2] Author: Southern Historical Society, Richmond
Title: Southern Historical Society Papers Volume I,1876,  Confederate View of the Treatment of Prisoners
Description:
Imprint:

1877
1] Author: Puryear, Bennet, 1826-1914.
Title: The public school in its relations to the negro. By Civis. Republished by request, from the Southern planter and farmer.
Description: 39 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Clemmitt & Jones, Printers, 1877.

2] Author: Southern fertilizing company, Richmond, Va.
Title: Tobacco in Virginia and North Carolina. Some observations in connection with the several types of tobacco now produced in these two states (including Dr. Voelker’s examination of our fine yellow tobacco), and on the introduction of a new type, namely, cigar tobacco. Presented by the Southern fertilizing company, Richmond, Va.
Description: 39, [1] p. illus., fold. map.
Imprint: Richmond, Va., Clemmitt & Jones, printers, 1877

3] Author: Southern Fertilizing Company (Richmond, Va.)
Title: The grain movement : some observations bearing on the production of the several countries entering into the grain market of the world / presented by the Southern Fertilizing Company, Richmond, Va.
Description: 26 p. : tables
Imprint: Richmond : Clemmitt & Jones, 1877.

4] Author: Southern Fertilizing Company (Richmond, Va.)
Title: 1877 Cotton prospects. An examination of the points of advantage peculiar to the cotton-growing interest in the Southern states. Presented by the Southern Feritlizing Company, Richmond, Va.
Imprint: 29 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Va., Clemmitt & Jones, printers, l877

5] Author: Puryear, Bennett
Title: The Public School in the Relations to the Negro. By Civis. Republished by Request of the Southern Planter and Farmer.
Description:
Imprint: Clemmitt & Jones, Steam Printers, 1877,

6] Author:
Title: Proceedings of the Senate Committee on Roads and Navigation, 2 vols. ,
Description:
Imprint: Clemmitt and Jones, Steam Printer, 1877

7] Author: Southern Historical Society, Richmond
Title: Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol III, 1877
Description:
Inprint: Clemmitt and Jones, Steam Printer, 1877

1878
1] Author: Bagby, George William, 1828-1883.
Title: Original letters of Mozis Addums to Billy Ivvins (New and rev. ed.)
Description: 118 p. 17 x 14 cm.
Imprint: Richmond, Printed for the author by Clemmitt & Jones, 1878.

2] Author: Bouldin, Powhatan, 1830-1907.
Title: Home reminiscences of John Randolph : of Roanoke / By Powhatan Bouldin.
Description: ix, 320 p. : ill.
Imprint: Danville, Va. : The author ; Richmond, Va. : Clemmitt & Jones, printers, 1878.

3] Author: Buffalo Lithia Springs, Va.
Title: Buffalo Lithia Springs, Mecklemburg County, Virginia.
Description: 54 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Clemmitt & Jones, steam printers, 1878.

1879
1] Author: Danforth, John B. & Claiborne, Herbert A.
Title: Historical sketch of the Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia, Richmond, VA., From Its Organization in 1794 to 1879.
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, 1879

Author:
2] Title: Record of the Richmond City and Henrico County Virginia Troops, Confederate States Army
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones Steam Book and Job Printer. 1879

3] Author: Jones, Rev. J. William
Title: Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. VII
Description:
Imprint:  1879

1880
1] Author: Craighill, Robert Templeman, 1843-
Title: The Virginia “peerage”; or Sketches of Virginians distinguished in Virginia’s history.
Description:
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, printer, 1880.

2] Author: Ragland, Robert L. (Robert Lipscomb)
Title: Tobacco, from the seed to the salesroom / by Robert L. Ragland.
Description: 22 p.
Imprint: Richmond : Wm. Ellis Jones, Steam Book & Job Printer, 1880.

3] Author: Paine, William G.
Title: Catalogue of a valuable collection of books,
Description: 48 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, printer, 1880.

4] Author: Green, William, 1806-1880.
Brock, R. A. (Robert Alonzo), 1839-1914.
Title: Catalogue of the … law and miscellaneous library of the late Hon. William Green … To be sold by auction, January 18th, 1881, at Richmond, Va. … John E. Laughton, Jr., auctioneer … Richmond.
Description: 210 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W.E. Jones, Printer, 1880

5] Author: William Green
Title: Catalogue of the … law and miscellaneous library of the late Hon. William Green
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, Printer, 1880

6] Author: McClellan, H. B
Title: Life, character and campaigns of Major-Gen. J. E. B. Stuart : address of Major H. B. McClellan before the Virginia Division of the Army of Northern Va., at their annual meeting, held in the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Oct. 27th, 1880.
Description:
Imprint: W. E. Jones, Steam Book and Job Printer, 1880

7] Author: Southern Historical Society, Richmond,
Title: Southern Historical Society Papers Vol. VIII May, 1880
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, Printer, 1880

1881
1] Author: Southern Historical Society, Richmond,
Title: Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume IX
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, Printer. 1881

2] Author: Archer Anderson
Title: The campaign and battle of Chickamauga: An address delivered before the Virginia Division of the Army of Northern Virginia Association, at their annual … capitol at Richmond, Va., October 25, 1881
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, Steam Book and Job Printer, 1881

1882
1] Author: Grantham, Thomas, Sir / Knight 1684 ; with an Introduction By R. A. Brock, Esquire, Secretary Virginia Historical Society
Title: An Historical Account of Some Memorable Actions Particularly in Virginia : Also Against the Admiral of Algier and in the East Indies : Performed for the Service of His Prince and Country
Description: A Bound / Flex Cover / Reprint
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones Printers, 1882

2] Author: James Grammer
Title: Pomps and vanities: A sermon preached before the Council of the diocese of Virginia, May 17, 1882
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, book and job printer, 1882

3] Author: Jones, Rev. J. William Jones
Title: Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. X
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, Printer, 1882

4] Author: Trade Committees
Title: The Advantages of Richmond, Virginia as a Manufacturing and Trading Centre
Description:
Imprint: Wm Ellis Jones Printer, 1882

1883
1] Author: Dashiell, Thomas Grayson, 1830-1893.
Title: A digest of the proceedings of the conventions and councils in the diocese of Virginia, by T. Grayson Dashiell.
Description: vii, 431 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, 1883.

2] Author: Slaughter, Philip, 1808-1890.
Title: A brief sketch of the life of William Green,
Description:
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones. 1883

3] Author: Jones, Rev. J. William; Secretary
Title: Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. XI, February and March, 1883, Nos. 2-3
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, Printer, 1883

1884
1] Author: Richmond. University.
Thomas, Jesse B. (Jesse Burgess), 1832-1915.
Title: Dedication of Jeter memorial hall.
Description: 30 p
Imprint: Richmond, W.E. Jones, printer, 1884.

2] Author: Loehr, Charles T.
Title: War history of the old First Virginia infantry regiment, Army of Northern Virginia.
Description: 87 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W.E. Jones, printer, 1884.

