Jones coat of arms

ORIGINS IN WALES

My Jones family originated at Denbighshire, Wales and early immigrants came to this country in the 17th Century and settled in Virginia. Below is some history of my ancestral homeland.

Denbigh, Clwyd, Wales

The old Welsh market town of Denbigh (Welsh Dinbych) was established in 1283 when Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln, built a castle to help consolidate the English conquest of Wales.  The castle, which stood as a symbol of English sovereignty over the region, was built on the ruins of earlier, Welsh fortifications.  The castle is built on a steep hill and holds a commanding view of the surrounding Vale (Valley) of Clwyd.The first Borough Charter was granted to Denbigh in 1290 when the town was still contained within the old town walls. During the Wars of the Roses the town was burned and it was subsequently moved from the hilltop to around the present town market. 
During the reign of Elizabeth I, Robert Dudley, as Earl of Leicester, served as lord of Denbigh until his death in 1588.  During the English Civil War, the castle above the town served as a royalist stronghold, and fell to Cromwell's troops only after a siege of four months.  From the 17th century on, Denbigh gradually grew in importance as the principal market town of the Vale of Clwyd, and developed as a center for many tradesmen, including glovers, weavers, smiths, shoemakers, saddlers, curriers and tanners.

Denbigh lies about 13 miles (20km) from the Irish Sea port of Rhyl.  The present population of Denbigh is about 10,000 people.  The town remains an area market center, with its economy boosted also by tourism and light industry.  Notable among Denbigh's more famous natives is Henry Morton Stanley, the famous 19th century explorer.  Denbigh is also home to an internationally-known folk music festival held annually in August.

IN LOUISIANA

My Jones family was among the earliest to settle in the Plaquemine Brulee part of what is now Acadia Parish, then St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. Here is the story of that community.

Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, August 26, 1997

Plaquemine Brûlée was first American settlement
by Jim Bradshaw

The earliest European community in what is now Acadia Parish was probably at Plaquemine Brûlée. Some historians say that it is the earliest American settlement in south Louisiana (the other early settlements being either French or Spanish).
Plaquemine is an Indian word for persimmon. Brûlée refers to land that was cleared by burning away cane and underbrush. The first Plaquemine Brûlée settlement was probably just west of what is now Church Point. It was an area settled first by Protestants, and Methodists built the first church in the area in 1820. The settlement was probably visited by a Methodist missionary as early as 1805. Rev. Elisha Bowman was assigned to the district that year.

In early descriptions, all of the settlers along the bayou -- from the northeast corner of the parish to its junction with Bayou des Cannes near Mermentau -- were said to be "of Plaquemine Brûlée." Eventually, there were too many settlers and settlements, and the first Plaquemine Brûlée settlement became known as Lower Plaquemine Brûlée and the area around what is now Church Point was called Upper Plaquemine Brûlée.
Approximately half of Acadia's early landowners were on Plaquemine Brûlée. An early reference to settlement in the area is in the St. Landry Police Jury minutes of Aug. 4, 1818, when Jacob Harmon was named overseer for a road to be built from Opelousas to Plaquemine Brûlée.

Rev. Daniel Devinne, another early Methodist circuit rider came to the district in 1820. "We built a church in Plaquemine Brûlée," he wrote in his autobiography, "the first Protestant edifice in the beautiful country of the Opelousas." This was also the first church established in what is now Acadia Parish. Jesuit missionaries would not begin visiting the area until 1837.

Devinne described the first church: "It was about twenty-four by thirty-six feet, and on the Spanish model, roof largely projecting, and walls of wattle plaster, white-washed on both sides; the outer walls of which gave the church, at a distance, a very fine appearance."

The Plaquemine Brûlée church was known as "the cradle of Methodism in southwest Louisiana for some 40 years before the Civil War," according to an old report in the Crowley Daily Signal. In 1895, it was moved about a mile northeast of the original location, on to land donated by W. W. Dyson. The building that was moved was evidently not the original building. An item in the Crowley Signal of Nov 9, 1895, said that the Plaquemine Brûlée church had been built "nearly 40 years ago," which would indicate that a new church had been built about 1855.

The present church was built in 1947. According to the annals of the church. the old structure was carefully taken down and much of the material, such as heart-of-cypress timber, was incorporated into the new building.

