GEORGE M. JONES.
The subject of this sketch is of English descent, his ancestors settling
in Page county, Virginia, in colonial days. His father was Wharton
Jones, son of George and Margaret Jones, and his mother was Nancy,
daughter of Benjamin and Sarah Wood. He was born in Page county
May 24, 1824. In 1844 he removed to Bedford county, where he was
for several years engaged in a mercantile business at Pecksville and at
Liberty. On September 14, 1848, Rev. John W. Howard officiating, he
married Miss Mary F. Watts, who was born in Bedford county, December
30, 1830. In 1854 he removed to Salisbury, North Carolina,
and engaged there in the hardware business with good success until the
war. Returning to Bedford county early in 1861, he lived on his
estate there during the war, serving some time in the Confederate
States Army. In the fall of 1865 he removed to Lynchburg, which has
since been his home. He engaged in the hardware business, which he
carried on with good success until he retired from business in August,
1887. He is now president of the National Exchange Bank, and of
the Lynchburg Cotton Mills now (1888) about to be erected.
