Joshua R. Jones and Laura M. Garman, Buncombe County, North Carolina, genealogy

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"He was 84 years of age and a Native of Buncombe County . . . "
This obituary for Col. Joshua Russel Jones was published in an Asheville newspaper in April, 1899. This record is held at the Pack Library in Asheville, within bound copies of Buncombe County records titled "Biographies."

''Col. Joshua R. Jones, one of Buncombe's best known citizens, died yesterday afternoon at 5 o'clock at his home on Hominy, after an illness of several weeks. The funeral services will take place tomorrow at 11 a.m., and the interment will be at the family burial ground on the old homestead.

Col. Jones was a native of Buncombe County, the place of his birth being near the mouth of Hominy Creek.* He had lived at the place where his death occurred ever since he was seven years of age.** He was a man of sterling worth and had the esteem of the people of the county in which he was born and spent the years of his long life.
                                                                              Col. Joshua R. Jones
                                                                               April 17, 1815 - April 24, 1899
                                                                        *** Photo from Frances B. Whisenhunt collection

His time was wholly given to farming and dealing in livestock and he had accumulated considerable property. During the Civil War, he was colonel in the home guard.

Col. Jones was 84 years of age having reached that age just one week before his death. He married Miss Laura M. Garman of this county about 52 years ago. His wife and four children survive, the children being Justice H. C. [Henry Calvin] Jones of Asheville, M. M. [Marcus Maloney] Jones of Black Mountain, Mrs. H. S. Harkins of Asheville and Mrs. Talitha Wilson of Hominy.'' e

* From information in this obituary record, Col. Jones was born at the home of his grandparents, Joshua and Elinor Medley Jones, who owned a large tract of land that included the mouth of Hominy Creek. Much of this tract was included in what would become the estate of George Vanderbilt in the late 19th century. Several years ago a memorial stone was placed by several descendants in honor of Joshua and Elinor at the site believed to be the old family burial ground now located on the Biltmore Estate. The stone contains the engraved names of all their children.

** If "the place" refers specifically to the house, and not only to the land, then the old log house is older than originally thought, and it would have been built by Joshua's father William Jones about the year 1822. William was the first of this lineage to be buried in the family burial ground located on the hill a few hundred feet east of the house, (shown below).

*** W. T. Robertson, Photographer and Publisher of Stereoscopic Views of Southern Scenery, Asheville, N.C.

Wagner photo

The Old Jones Log House in West Asheville
From a photo made in 1990, the white siding exterior of this house covered logs which were cut in the early 19th century. This old structure no longer stands. It stood at Enka in west Asheville along Brookside Circle, a remaining section of the old Stage Road that made its way through the Hominy Valley west of Asheville moving along the curvature of the hills.

U.S. Route 19/23 at Enka and the western end of Patton Avenue is a busy highway just a few yards back of the house shown in the photo above. The house was built probably about 1822 by Joshua's father William Jones along the old Stage Road that carried travelers farther into the southwestern North Carolina mountains before the railroad was built into the valley. Joshua inherited his share of the family farm in 1845 at the death of his father. It is probable that Joshua was living in this house with his wife Laura Garman Jones when their first child, Marcus Maloney Jones was born December 7, 1846. Within three years of his father's death, Joshua had added acreage to his farm by purchasing the inherited shares of several siblings. The farm extended some distance across land Enka later bought from descendants in the 1920's. Shown in the photo, the porch and small upper addition were likely added in later years, at the time exterior siding was added.

In the summer of 1990 I drove around this west Asheville neighborhood with my sister Betty and our mother, searching for the location of the house, as my mother knew it was still standing at the time . . . but where in the immediate vicinity she did not know. We stopped to ask a fellow who was working in his yard if he knew of the old Jones house and its location. He did know, and told us, "Though it's covered with siding now, that house was built before the Civil War, and it is all built of logs." We found the house at the lower end of Moody Avenue on Brookside Circle. I took a photo of the house at that time (see above). It was being used as a residence. In the 1920's, descendants sold the Jones farm to the Enka Corporation. My mother and her aunt FRANCES WHISENHUNT remembered the house had been used for company offices for a time until Enka built a new administration building.

A second visit to the Jones Log House in November 2009 - In recent years
the old house was destroyed by fire . . . only the chimney was left standing.

On a second visit to the site in November 2009 with a cousin, Jones family researcher Charles R. Hendrix, we were disappointed to find that the old house was not there. It had burned to the ground in recent years. Nothing remained but burned logs and scattered debris, and one standing chimney.

By the name he is called by family and friends, Bobby descends from NORA JONES STINNETTE GRANT whose son CHARLES R. STINNETTE, SR. was Bobby's grandfather. Looking closely at the charred and scattered evidence of the old logs at the site, Bobby determined that the fire had likely started in the chimney on the east end of the
house, as we discovered a pile of bricks
                                                                                                         and mortar debris among several charred logs.

Wagner photos and video

Logs on the ground at the site of the burned out house show a notched end of one log
(left, above) and old axe cuts revealed in the log at right. Photo of the remaining west end chimney is at left (below). Note the rock structure on the left of the photo is indicated too on the photo above of the house in 1990. This was the corner of a rock building which still stands in front of and to the side of the old house site. This video of the west end chimney gives a dramatic and close view of the chimney, showing first floor and second floor fireplaces. The second floor fireplace shows the marble facing still partially intact.

It is interesting to note as we looked around and studied the now lonely and vacant site, yet still with a chimney standing, we were looking at the fireplace that once held a warm and glowing fire that would have comforted our ancestors during the cold days of high country winters.

Born in 1869, Bobby's great grandmother Nora Jones was the first-born child of MARCUS and RACHEL JONES. She was not born at this site, but born about eighty residences away at the home of her parents, yet still located in the township of Sulphur Springs,

Joshua Alexander Jones
The family has always known that the second child born to Marcus and Rachel was named JOSHUA ALEXANDER JONES, for grandparents Joshua R. Jones and Alexander Porter, and that he died as an infant. They did not know where he was buried. Bobby's research of ancestral grave sites indicated that Joshua was buried at the Sardis Methodist Church Cemetery on Sardis Road in west Asheville.


      The Solitary Chimney

Searching for the infant Joshua's grave marker at Sardis, and about to give up and leave, we noticed a small rounded marker, broken from its base and leaning awkwardly. Looking more closely at the inscription, we knew we had found little Joshua's grave site. Bobby had brought cement mixture on this journey, and he re-attached the marker to its base.

Bobby has created memorials on the Find-A-Grave website. Each memorial includes the grave marker or tombstone for the individual ancestor. This is the memorial and photo of the gravestone for Joshua Alexander Jones.