3] Author: John Peyton McGuire
Title: A chapter on factoring with applications to cubic and quartic equations
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, book and job printer, 1884

4] Author: English, Sir W. O.
Title: An Address Delivered Whitsuntide Before the Commandery of St. Andrew, No. 13, K. T. At St. Albans Hall…June 5, 1884
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones Book and Job Printer, 1884

5] Author: Bradley Tyler Johnson
Title: The first Maryland campaign
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, book and job printer,1884

1885
1] Author: McCrady, Edward, 1833-1903.
Title: “Gregg’s brigade of South Carolinians in the Second Battle of Manassas” : an address before the survivors of the Twelfth Regiment, South Carolina Volunteers, at Walhalla, South Carolina, August 21, 1884 / by Edward McCrady, Jr.
Description: 40 p.
Imprint: Richmond: W. E. Jones, 1885

1886
1] Author: Waddell, Jos. A. (Joseph Addison), 1825-1914.
Title: Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, with reminiscences illustrative of the vicissitudes of its pioneer settlers, biographical sketches of citizens locally prominent, and of those who have founded families in the southern and western states : a diary of the war, 1861-‘5, and a chapter on reconstruction / by Jos. A. Waddell.
Description: 374 p., [2] leaves of plates (some folded) : maps
Imprint: Richmond : W.E. Jones, 1886.

2] Author: McCrady, Edward, 1833-1903.
Title: Formation, organization, discipline and characteristics of the Army of northern Virginia.
Description: 41 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, printer, 1886.

3] Author: Waddell, Joseph A.
Title: Annals of Augusta County, Virginia with Reminiscences Illustrativeof the Vicissitudes of its Pioneer Settlers: Biographical Sketchesof Citizens Locally Prominent, and of Those Who Have Founded Familiesin the Southern and Western States ….
Description:
Imprint: William Ellis Jones, 1886

4] Author: McCrady, Edward, Jr., Lt.-Col.
Title: Formation, organization, discipline & characteristics of the Army of Northern Virginia.” An address delivered in the Hall of the House of Delegates, Richmond, Va., Thurs. Oct. 21, 1886. Published by order of the Association
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, Book and Job Printer, 1886

1887
1] Author: Robertson, Wyndham
Title: Pocahontas
Description:
Imprint: From the Press of Wm. Ellis Jones, 1887

1888
1] Author: Chesterman, William Dallas, 1845-1904.
Title: Richmond, Va.: an outline of its attractions and industries, by W. D. Chesterman.
Description: 24 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, printer, 1888.

2] Author: Waddell, Alfred M. (Alfred Moore), 1834-1912.
Title: The last year of the war in North Carolina, including Plymouth, Fort Fisher and Bentonsville : an address before the Association Army of Northern Virginia, delivered in the Hall of the House of Delegates, Richmond, Va., October 28, 1887 / by A.M. Waddell.
Description: 31 p.
Imprint: Richmond : W.E. Jones, printer, 1888.

3] Author:  Stuart, Alexander H. H. (Alexander Hugh Holmes), 1807-1891.
Title: A narrative of the leading incidents of the organization of the first popular movement in Virginia in 1865 to re-establish peaceful relations between the northern and southern states, and the subsequent efforts of the “Committee of nine,” in 1869, to secure the restoration of Virginia to the Union, by Alex. H.H. Stuart.
Description: 72 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Va., W. E. Jones, printer, 1888.

4] Author: Slaughter, Philip 1808-1890.
Title: Address at the annual meeting of the Historical society of Virginia
Description:
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, printer, 1888.

5] Author: Uncredited Editor
Title: Catalogue of the Exhibit of Relics and Antiquities at the Virginia Exposition oct. 3-Nov.21 1888
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, 1888

6] Author: Edward McCrady
Title: Heroes of the old Camden district, South Carolina, 1776-1861: An address to the survivors of Fairfield County, delivered at Winnsboro, S.C., September 1st, 1888
Description: b/w Illustration
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, printer, 1888

7] Author: William Dallas Chesterman
Title: Richmond, Va.: an outline of its attractions and industries
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, Printer, 1888

8] Author: William M. Burwell
Title: The last words from the pen of Hon. William M. Burwell,: An eminent Virginia journalist, who died March 4th, 1888
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, Printer, 1888

9] Author: Alfred M Waddell
Title: The last year of the war in North Carolina, including Plymouth, Fort Fisher and Bentonsville: An address before the Association Army of Northern Virginia, … Delegates, Richmond, Va., October 28, 1887
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, Printer, 1888

1889
1] Author: Wise, George D. [from old catalog]
Title: George D. Wise ads. Edmund Waddill, … Contested Election from the Third congressional District of Virginia Brief for Contestee.
Description: 64 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Wm. Ellis Jones, 1889.

2] Author: Wright, Marcus J. (Marcus Joseph), 1831-1922.
Title: Trial of John Brown. A review of the trial of “Ossawatomie” Brown, the insurrectionist, in reply to the criticism of Dr. Herman von Holst … in his work entitled “The Constitution and democracy of the United States,” by Gen. Marcus J. Wright.
Description: 8 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Va., W. E. Jones, printer, 1889
“Reprinted from Southern historical society Papers, Richmond.”

3] Author: Wright, Marcus J. (Marcus Joseph), 1831-1922.
Title: Sketch of Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent,
Description:
Imprint: Richmond, Va., W. E. Jones, printer, 1889.

4] Author: Wise, George D.
Title: George D. Wise ads. Edmund Waddill, … Contested Election from the Third congressional District of Virginia Brief for Contestee.
Description: 64 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Wm. Ellis Jones, 1889.

5] Author: Andrew Morrison
Title: Richmond, Virginia and the new South (Engelhardt series)
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, Printer, 1889

6] Author: Kinloch Nelson
Title: The world’s conversion the church’s work: A sermon preached before the Council of the Diocese of Virginia, May 15, 1889
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, book and job printer, 1889

7] Author: Marcus Joseph Wright
Title: Trial of John Brown: A review of the trial of “Ossawatomie” Brown, the insurrectionist, in reply to the criticism of Dr. Herman von Holst … in his work … and democracy of the United States
Description:
Imprint: W. E. Jones, printer, 1889

8] Author: Virginia and Alabama Coal Company.
Title: Virginia and Alabama Coal Company. Organization, Report on the Property, Testimonials of Customers, and Mortgage Deed of the Company
Description:
Imprint: William Ellis Jones, Book and Job Printer, 1889

9] Author: Allan, Edgar
Title: Edmund Waddill, Jr., Contestant, Vs. George D. Wise, Contestee. Contested Election from the Third Congressional District of Virginia, Before the House Committee on Elections of the Fifty-First Congress Reply Brief for Contestant
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, Richmond, 1889

10] Author: Alexander H. H. Stuart
Title: A Narrative of the Leading Incidents to Secure the Restoration of Virginia to the Union
Description:
Imprint: 1889

1890
1] Author: Virginia
Title: Charter, constitution, and organization of the Prison Association of Virginia, with an address.
Description: 16 p.
Imprint: Richmond : Wm. Ellis Jones, 1890.