A church for black people was established at Plaquemine Brûlée in 1870. This was the Maryland Chapel, Christian Episcopal Church, built on an acre of land given by Mrs. Jesse Clark. This church building also served as the first public school for blacks in what is now Acadia Parish.
The post once established at Plaquemine Brûlée in 1838, had its name changed on Nov. 12, 1890, to Branch, for Branch Hayes, a grandson of Bosman Hayes, the first merchant of Plaquemine Brûlée.
Plaquemine Brûlée had a public school at least by 1877, when it reportedly had an enrollment of nearly 300 pupils. The school was operated for 4 ½ months each year, from October until March. The one teacher was paid $225 for the term.
Legal notices and advertisements in early newspapers indicate that there were several businesses operating at Plaquemine Brûlée prior to the Civil War. The Opelousas Gazette of April 9, 1842 carried notice that a tanyard would be sold at public auction at Plaquemine Brûlée. The tanyard was said to be "in complete order, having 30 vats, with limes, pools, and bates (a bath used to remove lime), with 60 cords of bark, with all necessary buildings..."

A new Plaquemine Brûlée firm began an advertising campaign in the St. Landry Democrat in 1880. In the Oct. 2 issue, a display ad for the Foreman & Duson store named C. W. Foreman and W. W. Duson as partners in the business. The firm dealt in "dry goods, clothing, boots and shoes, hardware, tinware, crockery, notions, groceries, provisions, &c., &c., &c." The advertisement also invited readers to market their produce with the firm, including "all country produce, such as cotton, sugar, molasses, rice, wool, hides, chickens, eggs, (and) split lumber, such as pieux and shingles."
The Opelousas, Gulf and Northern railroad came through the settlement in 1907, spurring hopes for development, but most of them did not materialize, though it did remain a trade center for planters up and down the bayou from it.

One of the largest landowners in the neighborhood was Bosman Hayes Jr., who was killed by outlaws in 1864. According to family tradition, Bosman Hayes Jr. owned a white mare which he would let nobody else ride. One night he heard a disturbance at the stable where the mare was kept. He got his shotgun and went to investigate. The night was clear and moonlit after a rainy day. Clothes had been left on a clothesline to dry. He saw two men leading his mare away. Hayes shot one of the men. The other was hidden by a bed sheet on a line. He shot Hayes and killed him on his own back porch.

A man identified in the old records only as Joannesse had a narrow strip of land down the bayou from the Plaquemine Brûlée settlement. William Henry Perrin's "Southwest Louisiana Historical and Biographical" reported that "Joseph Cheasson (Chiasson), alias Joannes, died several years ago in this parish at the advanced age of nearly one hundred and thirty years. When he was one hundred and fifteen years old he moved to Texas, and after living in that state several years ago returned to (then) St. Landry."

