Julie's Mecklenburg, Virginia Discoveries

Roy Jones with his wife Bertha and children Evelyn and baby Leroy.

Julie’s note: Robert Leroy Jones, known as Roy Jones was a soldier in WWI. It was not an experience he wanted to talk about, which I think is an important story too. Don Bell told me, “When I was in the Army he’d always ask me ‘how many boys are in the camp?’ I told him we had women in the camp too. Uncle Ashly Thompson was also in war and lost an arm in combat. Like most veterans of extreme combat, they did not talk about it. I served 20 years and know this to be true.” Don Bell told me had a long history of veterans in his family. I asked him to tell me so I could put these stories with Roy Jones’s military spotlight. Pictures and stories of this post are shared by Don Bell. I made this chart to go along with the people from Richard Jones family that Don wrote about below. Thank you Don!

I’ll try to put this in the perspective of my ancestors on my mother’s side of the family, the Joneses. Also will include spouses who served in WWI or II.

Edward Jones was injured and in hospital a few times during the war. He was in the 14^th VA, Co F. He was released from Point Lookout Prison in Maryland 14 Jun 1865. His muster roll  said he was 5 foot, 7 inches tall. He had light complexion, dark eyes and dark hair.

Edward’s son Richard was my great grandfather and with his second wife, Martha Alice Malone, they had seven children. I will list them below and provide a short description of military service as I understand it.

1. Charles Edward Jones born July 6, 1884. I have no record of service in WWI. He did have a son, John Barner Jones who was drafted into WWII at the age of 36. He served in Italy and Africa and apparently saw some combat but due to injuries was given an admin job behind the lines. He became the driver for wartime correspondent, Ernie Pyle, and drove for him for a while. Pyle later returned to the US to cover the Pacific Theater and was killed at Okinawa.

2. Grace Ellen Jones. Of course she didn’t serve nor did her husband. She had a son, Richard Davies Walker. During WWII he served with the 1329th Service Command at Camp Patrick Henry. He was an MP (military police). Camp Patrick Henry served as a Prisoner of War Camp and Davies Walker guarded German prisoners.

3. Boyd Beasley Jones was born July 1889. I remember him well. He served in WWI with the 28th Infantry Division, L Company, 110th Infantry regiment. I have read somewhere that my Uncle Boyd and my grandfather, Roy, trained at Camp Lee Virginia near the beginning of the war. During that time the Spanish Flu was a pandemic. One of my relatives went to Camp Lee, now Fort Lee, to visit them but could not because they were in quarantine. Don’t we know?

4. Frank Vernon Jones, October 1891, was not drafted and did not serve in WWI. His son, Weldon Edward Jones served in WWII with the Ninth Air Force 1944-46, Germany and France.

5. Robert LeRoy Jones, June 1894, my grandfather served in WWI with the 30th Infantry Division. I do know that he served in combat but would not talk about it. His son and my uncle Vernon Leroy Jones, deceased, served in the Korean War at the battle of Chosin Reservoir. It was one of the most gruesome fights of that war. It occurred in the dead of winter and in addition to battling 120,000 Chinese, they fought freezing cold. My uncle came back from Korea missing a finger. I think it was frostbite.

6. Rosa Jones, May 1887 married Ashley Thompson who served in WWI. He was wounded and lost an arm. Due to this he received a medical disability pension. That actually made him appear wealthy especially during the great depression. I remember fondly my Uncle Ashley. When I was a teenager he would take me hunting and fishing with him. He adapted to one arm being able to shoot a double barrel shot gun and he rigged his fishing gear for use with one hand. When I was old enough to drive, he brought he along more because it was hard to drive with one arm.

7. Henry Richard Jones, March 1900 was the youngest of my great uncles. He was not drafted nor did he have children.
That is the story as I know it. My father Floyd Bell Jr. and my uncle Arthur Bell, both deceased, served in the Navy during WWII. My dad was on a destroyer escort and my uncle was assigned to a hospital ship. My dad didn’t see combat not did my uncle. But, being a small world, they “bumped” into each other in the middle of the Pacific Ocean during war. My Dad’s CO allowed him to visit with his brother on the hospital ship for a one day liberty.

I guess that it is not surprising that I followed all that with a 20 year career in the Army. When I signed up for ROTC at the University of Richmond in 1965, I knew very little of the family history. I guess the apple doesn’t fall to far from the tree.