BIOGRAPHY:  Colonel Tignal W. Jones - Smith County, TX

Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net
File Manager - Smith County TXGenWeb Archives
17 Jul 2002

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Copied from the H. M. Bell File, Smith County Historical Society 
Archives, Carnegie History Center, Tyler, TX

The Encyclopedia of the New West
Biographical Sketches of Their Representative Men and Women
(Published 1881)

COLONEL TIGNAL W. JONES, TYLER

Tignal W. Jones was born near Lewisburg, Franklin County, North 
Carolina, November 25, 1820.  He is of Welsh and English extraction, 
and the family settled at an early day in the history of America, in
Mecklenburg County, Virginia.  A branch of this family went to 
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, and Tignal is descended from this
branch.  His father, Willis H. Jones, was a native of Wake County, 
North Carolina; at the age of fourteen a soldier in the war of 1812; 
by occupation a farmer.  His family on both sides have always been
ready to show their patriotism, and have participated in all the 
principal wars we have ever had in this country, from the Revolution 
to the present time.  His grandfather, Tignal Jones, was a farmer in
Wake County, North Carolina, of considerable property and a large 
slave-holder.  His great-grandfather, also named Tignal Jones, was one
of the framers of the constitution of the Old North State, was in 
some way connected with the Mecklenberg declaration of Independence,
and was a soldier in the Revolution.  The mother of Tignal W. Jones,
Mary H. Taylor, was a native of Virginia, connected with the Holmes,
Fox and Gholson families of that state.  She was the daughter of
Richard Taylor, a planter and a soldier of the Revolution and the
war of 1812.  Her family were very wealthy.  Some of her brothers 
were killed in the war of 1812.  The only living brother of Tignal W.
Jones is James H. Jones, a distinguished lawyer of Henderson, Texas, 
who was a colonel of the 11th Texas infantry in the civil war, and
was shot through the body at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, and who was a
delegate to the national democratic convention at Cincinnati in 1880.
Two brothers, Simon P. and Dr. Robert T., died in the Confederate
service.  The latter was in the battle of Elkhorn, was appointed
assistant surgeon at Little Rock, and died while attending soldiers in
the hospital.  Of six sisters, Margaret is the widow of Dr. W. S. Poe;
Anna is the wife of John F. Sterne, a planter in Walker county, Texas;
Eliza is the wife of Thomas Trammell, a planter in Rusk county; Laura
married Thomson Camp, a merchant of Rusk county; Virginia N. is the
widow of Richard Hightower, late of Walker county; Josephine married
James B. Harper, merchant of Rusk County.

The father of T. W. Jones moved from North Carolina to Shelby county,
Alabama, in 1824, removed to the "Creek Purchase" in 1834, and 1852
settled in Rusk County, Texas, where he died February 16, 1861, at the 
age of sixty-two.  Both parents were exemplary members of the Methodist
church.  In their family government they treated their children as 
companions, and yet taught them to reverence, respect and obey their
parents, a course which Mr. Jones subsequently pursued in his own
family.  He attributes whatever he has achieved in life to the 
precepts and example of his parents.

After attending the various common schools wherever his father lived,
Tignal entered the Nashville University, under the celebrated Dr.
Philip Lindsley, in 1841.  In 1843-4 he studied law under Judge William
P. Chilton and Hon. F. W. Bowden with John T. Morgan, afterwards 
general and now United States senator from Alabama, and A. W. Bowie of
that state.  He was admitted to the bar by the supreme court of
Alabama in 1844, and practiced law with Hon. F. W. Bowden till the 
commencement of the Mexican war.  In 1846 he volunteered in the army 
for twelve months and served for that length of time as first-
lieutenant of Company E. of the Alabama troops, commanded by Colonel 
John R. Coffee.  With his company he participated in the siege of 
Vera Cruz, but did most service in hard marching and garrisoning the
towns of Camargo and Tampico.  From Jalapa Lieutenant Jones returned
home and resumed the practice of law with F. W. Bowden, at Talledega,
Alabama, in 1847.  In 1849 he formed a partnership with Bowie and
Curry, (J. L. M. Curry, now the distinguished Baptist preacher of 
Richmond, Virginia,) which lasted until 1856.  In the latter year Mr.
Jones moved to Tyler, Texas, where he has ever since resided.  In 1872,
he formed a partnership with John L. Henry.  In 1879 Mr. Henry chaned
his residence to Dallas, since which Mr. Jones has been practicing 
alone.

