Calvin Jones was born on April 2, 1775, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts Bay, to Ebenezer and Susannah (née Blackmore) Jones. His father was a soldier in the American Revolution. He received his medical license in 1792, and then moved to Smithfield, North Carolina in 1795.[5]
In 1803, Jones moved from Smithfield to Raleigh.[5] He served in the House of Commons for Wake County in 1807,[3] and was elected Intendant of Police of Raleigh, North Carolina the same year.[1] In 1808, he became an editor with the Raleigh Star, an early local newspaper. He sold his shares to his partner, Thomas Henderson, in 1815.[5]
Military service
In 1798, Jones served in the Johnston Regiment, North Carolina Militia. The regiment received a signed letter from PresidentJohn Adams in 1798, thanking them for their preparedness to serve during the Quasi-War. After the Chesapeake–Leopard affair in 1807, President Thomas Jefferson called for 7,003 troops from North Carolina. Jones, now a captain, organized the Wake Troop of Cavalry. After the troops were deemed unnecessary, he continued to train them. His efforts were recognized when he was appointed adjutant general of North Carolina in 1808.[5]
After the War of 1812 broke out, Jones was given command of the seventh militia division and promoted to the rank of major-general of North Carolina Militia. When the Royal Navy attackedPortsmouth and Ocracoke Island with a 74-gun man-of-war, six frigates, two privateers, two schooners, and up to 70 smaller vessels in July of 1813, he and his North Carolina militia mustered enough force to send the British landing party off after five days of raids.[6]
Later life
In 1820, Jones relocated out of Raleigh to what is now Wake Forest, to a 615-acre (2.49 km2) plantation which later gave its name to the surrounding town. He was postmaster of the small village that soon surrounded his land. The property was purchased by the North Carolina Baptist Convention in 1832[1] and became the first home of Wake Forest College.[7] Wake Forest was part of an envisioned network of plantations across the South, including his second farm in Bolivar, Tennessee, named "Pontine", supposedly for the Pontine Marshes near Rome, or perhaps, for the pons network of the brain, representing his idea of network of plantations. After the sale of Wake Forest, Jones moved to Bolivar, where he died in 1846.
Personal life
Jones was first engaged to Ruina J. Williams, daughter of Major William Williams of Franklin County. Ten years after she died in 1809, Jones married her sister, Temperance Boddie Jones, widow of Thomas Jones of Warrenton. Their children were:[5]
Montezuma Jones (1819 – 1922), married Elizabeth Wood.
Octavia Rowena Jones (1826 – 1917), married Edwin Polk.
Paul Tudor Jones (1828 – 1904), married first Jane M. Wood and second Mary Kirkman.
Of the known portraits of Jones, one is held at the Historical House and the other is in Dallas with his descendants.
Legacy
The main dwelling on his Wake Forest plantation, built circa 1820, is now a museum for the Wake Forest College Birthplace Society.[8] The museum is known as the Dr. Calvin Jones House, and features exhibits about the history of Wake Forest College and the town of Wake Forest, including the Wake Forest College Sports Hall of Fame. The Society also maintains historic archives about the college and town that are available to researchers by appointment. In 2016, the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
A highway in the Wake Forest area, the N.C. 98 Bypass, was renamed in his honor in 2010.[9][10]