2] Author: Anderson, Archer, 1838-1918.
Title: Robert Edward Lee. An address delivered at the dedication of the monument to General Robert Edward Lee at Richmond, Virginia, May 29, 1890, by Archer Anderson.
Description: 45 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W.E. Jones, printer, 1890.
Pub. by the Lee Monument Association.

3] Author: Willis, Edward, 1840-1864.
Title: Memorials of Gen. Edward Willis, C. S. army, commandant of the 12th Georgia infantry who fell at the head of his regiment in the battle of Mechanicsville, May 31, 1864
Description: 31 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, steam book and job printer, 1890.

4] Author: Evander McIver Law
Title: “The Confederate revolution”: An address delivered before the Association of the Army of Northern Virginia at the meeting held in Richmond, Va., May 28th, 1890
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, Steam Book and Job Printer, 1890

5] Author: Hartley Carmichael
Title: Christianity the best working theory of life
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, book and job printer, 1890

6] Author: George D Fisher
Title: Descendants of Jaquelin Ambler: With letters from his daughter, Mrs. Col. Ed. Carrington, and extract from his funeral sermon delivered by Rev. John Buchanan
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, Steam Book and Job Printer, 1890

7] Author: Annie Jennings Wise Hobson
Title: Memorial of the unveiling of Lee’s statue,: Richmond, Virginia, May 29th, 1890
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, book and job printer, 1890

8] Author: Archer Anderson
Title: Robert Edward Lee: An address delivered at the dedication of the monument to General Robert Edward Lee at Richmond, Virginia, May 29, 1890
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, Printer, 1890

1891
1] Author: Brock, Robert Alonzo, 1839-1914.
Title: The Colonial Virginian.
Description: 22 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Va., W. E. Jones, printer, 1891.

2] Author: Pendleton, Stephen Taylor.
Title: Diagrams for grammar analysis.
Description: 12 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W.E. Jones, printer, 1891.

3] Author: Brooke, John Mercer, 1826-1906.
Title: The Virginia, or Merrimac; her real projector.
Description: 34 p. incl. diagrs.
Imprint: Richmond, Va., W. E. Jones, book and job printer, 1891.

1892
1] Author: Williams, John Skelton, 1865-1926.
Title: The credit of the South: viewed from a state, municipal and general standpoint. Address delivered before the Commercial club of Nashville, Tenn., May 24th, 1892. By John Skelton Williams.
Description: 64 p.
Imprint: Published/Created: Richmond, Va. W. E. Jones, printer, 1892.

2] Author: Brock, R.A.
Title: Colonial Virginian: An Address delivered before the Geographical and Historical Society of Richmond College.
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, 1891

3] Author: John M. Brooke
Title: The Virginia, or Merrimac: Her Real Projector
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, Book and Job Printer, 1891

4] Author: Unattributed
Title: Report of the Adjutant-General of the State of Virginia, for the Year 1892
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, 1892

5] Author: Newton, Virginius
Title: The Confederate states ram Merrimac or Virginia : the history of her plan and construction and her engagements with the United States fleet, March 8-9, 1862
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, book and job printer, 1892

6] Author: John Skelton Williams
Title: The credit of the South: Viewed from a state, municipal and general standpoint. Address delivered before the Commercial club of Nashville, Tenn., May 24th, 1892
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, Printer, 1892

1893
1] Author: Virginia historical society, Richmond.
Title: Proceedings of the Virginia historical society for the six months ending July 1st, 1893.
Description:
Imprint: Richmond, Va., W. E. Jones, 1893.

2] Author: Stanard, William Glover, 1859-1933.
Title: A chart of some of the descendants of Captain Thomas Harris of Henrico county,
Description: 29 p. front. (fold. geneal. tab.)
Imprint: Richmond, Va., W.E. Jones, printer, 1893.

3] Author: William Wirt Henry
Title: Address on the hundredth anniversary of the laying of the corner stone of the Capitol, Washington, D.C., September 18th, 1893
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, book and job printer, 1893

1894
1] Author: Samuel B Wallace
Title: What the national government is doing for our colored boys: The new system of slavery in the South
Description:
Imprint: Jones, printer, 1894

1895
1] Author: Stanard, William Glover, 1859-1933.
Title: A chart of the ancestors and descendants of Rev. Robert Rose, born at Wester Alves, Scotland, February 12, 1704, came to Virginia in 1725, died June 30, 1751, prepared by W. G. Stanard, for Miss Annie Fitzhugh Rose Walker.
Description: 1 p. l., fold. geneal. tab.
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, 1895.

2] Author: Clement Anselm Evans
Title: Contributions of the South to the greatness of the American union.
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, book and job printer, 1895

3] Author: Robert W Hughes
Title: Sound money: Bimetalism; a necessity of the world. The existing ratio of parity, 16, 15 1/2, 15 to 1, unalterable. The United States competent to re-establish … to silver, without foreign co-operation
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, Printer, 1895

1896
1] Author: Barnwell, Joseph W[alker] 1846-
Title: Address delivered before the South Carolina historical society, May 18th, 1880.
Description:
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, printer, 1896.

2] Author: Weeks, Stephen Beauregard, 1865-1918.
Title: “The University of North Carolina in the Civil War.” An address delivered at the centennial celebration of the opening of the institution, June 5th, 1895, by Stephen Beauregard Weeks.
Description: 38 p. – Reprinted from the Southern Historical Society Papers, vol. XXIV.
Imprint: Published/Created: Richmond, W. E. Jones, 1896.

3] Author: Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Virginia.
Title: Proceedings of the Virginia state society of the Cincinnati from the 6th of October, 1783, to the disbanding of the society on October 13th, 1824.
Description: 118 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Va., W. E. Jones, printer, 1896.

4] Author:
Title: An address delivered at the dedication of the Confederate Memorial Hall, Richmond, Va., February 22, 1896
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, Printer, 1896

1897
1] Author: Christchurch, Va. Christ church. [from old catalog]
Title: The parish register of Christ church, Middlesex county, Va., from 1653 to 1812, published by the National society of the colonial dames of America in the state of Virginia.
Description: 341 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, printer, 1897.

1] Author: South Carolina Historical Society.
Cheves, Langdon, 1776-1857,  ed.
Title: The Shaftesbury papers and other records relating to Carolina and the first settlement on Ashley river prior to the year 1676. Pub. by the South Carolina historical society, prepared for publication by Langdon Cheves, esq.
Description: 523 p. fold. map.
Imprint: Charleston, Richmond, Printed by W.E. Jones, 1897

2] Author: Hughes, Robert W. (Robert William), 1821-1901.
Title: “Editors of the past.” Lecture of Judge Robert W. Hughes, delivered before the Virginia Press Association, at their annual meeting at Charlottesville, Va., on the 22d of June, 1897.
Description: 30 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W.E. Jones, 1897.

