Marshall County, West Virginia Biography of Andrew Johnson JONES ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , July 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III,pg. 155-156 ANDREW JOHNSON JONES, wholesale grocer in the City of Moundsville, Marshall County, is a grandson of Thomas S. Jones, whose parents were natives of Wales. Thomas S. Jones married Miss Shinn, a member of the family for which Shinnston, West Virginia, was named. He was born in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in 1801, and died in 1897, at the patriarchal age of ninety-six years. He came to what is now Doddridge County, West Virginia, and became the owner of a large farm property on a branch of Arnold Creek. He was one of the extensive farmers of that county, and gave to each of his sons a good farm. He and his wife died on the old homestead, and their large family of children became somewhat widely scattered. The son William S. was born in 1832 and died in 1911, he having been a successful merchant at Cen- tral Station, Doddridge County and having also been for forty years one of the leading physicians in his native county. In 1861 Doctor Jones married Martha Isabel Bond, of Shenandoah, Virginia, and she died in 1903, after a married life of forty-two years. Doctor Jones later mar- ried Mrs. Lucy Hall, the widow of a lawyer of that name, her family name having been Manning. She survives her second husband and resides at Moundsville. The only child of the second marriage is Manning Jones, a graduate of the Moundsville High School. Of the eleven children of the first marriage of Doctor Jones two daughters and two sons are living: Z. W. is associated with a glass manufac- tory at Moundsville, and the other son is the subject of this sketch. Andrew J. Jones gained his early education in the pull- lie schools of Doddridge and Marshall counties, and he was for twenty-two years in the employ of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, having served as telegraph operator and station agent and having been for a time superintendent of the company's shops and station at Graf- ton, besides which he was for a time station agent at Morgantown. In 1892 he was made agent for the company at Moundsville, and here he became interested in the sand and gravel business. In 1902 he resigned his railroad office, and thereafter he continued his extensive sand-production operations until the five pits were exhausted, the enter- prise having involved the shipping of twenty carloads a day. In 1913 Mr. Jones engaged in the wholesale gro- cery business in this city, and he also conducted several retail grocery and produce stores, two of which he con- tinues to operate. He has developed a large and prosper- ous wholesale trade in groceries, feed, seeds, etc. In 1906 he became one of the organizers of the Mound City Bank, and he is secretary of its board of directors. He is a director also of the American Building & Loan Association, which has provided a greater number of homes for citizens of Moundsville than has any other one agency. He was one of the original stockholders in the United States Stamp- ing Company, and is still one of its substantial stock- holders, besides which he has other important financial and real estate interests at Moundsville. He has been the loyal supporter of measures and enterprises tending to advance the general welfare of his home city, has served as a mem- ber of the city council, is a republican in politics and is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. At the age of twenty-eight years Mr. Jones wedded Miss Grace Virginia Jeffers, of Salem, this state, and they have had three sons: Lynn E., John Marshall Kingdon and Andrew Johnson, Jr. Lynn E., who is now associated with his father's business, is a graduate of Bellefonte University in the State of Pennsylvania. John M. K., the second son, died at the age of seventeen years. The young- est son is, in 1921, a student in high school. Mrs. Jones is a daughter of J. M. Jeffers, formerly of Kingwood, this state, and her maternal grandfather, Mr. Davidson, was a clergyman of the Missionary Baptist Church, of which she herself is an earnest member. Mrs. Jones is secretary of the Woman's Club of Moundsville and is a graduate of Broaddus College, one of the excellent educational insti- tutions of West Virginia.