MY CONFEDERATE ANCESTORS

B. Jones, Confederate soldier (not related) from M.D. Jones collection

PVT. SOLOMON JONES Solomon Jones was born in 1825 in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana in the area known as Plaquemine Brulee. His parents were Ephraim Jones (born ca. 1795 in Mississippi (?)) and Catherine Hayes (born ca. 1800 in St. Landry Parish). He married Terzile Quebodeaux (born in 1832 in St. Landry Parish), the daughter of Nicolas Quebodeaux and Marie Trahan, on 29 Oct. 1847 in Opelousas, Louisiana, They had seven children: 1. Luke in 1850 (my great-grandfather); 2. Nicholas in 1853; 3. Telesphore in 1854; 4. Joseph Cleophores in 1856; 5. Pierre Clairville in 1858; 6. Marie Audilea in 1861 and 7., Eva in 1864. Solomon Jones was enlisted on 29 March 1862 in Company E, 11th Battalion (Spaight's) Texas Volunteers by Maj. J.B. Likens. Serving with him in this unit were two of his brothers-in-law, Nicolas Quebodeaux Jr. and Clerville Quebodeaux. The commander of his company was Captain George O'Bryan and his battalion commander was Lt. Col. Ashley W. Spaight. While he was in Company E it took part in the following military actions: 28 Sept. 1862 the Battle of Taylor's Bayou, Texas; 24-25 Sept. 1862 the First Battle of Sabine Pass, Texas; 29 Sept. 1863 the Battle of Bayou Fordoche or Sterling Plantation, Louisiana; and 6 May 1864, the Battle of Calcasieu Pass, Louisiana. Solomon's military record ends in September 1864 in Beaumont, Texas. However according to family oral history, he died in the service and his wife and children had to return to Louisiana taking turns walking and riding one horse. I think this was probably in January 1865 when brother-in-law Nicolas Quebodeaux took a furlough, although the reason wasn't given in his service record. But it seems logical to assume that he would have esorted his sister and her children back home. At that time Spaight's Regiment was stationed in Houston, Texas and it is most likely he would have been buried in the Confederate cemetery located at Elder and Girard streets and which is now under the pavement of a parking lot and various buildings around the old Jeff Davis Hospital. His musket is still in the family and is said to have a blown breech, which may be an indication of how he died. PVT. SAMUEL D. JONES Samuel Dale Jones was born 26 Feb. 1826 in Talladega, Alabama to John A.C. Jones and Martha W. Jones. He moved to Texas in the 1840s and settled in Panola County. He married Sarah Craig (born 20 May 1833), daughter of Joseph B. Craig and Vecina Mize, 10 Aug. 1850 in Panola County. They had seven children, including Lewis (born 1858); Daniel Lafayette (born 1860); Myrtle Gertrude Sarah Elizabeth, my great-grandmother, (born 1864); Ida Amanda (born 1865); Nancy V. (born 1868); William A. (born 1870); and Mentie Ella (born 1872). Samuel first enlisted in the 1st Battalion Texas Cavalry in July 1863 for six months; and later Company E, 11th Texas Infantry Regiment which served in Randal's Texas Infantry Brigade and Walker's Texas Infantry Division. During the time he served with the 11th Texas Infantry, his regiment helped win the great Confederate victory at the Battle of Mansfield, Louisiana on 8 April 1864 and the Battle of Jenkin's Ferry, Arkansas a short time later. After the war Samuel was a farmer and rancher in Texas and died 23 Sept. 1915 and is buried in China Cemetery, San Saba, Bell County, Texas. PVT. WILLIAM CRAWFORD ANNIS William Crawford Annis was born 12 July 1840 in Bayou Sara, Louisiana to John M. Annis and Sarah Brister. He became a newspaper reporter in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and was married four times. His third wife was my great-grandmother, Annie Wright (born 1847) who was the daughter of Col. Joseph Shelby Wright and Marie McCarthy. He enlisted in the 9th Battalion Louisiana Infantry in July 1862 and fought in the Battle of Baton Rouge on 5 August 1862. He also fought throughout the Siege of Port Hudson in May-July 1863, at the end of which he was made a prisoner of war along with the rest of the garrison. In April 1864 he was paroled and the remnants of his command were incorporated into Gober's Louisiana Mounted Infantry. He fought in cavalry actions in Mississippi and Alabama before being paroled at the end of the war in May of 1865. After the war he published and/or edited several newspapers in Baton Rouge, including the Daily Advocate and Capital Item. He was city editor of the Daily Advocate when he died on 21 October 1903. He was buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Baton Rouge. PVT. HANCE LINSCOMBE Hance Lincombe was born in 1832 in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana to John Linscombe and Catherine Hayes. He was a farmer and married Mary L. Sarver (born in 1834) and they had 10 children. He enlisted in Captain Benjamin Story's Company E, 18th Louisiana Infantry (Consolidated) in June 1864. He took part in maneuvers and marches to Arkansas and back in the summer of 1864. He received a medical furlough in January 1865 and was preparing the return to duty when the war ended in April. Following the war he received a Confederate Land Grant from the State of Louisiana because of the lingering health effects of his service. He died in 1909 and is buried in the former Hebron Methodist Church cemetery in between Crowley and Rayne, Louisiana. PVT. RUFUS WHEELER Rufus Wheeler was born in 1828 in Tennessee and was married to Sarah J. Calloway. They lived in Paris, Texas and Fort Smith, Arkansas. He joined Gordon's Arkansas Cavalry and later transferred to Huey's Arkansas Artillery. Rufus's units took part in the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas in December 1862. He was a farmer in Paris, Texas following the war and died about 1875.

John Jones, Confederate soldier, (not related), M.D. Jones collection