3] Author:
Title: Comp The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Virginia from 1653 to 1812
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, Steam Book and Job Printer, 1897

4] Author:
Title: The Parish Register of Christ Church, Middlesex County, Virginia from 1653-1812.
Description:
Imprint: William Ellis Jones, Steam Book and Job Printer, 1897

1898
1] Author: Bristol Parish, Va.
Title: The vestry book and register of Bristol Parish, Virginia. 1720-1789.
Description: 419 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Va., Privately printed by W. E. Jones, 1898.

2] Author:
Title: The Confederate cause and its defenders: An address delivered before the Grand Camp of Confederate Veterans of Virginia, at the annual meeting held at Culpeper C.H., Va., October 4, 1898
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, book and job printer, 1898

1899
1] Author: Green, Bennett Wood, 1835-1913.
Title: Word-book of Virginia folk-speech, by B. W. Green.
Description: 435 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, 1899

1901
1] Author: Association for the preservation of Virginia antiquities.
Title: Charter, constitution and by-laws of the Association for the preservation of Virginia antiquities…
Description: 16 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, printer, 1901.

2] Author: Virginia Historical Society.
Title: Catalogue of the manuscripts in the collection of the Virginia Historical Society, and also of some printed papers. Comp. by order of the Executive Committee.
Description: 120 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W.E. Jones, 1901.

3] Author: Lamb, William, 1835-1909.
National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the Commonwealth of Virginia
Title: The unveiling of a tablet, erected by the Colonial dames of America in the state of Virginia, to the founders of the college of William and Mary. October 22, 1901.
Description: 47 p.
Imprint: Richmond, I. N. Jones & son print, 1901

4] Author: Uncredited
Title: Virginia School Laws, Codified for the Use of School Teachers and Officers
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, Book & Job Printer, 1901

1903
1] Author: Stanard, Mary Newton, 1865-1929.
Association for the preservation of Virginia antiquities.
Title: Jamestown and the Association for the preservation of Virginia antiquities.
Description: 8 p. pl.
Imprint: Richmond, Va., Printed for the Society by W. E. Jones, 1903

2] Author: Rev. Robert Gray
Title: The McGavock family. A genealogical history of James McGavock and his descendants from 1760 to 1903, by Robert Gray.
Description: 175 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, 1903.

3] Author: Delia B. Page
Title: Recollection od Home for My Brothers and Children
Description:
Imprint: Wm Ellis Jones, Richmond, 1903

1904
1] Author: Young, Charles P.
Title: A history of Crenshaw battery of Pegram’s battalion, Third corps, A. N. V., enlisted at Richmond, Va., March 14, 1862
Description: 26 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, printer, 1904.

2] Author: St. Peter’s Parish (New Kent County, Va.)
Title: The parish register of Saint Peter’s, New Kent county, Virginia from 1680 to 1787, published by the National society of the colonial dames of American in the state of Virginia.
Description: 206 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, Printer, 1904.

3] Author: Halsey, Don P. (Don Peters), 1870-1938.
Title: The speech of Hon. Don P. Halsey on the bill to provide a statue of Robert Edward Lee to be placed in Statuary Hall in the Capitol at Washington, D. C., delivered in the Senate of Virginia, Feb’y 6, 1903.
Description: 21 p.
Imprint: Published/Created: Richmond, W. E. Jones, printer, 1904.

4] Author: Don P. Halsey
Title: A sketch of the life of Capt. Don P. Halsey of the Confederate States Army: Patriot, scholar, and counselor at law
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, Printer, 1904
5] Author: Gaston Lichtenstein
Title: Early Social Life in Edgecombe; Also Early History of Edgecombe, and A Tarborean’s Experience Abroad
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, Book and Job Printer, 1904

1905
1] Author: St. Peter’s Parish (New Kent County, Va.)
Title: The vestry book of Saint Peter’s, New Kent County, Va. From 1682-1758. Pub. by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the  State of Virginia …
Description: 242 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, book and job printer, 1905

2] Author: John Lamb
Title: Presentation of the portrait of Gen. Thomas T. Munford, to R.E. Lee Camp, No. 1, C.V.,: At Richmond, Va., March 24, 1899
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, book and job printer, 1905

3] Author: Virginia Historical Society
Title: The Virginia Historical Society – Vol. XII
Description:
Imprint: William Ellis Jones, Printer Richmond, Virginia, 1905

1906
1] Author: Park, Robert Emory, 1844-
Title: Sketch of the Twelfth Alabama Infantry of Battle’s Brigade, Rodes Division, Early’s Corps, of the Army of Northern Virginia, by Robert Emory Park.
Description: 106 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, book and job printer, 1906.

2] Author:
Title: General Lee’s strategy at the Battle of Chancellorsville: A paper read by request before R.E. Lee Camp no. 1, Confederate Veterans
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, Book and Job printer, 1906

1907
1] Author: Thomas, R. S. (Richard Samuel), 1837-1914.
Title: The loyalty of the clergy of the Church of England in Virginia to the colony in 1776 and their conduct / by R.S. Thomas.
Description: 22 p.
Imprint: Richmond : W.E. Jones, 1907.

2] Author: Green, Bennett Wood, 1835-1913.
Title: How Newport’s News got its name. [By] B. W. Green.
Description: 142 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, book and job printer, 1907.

3] Author: Uncredited
Title: Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac RR and Washington Southern Railway between Richmond and Washington and Intermediate Stations
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, printer, 1907

4] Author: Harry C Townsend
Title: Townsend’s diary: Last months of the war, January-May, 1865. A diary from Petersburg to Appomattox; thence to North Carolina to join Johnston’s army
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, book and job printer, 1907

1908
1] Author: Protestant Episcopal church in the U. S. A. Virginia (Diocese)
Title: Journal of the special council of the Protestant Episcopal church in the diocese of Virginia, held in St. Paul’s church, Alexandria, on Wednesday, December 16th, 1908.
Description: 18 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, printer, 1908.

2] Author: Lichtenstein, Gaston, 1879-1954.
Title: A visit to Young’s pier at Atlantic City, N.J.; also, When Edgecombe was a-borning, The word sheriff, and Products of colonial North Carolina. By Gaston Lichtenstein …
Description: 15 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Va., W.E. Jones, printer, 1908.

3] Author: Lichtenstein, Gaston, 1879-1954.
Title: Early history of Tarboro, North Carolina : also collated colonial public claims of Edgecombe County : and Easter Sunday in Savannah, Ga. / by Gaston Lichtenstein.
Description: 16 p.
Imprint: Richmond : W. E. Jones, book and job printer, 1908.

