IN HONOUR OF OUR ANCESTORS

 

JOSIAH BENJAMIN JONES

(DAVID COCKES' GREAT-GREAT GRANDFATHER)

 

Josiah Benjamin Jones was born to Wilson Benjamin and Margaret

Elizabeth Delk Jones on January 2, 1846 in Isle of Wight, Virginia.

 

On April 1, 1864 Benjamin enlisted in the 3rd Virginia Infantry, Company

"I", in Greenville, North Carolina. After Benjamin enlisted, the 3rd

Virginia saw action at Plymouth, North Carolina, April 15th 1864, 6th May

at Wakefield, Virginia; Drewy's Bluff, Virginia 14th-16th May; Somaton,

Nansemond County, Virginia on May 25, 1864. In June of ' 64 the 3rd

Virginia actions was seen at Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Bermuda

Hundred,and Howelett's Farm. In March of '65 they were at Dinwiddie

Court House, and on April 6th they were at Sailor's Creek moving to High

Bridge, Virginia on April 7th where they were until May 15th, 1865.

 

 

After the war, Benjamin came home to Isle of Wight where he worked the

land and met Mary Ellen Whitley, the daughter of the late Jesse & Mary

Ann Atkins (Atkinson). She was the ward of her brother Leonard Hume

Whitley. On December 7, 1867 the couple was married in Isle of Wight,

Virginia.

They would have a total of nine children during their 16 years of

marriage. He would die on March 28, 1899 at the age of 53 from

pneumonia. He is buried on what was known as the Adam's family farm,

now owned by Joe Ferguson.