Built by Marcus Jones in the mid -1890's . . . . today it is owned by  Camp Rockmont on Lake Eden Road, Black Mountain,
 North Carolina.
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                                                   by Iris Teta Eubank Wagner

MARCUS MALONEY JONES was born on December 7, 1846, in the Old Jones House at Sulphur Springs, Enka, North Carolina, along Hominy Creek.  His parents were JOSHUA R. JONES and LAURA  MARINTHIA GARMAN.

RACHEL JANE STEPP JONES was born on December 15, 1846, in the Stepp House which had nestled into the beautiful North Fork valley of the Swannanoa since the 1830's in east Buncombe County, North Carolina.  The house had been built by Rachel's parents, JOSHUA P. and ISABELLA PORTER STEPP, or by their parents JOSEPH and RACHAEL WATERS STEPP, who had moved to Buncombe County from Wilkes County, North Carolina by 1830. 
Wagner photo 
 

   Marcus and Rachel Jones Bible

After the deaths of Marcus and Rachel, this Jones Bible was cared for by WINFRED and MARTHA GIBBS JONES at their home in Black Mountain, North Carolina, and later at their farm at Lake Toxaway, near Brevard, North Carolina.    At Martha and Winfred's deaths the Bible was inherited by their daughter DIXIE JONES JORDAN, and she and her family have treasured it since.                                                  
                    
                                                                  Rachel Jane Stepp Jones
                                                                                    Frances B. Whisenhunt collection

I want to thank my Aunt Dixie for her generosity in sharing this Jones Bible with family researchers during our most recent Jones reunion in June, 2010.  Several previously unknown family names and dates have now been provided by this treasured  book that Marcus and Rachel kept lovingly of each birth, marriage, or death of their children and several of their grandchildren.  As well, too, Marcus had written the full name of his mother in the Bible.  Previously, the middle name was found by researchers only as the letter "M."  The Bible reveals the name LAURA MARINTHIA JONES. Dixie lives in Salisbury, North Carolina, with husband James
  Dixie Jones Jordan    Jordan, and visits from children and grandchildren.                                                              
                                         
Marcus Maloney Jones was a great-grandson of Joshua and Elinor Medley Jones His name actually derived from the General Marquis de Lafayette who was so important to the military effort of the Patriots during the Revolutionary War. 

Marcus, or "Mark" as he was also known, had an Uncle Marcus Garman (brother of his mother Laura Garman Jones),  who is found in records as M. D. L. Garman, or Marquis de Lafayette Garman.  In the next generation of the family the name came to be pronounced Marcus.   M.D.L Garman died of his wounds returning home on a stagecoach during the last days of the war.

Wagner enhanced reproduction

              Marcus M. Jones and friend Malcolm Slagle

(above) Malcolm Slagle was a prisoner of war during the Civil War.  These two veterans, Malcolm Slagle and Marcus Jones, were old friends, and traveled each year to the reunions, no matter how far away they may have been held.   Marcus's wife Rachel had died when Marcus attended his last reunion in 1919.   Granddaughter Bessie Grant, through his daughter Nora Grant, accompanied him on that last reunion.

Marcus and Rachel marry in 1868 . . . . . .
Marcus, known as Mark, and Rachel, called Jennie, were married at the Methodist Tabernacle Church on Cragmont Road in Black Mountain, North Carolina.   They married on a warm spring day, three years after the War had ended, and after high country cold winter of that third year had past, and the chill after dogwoods' bloom just a memory.   The skies were now cloudless and blue.  Inside the church the pews would have been filled with friends and family from the neighborhood, and from west Asheville where Marcus lived.   They said their vows on May 26, 1868.

1870 Census, west Asheville
For the first four or five years after their marriage, Marcus and Rachel lived in west Asheville.  In 1870 they are living in an adjacent residence to Marcus's sister Talitha and her husband Eldridge Wilson.  They are living about seven residences away from Marcus's father Joshua R. Jones, who lived in his family home built in the 1840's at Sulphur Springs.

Their first two children, Nora Isabella and Joshua Alexander Jones were born at the west Asheville residence.   (more to come)

Original Narrative and Website © Iris Teta Eubank Wagner 2010