My Genealogy Hound

J. P. Jones is another successful farmer of the county, of which he has been a resident since November, 1856, having come here from his native State of Alabama at that date. He was born in 1842, and is the eldest of four children of John and Martha A. (Thurman) Jones, the former born in South Carolina and the latter in Alabama. They were married in the latter State, and there the father followed the occupation of a planter until his removal to this State. He located on a woodland farm, where he has made his home up to the present date, and during his residence here he has been quite an active politician; he has filled the office of postmaster at White Hall for some ten years, and was also justice of the peace in 1858. He and his wife now reside near their son, J. P., who from his earliest youth has been familiar with farm life. He received his early schooling in Alabama, but in 1861 he dropped his books and abandoned the plow to enlist in the Confederate army, becoming a member of Capt. Harris’ Company of the Thirteenth Arkansas Infantry, and served east of the Mississippi River, He was at Belmont, Shiloh, and also in many skirmishes. At the expiration of his term of service he left the army and returned home, and was married the following year in Poinsett County, to Miss L. D. Eskridge, who was born in West Tennessee. Her death occurred in January, 1884, and in November of the same year he espoused Miss J. A. Stafford, a native of West Tennessee, and a daughter of J. D. and Hester Ann (Harrison) Stafford, who removed from North Carolina to Arkansas in 1880. Here the father died in 1880, and the mother four years later. Mr. Jones has a farm of 200 acres, with fifty acres under cultivation, on which he raises cotton principally. He devotes considerable attention to stock, and in connection with his father operates a cotton-gin. He is a Republican in his political views, and for the past ten years has acted as justice of the peace of his township. He filled the office of county treasurer for nearly five years, and has been a member of the school board for many years. He is a member of Lodge No. 77 of the I. O. O. F., at Harrisburg, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.