4] Author: Protestant Episcopal Church, Diocese of Virginia
Title: Journal of the 113th Annual Council of the Protestant Episcopal Church.Diocese of Virginia the 20th, 21st, and 22nd of May,1908
Description:
Imprint:William Ellis Jones, 1908

1909
1] Author: Christian, George Llewellyn, 1841- [from old catalog]
Title: Abraham Lincoln. An Address Delivered Before R. E.lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans At Richmond, Va. On October 29th, 1909
Description:
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, printer, 1909.

2] Author: Talcott, Thomas Mann Randolph, 1838-
Title: Stuart’s cavalry in the Gettysburg campaign.
Description: 19 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, printer, 1909.

3] Author: Robinson, Leigh.
Title: Address delivered before R.E. Lee camp, C.V. at Richmond, Va., December 18th, 1908,: In the acceptance of the portrait of General William H. Payne
Description:
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, printer, 1909.

4] Author: McCabe, William Gordon
Title: Brief Sketch of Andrew Reid Venable, Jr.
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, 1909

5] Author: Bryan, Joseph
Title: Christian Stewardship an Address Delivered Before the Y.M.C.A. Of Richmond College on February 20, 1908
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, Book and Job Printer, 1909

6] Author: Randolph H McKim
Title: Gen. J.E.B. Stuart in the Gettysburg campaign: A reply to Col. John S. Mosby (Southern Historical Society Papers)
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones, Book and Job printer, 1909

7] Author: McCabe, W. Gordon
Title: Joseph Bryan a Brief Memoir
Description:
Imprint: Virginia Historical Society/Wm. Ellis Jones, Printer to the Society, Richmond, Virginia, 1909

8] Author: Thomas Mann Randolph Talcott
Title: Stuart’s cavalry in the Gettysburg campaign: By Colonel John S. Mosby
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, Printer, 1909

1910
1] Author: Goodwin, Edward Lewis, 1855-1924.
Title: The first convention of the diocese of Virginia; an address delivered before the council of the diocese in St. John’s Church, Richmond, May 18, 1910, by Edward L. Goodwin.
Description: 35 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, printer, 1910

2] Author: Lewis, Samuel E., Dr.
Title: The Treatment of Prisoners-of-War 1861-1865
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones The Confederate memorial Literary Society, Richmond, Va., 1910

3] Author: Samuel E Lewis
Title: The treatment of prisoners-of-war, 1861-1865
Description:
Imprint: W.E. Jones, Printer, 1910

1911
1] Author: Stanard, William Glover, 1859-1933.
Title: Some emigrants to Virginia : memoranda in regard to several hundred emigrants to Virginia during the colonial period whose parentage is shown or former residence indicated by authentic records / compiled by W.G. Stanard.
Description: 79 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Va. : For sale by the Bell Book & Stationery Co., Wm. Ellis Jones’ Sons, Inc., 1911

2] Author: Cabell, James Branch, 1879-1958.
Title: Branch of Abingdon, being a partial account of the ancestry of Christopher Branch of “Arrowhattocks” and “Kingsland” in Henrico County, and the founder of the Branch family in Virginia, by James Branch Cabell.
Description: 126 p., plates.
Imprint: Richmond, Va., Printed by Wm. E. Jones’ Sons, 1911

3] Author: Freight claim association.
Title: Constitution, rules and ruling of the Freight claim association as ammended at twenty-sixth annual session
Description: 150 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Va., William Ellis Jones sons, printers, 1911.
Richmond, Va., Wm. Ellis Jones’ sons, inc., 1913.
Richmond, Va., Wm. Ellis Jones sons printers, 1914.
Richmond, Va., Wm. Ellis Jones sons printers, 1915.
Richmond, Va., Wm. Ellis Jones sons printers, 1916.
Richmond, Printed by Wm. Ellis Jones’ sons, inc., 1917.

1912
1] Author: Green, Bennett Wood, 1835-1913.
Title: Word-book of Virginia folk-speech, by B. W. Green.
Description: 530 p.
Imprint: Richmond, Wm. Ellis Jones’ sons, inc., 1912.

2] Author: Baskervill, P. Hamilton (Patrick Hamilton), 1848-
Title: Genealogy of the Baskerville family and some allied families, including the English descent from 1266 A.D. By Patrick Hamilton Baskervill.
Description: 214 p.
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones’ sons, 1912.

1913
1] Author: Stanard, Mary Newton, 1865-1929.
Title: John Marshall; an address by Mary Newton Stanard read before the Association for the preservation of Virginia antiquities at the opening of the John Marshall house, March 27, 1913, together with a description of the house and its contents.
Description: 39 p. plates,
Imprint: Richmond : Wm. Ellis Jones’ Sons, Inc., printers, 1913.

2] Author: Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities
Title:Yeare Booke of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities for 1911-1912
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones’ Sons, Inc., 1913

1915
1] Author: McIntosh, David Gregg, 1836-1916.
Title: The campaign of Chancellorsville, by David Gregg McIntosh.
Description: 59 p.
Imprint: W. E. Jones’ sons, inc., printers, 1915

2] Author: McIntosh, David Gregg
Title: The Campaign of Chancellorsville
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones’ Sons, Inc., Printers, 1915

3] Author: Cabell, James Branch
Title: THE MAJORS AND THEIR MARRIAGES
Description:
Imprint: Wm. Ellis Jones’ Sons, Inc.,1915

1916
1] Author: Baskervill, P. Hamilton (Patrick Hamilton), 1848-
Title: The Hamiltons of Burnside, North Carolina, and their ancestors and descendants … By Patrick Hamilton Baskervill.
Description: xii, 158 p. front., plates, ports., double map.
Richmond, Va., W. E. Jones’ sons incorporated, 1916.

1917
1] Author: Baskervill, Patrick Hamilton, 1848-
Title: Additional Baskerville genealogy;
Description:
Imprint: Richmond, Va., W. E. Jones’ sons, Inc., 1917

1919
1] Author: Virginia War History Commission
Title:Virginia War History Commission Plans and Personnel ….: A Message from the Chairman to the Members,Associate Members nd Especially to the Local Members of Each Cityand County in Virginia… to deal with World War I, plus message from Chairman A.K. Davis with notes on how to proceed ; No. 1, Publications of Virginia War History Commission Series; 23 pages Very Good
Description:
Imprint: William Ellis Jones, 1919

NO DATE
1] Author: Richmond. Chamber of Commerce.
Title: Reports.
Description:
Imprint: Richmond, W. E. Jones, book and job printer. [no date]

Thomas Norcliffe Jones (1800 – 1867)

Thomas Gravestone at Shockoe Cemetery

Thomas Norcliffe Jones (1800 – 1867)
The Welsh immigrated to America in relatively small numbers as compared to the Irish and Scots, Germans and Dutch, but they did migrate. The largest majority of Welsh immigrants arriving in the United States in the 19th century came through Utica, New York, Pittsburg Pennsylvania, and in later waves to Nevada and Utah. There was absolutely nothing in Richmond, Virginia in the era just after the War of 1812 to lure an “average” Welshman. Upon further consideration, there were more than a few things working against Richmond, as compared with places like New York, Philadelphia, or Boston.