In 1861 he was a member of the Texas convention that passed the 
ordinance of secession, and framed the constitution to conform to the 
Confederate government.  In that convention he was a member of the
constitutional committee.  He was never a candidate for office, a
characteristic of the family being that they all studiously avoid
standing for political office, not even accepting the position of
delegate to the state conventions.  He voted for secession in the
convention, voted for it in the general election, and to maintain it
severed two years during the war, first as a private soldier and
afterwards as colonel of a regiment of cavalry on the Texas coast.

Colonel Jones had amassed some property by his legal practice, and 
now owns a residence, the inheritance of his wife, and some wild land
in Harrison and Anderson counties.  By the war he lost ten or twelve
negroes.  He also lost several tracts of valuable land by selling
them for Confederate paper.  All his family and his wife's family are
Democrats, and he has voted that ticket all his life.  He became a
Master Mason and a Baptist in Alabama in 1848.  Mr. Jones is also
Baptist.  He entertains that Christ came a second time at the taking
of Jerusalem by the Romasn; that He will not come again; that the end
of the world spoken of in the Bible began at the destruction of 
Jerusalem by the Romans; that the resurection from the dead takes 
place when the body dies; that the general judgment day began at 
the destruction of Jerusalem and ended with the downfall of the Roman
empire.

Colonel Jones has been twice married; first in 1854 at Talladega, 
Alabama, to Miss Mary E. Barclay, who died in six months after the
marriage.  She was the daughter of Hugh Barclay, a merchant in 
Talladega.  His second marriage was at Tyler, Texas, December 18, 
1856, to Mrs. Martha Bell, widow of F. M. Bell, a merchant, large 
landowner and pioneer settler of Tyler, where he died in 1854, and
enterprising and public spirited man, distinguished for his probity.
She had two sons when she married Colonel Jones, Bryan M. and Frank M.
Bell, both engaged as partners in the grocery business.  Frank married
Miss Sallie Swann, daughter of Thomas R. Swann, a cotton merchant of 
Tyler.  These brothers inherited from their father about twelve 
thousand acres of land and other property.  Mrs. Jones was born 
October 27, 1830, in Sumter county, Alabama.  She is the daughter of
Colonel Bryant Marsh, a native of North Carolina, a large planter and
slaveholder.  Her mother's name was Rebecca Jones, half-sister of 
James C. Jones, the famous orator and distinguished governor of 
Tennessee.  She was born in Franklin county, North Carolina, and died
in Smith county, Texas, in 1870, a devout member of the Methodist
church.  Mrs. Jones was educated at Gaston, Sumter county, Alabama.
Of her four brothers, Bryan Marsh was a colonel in the Confederate 
army and lost an arm in battle; Darius Marsh was a lieutenant in a 
Texas regiment, and was killed in one of the battles around Atlanta;
Edmond Marsh was a captain in the Confederate service, and was killed
in a batatle near Atlanta, and Peter Marsh was in the Confederate 
Army, but was disable by sickness.  All of them were gallant soldiers.  
Of her two sisters, Sarah E. is the widow of T. M. Love, and Mrs. 
Elizabeth Gaines is dead.

Colonel and Mrs. Jones have two children, only one of whom is living;
Rebecca, born in 1857, died in infancy; Mary H., born in Tyler, 
educated at home and in Hollins Institute, Virginia, married in April,
1880, Mr. S. H. Cox, a merchant of Tyler, and formerly a civil engineer
and inspector of Texas railroads.

Colonel Jones received no patrimony of any kind on entering upon the
active duties of life.  By constant and laborious effort in the law, he
accieved success and made a good name in society.  He has used as his 
motto "do right at all times and under all circumstances."  He has
observed the rule to owe no man anything, considering a condition of
hopeless indebtedness as that of a miserable slave.  He owes not one
dollar; has given liberally to all enterprises intended to promote
the welfare of the community, and is respected and honored wherever he
is known.  He has a good reputation as a lawyer, and a fair practice; 
is noted for his candor in giving his legal opinions, whether to courts
or client; never excites nor encourages litigation.  He is beloved by
his family, esteemed by his associates, and respected by his 
acquaintances.  He devotes himself to his private business, takes no
active part in politics or other agitations, and lives a quiet
comfortable life, having a fair competency.