Bio: Calvin A. Jones :Pittsfield, Merrimack Co, New Hampshire

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Submitted by: Rick Giirtman  rickman@worldpath.net
Date: March 17, 2001
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From the Book
'History of Pittsfield, N. H. in the Rebellion'
by H. L. Robinson, published 1893


CALVIN A. JONES,

when a boy, was, like all healthy lads, always getting into mischief. One
day while playing beside the canal near the old grist-mill, he fell in and
came near being drowned. As he was going down the third time he was rescued
by Plummer Leavitt. Not daunted by this mishap he soon after learned to
swim, and later in life, when in the West, he performed the feat of swimming
across the Mississippi river at the Falls of St. Anthony, the distance being
more than a mile. After resting for a few minutes he swam back.

He was a son of the above Leonard Jones, and was born at Waterford, Maine,
January 25, 1835. He was but a year and a half old when his parents moved to
Pittsfield. He attended school and worked in the cotton mill until he was
twenty-one years old ; then he went to Minneapolis, Minn., to work as a
carpenter. He remained there sixteen months, then returned home and worked
in the mills at Manchester. On December 3, 1860, he was married to May F.
St Clair, a Vermont woman.

He enlisted in Company G, Seventh New Hampshire volunteers, but for certain
reasons he was transferred with one or two others to Company D, of the same
regiment. After the command reached Dry Tortugas island, Jones was detailed
to work in the bake-house. This was in Fort Jefferson. The three ovens were
in one of the casemates of the fort; no air or light could enter the room
except through the door and one port-hole; it was a fearfully hot place,
and to men who had been exposed to the rigor of a severe winter, as these
men had (see account of J. C. Morrill), it was no wonder that Jones broke
down, especially since he was obliged to work from 6 a. m. to 10 or 12
p. m. It was necessary to do this in order to cook bread for the 1,800 men
who garrisoned the fort. Such exposure and overwork produced heart
disease, and he was discharged July 20, 1862, but was unable to reach home
until two months later.

Mr. Jones is now living at West Chester, Penn.