Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/802

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

above) ; William Herbert Shenk, married Lillian Lowry ; and Frances G. Shenk, who died unmarried, ii. Martha Susan Jones, born April 23, 1837, died September 26, 1837. The children of Mr. Jones' other direct ancestors mentioned herein were as follows : Children of Thomas Jones and Mary Whar- ton : George Jones, married Margaret Mor- gan ; Thomas Jones, married widow of Wil- liam Nunn ; Elizabeth and Nellie, lived at Bowling Green. Caroline county, and died

unmarried, and Mrs. McCarty, who

lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Children of George Jones and Margaret Morgan: Mary (called Polly) Jones, married Joshua Wood, son of Nehemiah Wood Sr. ; John Jones, died unmarried ; Wharton Jones, married Nancy, daughter of Nehemiah Wood's son Benjamin ; Thomas Jones, mar- ried Nancy, daughter of Nehemiah Wood's son Jesse; Nancy Jones, died in childhood, and George Jones, a merchant of Vicks- burg, Mississippi, died unmarried. Children of John Morgan: Margaret (called Peggy), married George Jones (see above), and John Morgan Jr. John Morgan Sr. died young and his widow married a Mr. Starn. They had one daughter, Nancy, who married a Mr. Hurst and went to Tennessee. Chil- dren of William Wood: Nehemiah Wood Sr., married (first) Abigail Grigsby, and (second) Diana Sandy. It is stated that William Wood's other children were : Asa Wood, of Stafford county, and Colonel James Wood, of Winchester, but the exact relationship with these men has never been shown by authentic records. Children of Nehemiah Wood Sr. and Abigail Grigsby : I. William Wood, killed in battle during the revolutionary war, married Margaret

. 2. Jesse Wood. 3. John Wood. 4.

Benjamin Wood (see below). 5. Joshua Wood, married Mary Jones (see above). 6. Lettice Grigsby Wood, married Sinnet Atwood. Their son, Nehemiah Atwood, moved to Ohio, where he accumulated quite a fortune and built and endowed Rio Grande College, in Gallia county, Ohio. He left no children. 7. Nancy Wood, mar- ried Edwin Young. 8. Nehemiah Wood Jr., moved to Kanawha county, now West Vir- ginia, and was one of the first, settlers of Charleston. He married Eve Ruffner, daughter of Joseph Ruffner, also among the first settlers of Kanawha county. Mr. Wood represented Kanawha county in the Vir-

ginia assembly in 1805, and soon afterward moved to Gallia county, Ohio, where he be- came perhaps the wealthiest and most promi- nent citizen of the county, being known as "King Wood," by reason of his wealth and his dominant make-up. He died there in 1824. Children of Benjamin Wood and Sarah Follis: Hadad Wood, married Re- becca McCullough ; Harrison Wood, mar- ried (first) Sarah Kaufman, and (second) Sarah Blackwell ; David Wood, died unmar- ried ; William Follis Wood, married Bar- bara Brumbach, and Nancy, married Whar- ton Jones (see above). Children of Benja- min Wood's second marriage, with Eliza- beth Abbot : Sarah Wood, married Wesley Bear : Edward Whitfield Wood, married Helen Strother, of Rappahannock county, and Mary Mahala Wood, married Dr. George W. Rust, of Fauquier county, Vir- ginia. Children of Jacob Follis and Sarah Springer: Jacob Follis Jr.; William Follis; Sarah Follis, married Benjamin Wood (see above); Isaac Follis; Susanna Follis, mar- ried Rev. Ambrose Booton.

Wharton Jones left no will, and his estate had therefore to be divided and its possibil- ities of increase lessened by the long divi- sion. A few thousands of dollars in lands and slaves vested in each child. It was the realization of his ownership of this capital that turned the attention of his young son George to the money-making possibilities of the mercantile world. W^ith the restless- ness so usual in the adolescent boy, he urged his mother for permission to go to their neighboring town of Luray to accept em- ployment as clerk in a general store owned and managed by Mr. Gabriel Jordan. He was but fifteen years old when he thus left school and started out to begin his career as a merchant — a reserved, sensitive, mother and home-loving boy, but with courage and energy to overcome shrinking within and difificulties without. He showed from the beginning that he had found his true voca- tion. Even when so young a boy, he made his impress upon his employer and his cus- tomers by his careful attention to business, his courtesy and consideration for the rights of the buyer and his stern guardianship over the interests of his employer, down to the last cent. His was the commercial mind, quick to grasp the seriousness of small waste and leakage, and to realize the money value of good will. These qualities of the success-