Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

3286 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANSHe is not formally identified with any organization, with the exception ofthe Masonic fraternity, with which he became connected a number of yearsago. He not only has never sought office, but, on the contrary, is among thecomparative few, who do not desire public life, but much prefer the freedomof private life.GARLAND MORDECAI JONES. Complimentary adjectives are perhapssuperfluous in the characterization of such a lawyer and legislator as oursubject; they are equally unnecessary in defining the status of the family ofwhich he is a representative, although in each case they slip involuntarilyfrom the pen of the reviewer from time to time. A recital of the majorfacts in the life of Garland M. Jones is the primary object of this article,but we cannot forbear noting in some detail the ancestral history of his familyand the career of his father, both being topics of especial interest.The Jones family of which our subject is a member is one of aristocraticVirginia stock; and in its allied branches it includes lines from the well-knownold Virginia families of Spratley, Young and Bennett, mingling of clean,vigorous blood that cannot be too highly appreciated as a constitutionalheritage. Richard Bennett was one of those "fifty-two nobles, knights andgentlemen of Great Britain and the Province," who, between 1606 and 1776were successive governors of Virginia. Governor Bennett the earliestAmerican ancestor of Mr. Jones had a daughter who became the wife ofFrancis Young, an attache of Governor Braddock for a period of years preceding the Revolution. It is interesting to note how the civic interest ofthese two forefathers of our subject seems revived as a family trait in thisdescendant of theirs of the sixth and fifth generation, respectively. A daughter of the Bennett-Young marriage was Nancy Young, who married JohnJones, were the parents of Dr. R. W. Jones, the father of Hon. Garland M.Jones. The name of Doctor Jones is one of such distinction that we devotea separate paragraph to a narration of the chief facts of his life.,,Greenville County was the native home of R, W. Jones. Another leadingfamily of that neighborhood was Mr. Spratley, whose daughter, Bettie Sue,was a childhood friend of the young lad in the Jones household. This attachment developed into a romance culminating in the marriage of these tworepresentatives of old Virginia families. The keen mind of R. W. Jones hadfound the satisfaction, denied to many, of the best education possible in hisperiod. His specialization centered in the natural sciences, for which he hada talent amounting almost to genius. A high point in-his career was reachedwhen, though still a very young man for such an honor, he was made presidentof Emory and Henry College, at Abingdon, Virginia. In 1876 he was calledto one of the highest educational institutions in the land, and in a doublecapacity: the University of Mississippi needed him, as professor of chemistryand as vice chancellor of the institution. Doctor Jones accepted the positionand established his home and family at Oxford, Mississippi, the seat of theuniversity and there he remained for more than thirty years; active in theperformance of his scholarly duties and exercising a fatherly interest in theyoung men who frequented his classes, his office and all the familiar haunts ofthe school and town. In the year 1908 he retired, spending his last days atLaurel, Mississippi, where his fruitful life closed at the age of seventy-sevenyears.It was during Doctor Jones' connection with Emory and Henry Collegethat the son was born who was christened Garland Mordeeai. Abingdon, Virginia, was the place of his nativity and the date was June 6,1873. As a boy,Garland Jones was sent to the Webb School of Tennessee. He next enteredthe church college of which his father had for a time been chief executive, butcompleted his course for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in the University ofMississippi in 1893. In this same institution, where his father was then aleading figure, Mr. Jones spent another year, leaving the institution with asecond degree that of Bachelor of Laws. During his five years in the state