For instance; Richmond, even in those first decades following the Revolution, was already beginning to feel “antebellum”. The city was small and isolated compared to her aforementioned northern kin. In her isolation she was already taking on that aura of southern self-superiority; a pretense to a uniquely southern version of aristocracy that in later decades she’d become so (in)famous for.

Richmond – unlike New York, Philadelphia, and Boston – was no longer a city of immigrants. While it seems almost absurd to a European today to consider a heritage of three or four generations “old”, Richmond (and the whole state of Virginia for that matter), took considerable pride in her “Old Dominion” lineage. Her “old” families could claim their residency in Virginia going back to the seventeenth century. For them that was something quite distinctive. By the 1820’s anyone arriving in Richmond with an accent was permanently labeled an “immigrant” (even if his accent was “Boston Brogue”). He and his progeny were doomed to dwell on the outskirts of the clannish “Old Virginia” community.

Richmond had no industry to speak of in those early days. Its only vitality was as a port town situated on the James River. Like every other place of any significance in the world, its location was predestined by an accident of geography; the James River crosses a fault line creating a series of treacherous rapids in the river. In 1607 Captain Christopher Newport and his band of explorers disembarked their canoes at the cataract of the James near the area of what is now Richmond in the place then known as “Shokoe”. They found a large and bustling town already there; a central capital of the Powhatan Confederacy. Captain Newport and his companions made themselves at home, helping themselves to the Indians food and hospitality. A few years later, after many of the Indians had been killed off by violence and disease, white colonists from Jamestown built log cabins on the banks of the James at Shokoe and carved out small farms and early tobacco plantations.

The rapids that Newport encountered in 1607 form a natural barrier to traffic moving downriver to the Chesapeake Bay and traffic moving upriver toward the inland areas of central Virginia. It’s a choke point that created a perfect trade zone, first for the Powhatan nation, and later for the white colonists. By 1820 Richmond was home base to warehouse owners and shipping interests who thrived on traffic and supplies going in both directions. The town became a center of commerce between massive tobacco and cotton plantations to the west and the big-city buyers in the northeast of the United States and abroad. In the year 1832, not long after Thomas arrived, the total population of Richmond and its outlying neighborhoods was 28,798 persons; including 13,474 whites, 12,279 slaves, and 3049 free blacks.[2] The population breakdown is striking; almost half the population of this city exists in lifelong, perpetual bondage, with no opportunity for self-determination whatsoever.

A large and profitable part of Richmond’s’ commerce involved slaving and slaves; some imported directly from Africa, some from holding zones in the Caribbean Islands, some “bred” as a unique sort of “cash crop” on breeding plantations in Virginia. Shockoe Bottom, the oldest part of town, served as Richmond’s slave market; the busiest one north of New Orleans. It’s estimated that just between 1830 and 1840, more than 10,000 slaves per year (100,000) were sold or traded from the market at Shockoe to work on plantations in inland Virginia, or sent into the Deep South to work in cotton, rice, and sugar.  Shockoe Bottom also has the notorious distinction as hosting the burial ground for thousands of enslaved Africans, including an untold number who died in holding at the market while awaiting their sorrowful fate. [3]

Today we look upon this period in American history as if was nothing more than a terrible nightmare to be shaken off and forgotten. The reality is harder to swallow. America’s origins are hard and brutal. The place itself was so remote and isolated from the rest of the so-called civilized world, that it gradually evolved its own unique systems and rationalized ethics in order to deal with and overcome insurmountable challenges; slavery was one of those systems.

Slavery went on unchecked for as long as it did because the south was considered a social and cultural backwater that didn’t really matter to the rest of the United States – except as a location for the extraction of natural resources and commodities in order to feed (as cheaply as possible) the growing demands from political and financial centers in the northeast of the United States, and abroad.

In that one respect the American South was exactly like Wales.

If Wales was a backwater as compared to the rest of Europe, then this place “Virginia” was cast off the far edge of the Universe. When Thomas Norcliffe disembarked at Shockoe, he stepped into a world that was so far removed from his concept of civilization that it may as well have been another planet.

He left a nation that was decimated by industrial pollution, with cities crowded cheek by jowl with overpopulation. Virginia was still relatively pristine and thinly populated, as its native population had been exterminated by violence and disease one hundred years earlier. He left a nation that was struggling with the concept of libertarianism, demanding civil rights, and organizing the first effective labor movements. Richmond was the capital of a slave-based economy that conversely claimed to be the origin of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the birthplace of Democracy.

The duality of the place must have struck him as almost schizophrenic. He had to have marveled at the yawning gulf of disparity between the privileged upper class aristocrats and the lower class “poor whites”, as compared to the Africans (who were as debased and miserable as anything he ever could have imagined in his worst nightmares.) He had to have asked himself what kind of madmen ran the place!

What did he think? We can’t ever really know. His initial impression of the social order and civic morality of the society must have been shocking – if not absolutely horrifying.

There are so many questions that we cannot know the answers to. What we do know is that Thomas Norcliffe Jones applied for citizenship in the United States in 1840 and won it in 1843 after renouncing all allegiance to “…any foreign princes, potentates, and… particularly to Queen Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland…” I know that in his application he indicated that his trade was that of a stone mason; which is an absolute fabrication. (If he was a stone mason, then Merthyr Tydfill was also a “paradise”!)

I know that he married a widow named Margaret Dickey (maiden named White), and they had two children together; my great-great-grandfather William Ellis Jones, and a daughter named Mary who died in childhood. I know that Thomas Norcliffe died in 1867 and is buried at Shockoe Cemetery in Richmond; just steps from where he would have first disembarked the vessel that carried him inland from his month-long Atlantic Crossing from Wales.

Here’s what little I think I know about Thomas Norcliffe Jones. According to my grandfather, William Ellis Jones (who was his great-great-grandson), he left his Methodist affiliations behind him in Wales and joined the Presbyterian Church in Richmond; a more conservative union than the laissez faire southern Methodists (who were an altogether different breed than their fiery Welsh cousins.) He was a pious Christian and staunchly orthodox in terms of his religious views, though somewhat inexplicably we know for certain fact that he was also a slaveholder – a situation that would have appalled his relations in Wales.

Beyond these spare details, there’s not much else to do but speculate about his motivations and aspirations in coming to Virginia.

If he was, like so many other immigrants who came to America, trying to escape something, the following are a few things that I’ve contrived as likely possibilities:

• His brother William’s fame and the shadow he felt it cast upon him, or…
• His brothers (both William and John Ellis) radicalism and incessant agitating and obsession with politics, or…
•  The political and social climate in Wales, which – at the point of his departure from the country – was on the constant brink of violent revolt.

