Prominent Wilcox County citizen Edward Nathaniel Jones Sr. passed away 106 years ago in 1917

Army officer E.N. Jones Jr. of Camden

Tomorrow – May 26 – will mark 106 years since the passing of one of Wilcox County’s most prominent citizens, Edward Nathaniel Jones Sr.

It was on May 26, 1917 that Jones passed away while under treatment at a Birmingham hospital. Jones was 79 years old at the time his death, and he passed away “after a long and useful life worthy of himself,” according to his friend, Solomon Bloch, the editor of The Wilcox Progressive Era. Bloch described Jones as “a good man, father, friend, neighbor, citizen, Democrat and high-toned patriot.”

Jones was born in Brunswick County, Virginia on Sept. 12, 1839 to J.C. and Mary A. Jones. They moved to Alabama in 1845, and Jones grew up in Camden. Jones was married twice, once to Mary Ellen Blanchard and later to Mollie Beck.

Jones, even before the War Between the States, worked as an attorney in Camden. According to Bloch, Jones “had the highest regard for professional ethics and could be counted on at all times to maintain the best ideals of the profession. He was absolutely fearless in the discharge of his duty, always ready to give his best talent to the cause of his client, but never fighting his battles in an underhanded nor questionable way. If he could not win fairly and honorably, he lost without a murmur.”

One interesting incident connected with Jones’s legal career involved a shooting in Camden on Jan. 23, 1897. Jones and a man named P.M. Horn got into a “difficulty” over litigation that was pending in the Wilcox County Probate Court. “In the encounter between these well-known gentlemen, Mr. Horn was shot in the face, which was followed up by another shot said to have been fired by D.B. Jones, son of Col. Jones, which took effect in Horn’s head, so disabling him as to terminate the difficulty. Mr. Horn’s wound it is feared is quite serious.”

Despite my best efforts, I could not determine if Horn lived or died. As best that I could determine, nothing else was reported on the incident in the Camden newspaper. Like Jones, Horn was a prominent attorney in Wilcox County in the 1890s, and my gut feeling is that he must have survived the shooting.  

Another interesting incident connected with Jones occurred in March 1905 when he became the first person in Camden history to ever receive a cablegram. Cablegrams, which first came about in the late 1860s, were messages sent via underwater cables. The cablegram sent to Jones was sent to him by his son, U.S. Army Capt. Edward Nathaniel Jones Jr., from Honolulu, Hawaii – 2,089 miles from San Fransico, California.

From a researcher’s point of view, one mysterious period of Jones’s life came during the War Between the States. He would have been 22 years old when the war began in 1861, which would have meant that he was of prime fighting age. Despite my best efforts, I could find no records showing that he ever served in the war. Perhaps some disability prevented his service or perhaps he held some position that excluded him from service.

In the end, Jones’s funeral was attended by a large crowd and was held at the home of his son, P.E. Jones. The Rev. H.W. Wallace conducted his funeral, and his pallbearers were a “who’s who” of prominent Wilcox County citizens. His pallbearers included Editor Bloch, W.A. Primm, R.L. Spurlin, W.A. McDowell, F.B. Dexter, H. Vandevoort, W.J. Bonner and W.R. Alford. Burial was in the Camden Cemetery.