We know he wasn’t escaping poverty or unemployment. His family was well-off, owned property and printing firms all over Wales. Any number of them would have put him in a good situation with a future if he’d wanted that.

We know that Thomas Norcliffe was not ambitious. He wasn’t a dreamer seeking fame and fortune. After arriving in Richmond he kept a simple shop in a neighborhood north of the main city where he sold dry goods, cloth, and hardware. He wasn’t active in the community; not a Mason or a member of any of the large variety of societies that thrived in Richmond’s very energetic social landscape. He was a member of the Presbyterian Union, but he departed from its staunch Puritanical views where it suited him. He educated his son as he had been educated; in the classical study of Latin and Greek, mathematics, and classic literature. He bought a good deal of land all around the growing city, and over time consolidated his holdings until he was well-off financially, situating himself firmly into the upper “middle class” of Richmond’s economically divided population. He was a “have” among a majority population of “have nots”.

He brought slaves into his household to serve the family, despite everything he’d been exposed to in Wales (a nation which leaned toward a more literal definition of the concepts of freedom and liberty than the one actually practiced in the United States.)

As a father to his son William, he was dedicated. As a Virginian he staked no substantial claim. As a Richmonder, all that is left of him is his gravestone in what is now a very bad part of that very troubled city.

If my reader detects that I am harsh in judgment against the character of my ancestor, he is correct. I find it incomprehensible that a man with his background could arrive in a new country in the 19^th century and settle on the conclusion that it was alright to own slaves. He knew better. Unlike the vast majority of “old” Virginians (of whom I am descended on my maternal side), he was, by birth and association, deeply inculcated into a more progressive and morally leveled philosophy.  They (the old Virginians) had an excuse; they’d never known anything different over the course of four or five generations. Their logic and morality was selective and skewed, but at least they could fall back on the position of “tradition” as a final refuge.

Thomas Norcliffe Jones knew better. He’d seen the desperation of workers in the coal fields, the misery of child labor at the iron foundries at Merthyr. He’d seen the oppression and the degradation of his own people under the boot of aristocratic “masters”. He saw firsthand the unrest and revolts fomenting in Wales as a result of brutal disenfranchisement of an increasingly more disaffected population. Still he allowed himself to settle into the role of slave-owner. His decision; as a Welshman, as an educated man, as a Bible-thumping Presbyterian, is a complete mystery to me. If there was any real morality that the pious Thomas Norcliffe Jones faithfully adhered to, it was the morality of expediency and convenience.

Thomas Norcliffe was in my opinion, a hypocrite of epic proportions who sold out everything his family had struggled toward, for the convenience of not having to clean up his own messes, do his own laundry, or cook his own food. The greater evil is that he participated in (supported!) a practice that systematically dismantled the lives and hopes of half the population and inevitably lead to the fracturing of the Union – socially, economically, politically, spiritually, and civilly.

The greatest evil of all is that he raised his only son to believe in that corrupt and doomed system so passionately that his son was willing to risk his life to preserve it.
—–

Thomas Norcliffe landed in Richmond at least ten years before his next closest cousins, Richard Evan Jones and Lewis Evan Jones, made their journey across the Atlantic. We know that there was some contact between the relocated families in America, and we have to presume that there was contact between Thomas and his family in Wales. However, with thousands of miles, oceans and vast unsettled landscapes separating him from his relatives in every direction, communication was difficult and maintaining real, meaningful relationships was impossible.

Thomas Norcliffe was cast away from everything and everyone familiar. His immigration to Virginia marks the first and most permanent breach between the blood relations of this family in centuries, maybe the first in a thousand years.

It’s at this point of irrevocable physical and psychological breach that the struggle for the American way of life begins.

 No Time for Romance
Given what we know of Thomas Norcliffe Jones, I feel safe in assuming he was not a romantic. Which is a shame, given that he was well-educated, young and handsome in a city that was – if you could glance past the slave markets and avoid the gallows at the courthouse square – one of the most beautiful, enchanting, romantic little towns in the western hemisphere.

Even as early as 1820, when Thomas Norcliffe would first have been resident there, the city’s many grand homes, all different but equally lavishly furnished with every manner of fine thing, each one complimented by lush, rambling gardens, were a testament to Richmond’s extravagant wealth and gentle, neo-aristocratic tastes. Her public buildings were rambling stone marvels, designed by the most eminent architects of the day. They were built to a style and scale whose sole purpose was to inspire awe in the heart of anyone who passed through their halls. The city’s streets were paved with brick and granite cobbles, and her walkways were lined with majestic trees forming broad shaded canopies under which happy, well-to-do people promenaded from neighbor to neighbor, taking part in Richmond’s greatest industry – socializing.

The place simply oozed with a certain sort of dilatorius confidence. She wasn’t in a rush to accomplish anything at all. She didn’t need to; she was beautiful and rich and charming. In those grand old days of the American South, what more could any handsome young man with a few coins in his pocket ask for?

But Thomas Norcliffe Jones was not a romantic, and the city of Richmond, with all her pretty pretensions and coquettish charms, didn’t impress him. He had serious things on his mind. He was a serious man.

Like his father, David Ellis Jones, Thomas didn’t determine to marry until he was financially established. When he did choose a wife it was a practical matter. Instead of choosing a local Richmond belle, he selected a girl from sturdy Irish heritage. It’s likely that neither of them were particularly romantic, as she was probably close to 30 years old when they married. Her name was Margaret White, and she was born in Ballymena, in the parish of Racavan, in Ireland in 1806. Before Margaret left Ireland for Virginia, she’d probably seen enough of famine, plague, violence, and destitution to fill a hundred novels. Her choice to leave Ireland isn’t hard to fathom – it was an escape. That is the story of the Irish in America. It’s a consistent one from Boston and New York, to New Orleans, and even to the remote northern “suburbs” of Richmond, Virginia. The Irish were the epitome of an oppressed people fleeing to a new country in order to find the simplest things; work and bread. Despite it all they kept their humor and made the most of the immigrant experience. In many respects America’s contemporary character has taken more from the adaptable and indomitable spirit of the Irish than it has from its more stoic, rigid English ancestors.

That said, Margaret was originally from at least a little bit of English blood – and a protestant. (I know this because Thomas, with his fire and brimstone, reformed church views would have been deeply anti-Catholic.) Somewhere way, way back in her line was a father of good old, reformed church, English stock who had been imported to Ireland by the likes of Sir Walter Raleigh or his brother Humphrey Gilbert. This would have been during the early waves of brutal subordination of the “Savage Celts” and English colonization of that rebellious and difficult island, whose unhappy result is only in our lifetime starting to find reconciliation.

Thomas and Margaret had that much in common; a disdain for the British. They were both immigrants in a town that wasn’t particularly fond of foreigners. Beyond that, it’s impossible to know what the attraction between them was, but it probably had as much to do with expediency and convenience as anything else.

Given her age, Margaret’s late marriage to Thomas Norcliffe Jones was certainly a fortunate match. I think perhaps that it was at least as fortunate for Thomas as it was for Margaret.

———————————————–
Primary Source: The Baby Book | William Ellis Jones Jr. Family History, By William Ellis Jones, Jr. (1936)

2] American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge for the Year 1832, Boston | Gray and Bowen

3] Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality – The Significance of Shockoe Bottom
See: http://defendersfje.tripod.com/id33.html

Florence Ellis Jones (1875 – 1910)

F. Ellis Gravestone at Shockoe Cemetery

Florance Ellis Jones (1875 – 1910)
Florence Ellis Jones was the eldest son of William Ellis Jones (1838 – 1910) and Ella Cordelia Smith (1851 – 1919). He was born May 29, 1875 in Richmond, in the final days of the Federal occupation of Richmond following the Civil War.

His father was a proud Confederate War veteran. His mother was a product of the southern aristocracy and an unreconstructed rebel until her dying days. He was born in a rambling three story brownstone town house in one of Richmond’s best, upper middle class neighborhoods, and he spent his vacations and holidays in the family’s spacious second home “Summerfield”, in the country north of the city.  His father William was an established, successful, and well-respected businessman. William and his wife Ella Cordelia (ne. Smith) moved in the very best social circles in town, and indeed in all of Virginia. F. Ellis was doted on by a devoted aunt, his mother’s sister Lemira Virginia Gibbs (ne. Smith), who dedicated her life to the care of her adopted Jones relations. “Ellis”, her oldest nephew, was her presumed favorite among the three sons born into that clan.

Florence Ellis Jones godfather was the Right. Reverend Francis McNeece Whittle, D.D., who had become assistant bishop of the Episcopal Church in 1867 and became the fifth Bishop of Virginia in 1876. Reverend Whittle was one of William Ellis Jones closest friends and a source of not-insignificant income to William’s business through printing contracts with the Diocese of Virginia.

Unlike his father William, who was the son of a stern and somewhat resentful emigrant, Florence Ellis Jones had every advantage imaginable. His father was a generous and affectionate man, a progressive thinker with tolerant tendencies and a philosophical bent that made him amiable and warmly welcomed in any company he chose to move in. His mother was a socialite from the best stock that “old Virginia” could produce. F. Ellis Jones was educated at the McGuire’s School in Richmond (one of the best, most rigorous, and highly respected private preparatory schools in all of Virginia) and later at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. (He didn’t graduate.)

When Federal Troops pulled out of Richmond as a result of the Compromise of 1877 (F. Ellis was just two years old), the social order of the town quickly reverted to the way things were prior to the Civil War. While it’s true that most of the major industry of the city had been dismantled or destroyed, it didn’t take long for new money to arrive in town and start up a new wave of building and investing. This created an economic and population boom that didn’t cease until the 1950’s. Civilly and socially, any temporary advantages gained by former slaves and their supporters after the Civil War and during Reconstruction almost instantly reversed to the pre-slavery status quo.

By the time F. Ellis Jones was coming of age, Jim Crow was in full effect. African Americans were disenfranchised once more and subjugated by new laws and compensation systems which differed from slavery only in name, but not in intent or in effect. In many ways African-Americans were sometimes worse off under the post-Reconstruction system than they had been prior to the abolition of slavery. In the post-reconstruction era they did not enjoy the protection and obligation of care that they had in the days prior to emancipation, and they were deprived of the legal protections they enjoyed under Reconstruction. (Despite our contemporary horror at the idea of slavery, this fact is supported by many narratives recorded by former slaves in the decades after slavery was abolished.)

What we know about F. Ellis Jones is hardly insignificant, though it lacks a good deal considering his relative closeness to our time.

We know he was a member of the Democratic Party in Virginia (the conservative, segregationist segment of the body politic that was in the majority in post-Reconstruction Virginia.) [1]

We know he went to work in his father’s printing business and that the business adjusted its imprint accordingly; from “William Ellis Jones – Printer” to “William Ellis Jones & Sons – Printer”. This is an indication that at least in appearance, F. Ellis (and possibly his younger brothers) were considered by their father to be near partners, and certainly heirs to the operation.

We know that he shared his father’s appreciation for literature. He tried his hand at writing short stories, some of which appeared in the Argosy under “F. Ellis Jones” [2] and possibly under the nomme de plume “Fitzgerald Ellis Jones.” He also, according to my grandfather, was for a time co-editor of the old Richmond Journal (competitor to and eventually acquired by the Richmond Times Dispatch.)

On October 18, 1898 (when he was just twenty-three years old), he married Addie Gray Bowles (1881 – 1918), the daughter of an old and very prominent Virginia family with roots in the western part of the state and in Richmond. (We’ll learn more about Addie Gray Bowles later in this chapter.) Together they had only one child; William Ellis Jones (1899 – 1951), my grandfather.

F. Ellis Jones, at least later in his life, became a deeply religious man and inclined himself to the “high” side of the Episcopal Church. He was a vestryman and warden of the Church of the Holy Comforter in Richmond, and his friendship with the rector, John H. Dickinson, was one of the bright spots of his last days. He expressed to his immediate family that he regretted not taking orders and entering the ministry. This predilection for an intense level of faith may have been brought about by the fact that early in his life he contracted tuberculosis, which damaged his health and rendered him fragile throughout the greatest part of his adulthood. [3]

Since his son knew him personally and wrote from experience and observation, I’ll let his voice contribute to our portrait:

“…As I remember him and heard him spoken of, he was a serious man and a good husband and father. I do not believe that he ever developed the broad tolerance that made his father a philosopher, but that well might have come with the years. He had some literary talent which fell short of genius…

…His love for my mother was deep and lasting, and his letters to her, some of them written after ten years of marriage, are the best writing he ever did….

…I inherited one trivial trait from him – his love for tobacco. He was passionately fond of smoking and died with a cigar in his hand.
– William Ellis Jones (1899 – 1951)

Unfortunately Florence Ellis Jones was not long-lived. He died due to complications resulting from tuberculosis on November 16, 1910. He was just thirty-four years old. He was survived by his widow, Addie Gray Bowles and his young son, William Ellis Jones, who was just ten years old when his father passed away.

He was buried on November 18, 1910 in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.

Addie Gray Bowles and her young son remained in Richmond with her in-laws until her own death in 1918. It is to be presumed that she and her son were supported by her father-in-law and her brothers-in-law during this period.  It’s unusual that she would have stayed with her in-laws; tradition usually dictating that a young widow returned to her family of origin upon the death of a spouse. In this case there seems to have been an especially close tie to her husband’s people in Richmond.

———————–

1] The Richmond Times Dispatch., October 01, 1903, Page 2

2] “Two Scoops” By F. Ellis Jones, appeared in The Argosy, v 36 #2, May 1901, Frank A. Munsey, editor.  pp. 247

3] The Baby Book | William Ellis Jones Jr. Family History, By William Ellis Jones Jr. (1936) Note 2