Rescuing Dr. Calvin Jones’ grave marker

In the spring of last year a man was clearing land south of Nashville, Tennessee for his new house when he unearthed a grave marker – a “ledger” that covered the entire burial – that was inscribed with the name of Dr. Calvin Jones and included his various titles and occupations while a resident of Raleigh, North Carolina – medical doctor, city mayor, general during the War of 1812, newspaper publisher.
Curious, the man researched the name and soon was calling Ed Morris, the director of the Wake Forest Historical Museum with its separate Dr. Calvin Jones House, also a museum.
It was later learned that around 1950 local descendants saw that the grave was sinking and the original ledger was cracking. They had an identical one created and placed on the grave; the original, all three parts, was dumped in a field.
Morris called Jill, a museum board member, and Randy Bright, who deal with gravestones and monuments as part of their professional life operating the Bright Funeral Home. Morris wanted the ledger for the museum, but the question was how to get it from a field south of Nashville to Wake Forest. They could hire a company to retrieve the three pieces of the ledger, box them up and ship them or, and this was the most appealing method, which was for Jill and Randy to go and retrieve it and bring it home. And it would fit in his red pickup truck.
They set out on a Saturday, driving to Nashville and staying the night there in a motel, met the property owner in Bethel Springs at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, and with his help got the three large pieces into the truck and tightly secured. Jill filmed a video of the process.
Learning that the gravesite of Dr. Jones was only 30 miles farther west in Bolivar, Randy insisted, “We have to go see it.”
The Polk Cemetery began as a private cemetery for the family of U.S. President James K. Polk but now is public. Jill and Randy began searching through the cemetery – and found several Calvin Jones monuments. Panicked, Jill called Ed. What if the one they had identified as the Dr. Calvin Jones was not the right one? Ed calmed her fears; he assured her it was OUR Dr. Calvin Jones. The other Calvin Joneses were relatives.
Dr. Joneses burial is quite simple and humble compared to that of his wife on his right-hand side. She was originally from Tennessee and has a blocky five-foot memorial with her name on the front and his on the back.
Satisfied, Jill and Randy set out for home, driving through the beautiful Tennessee and North Carolina mountains and arriving home Monday.
Now for the hard part: cleaning away the century and a half of grime and dirt. Randy has perfected a gravestone cleaning process which they continue to use to clean all those old gravestones and markers in the Wake Forest Cemetery. You have noticed them without thinking about how so many appear new or almost new.
The ledger lay with its three pieces in the correct order on plywood outside the crematorium as it was being cleaned. Jill said that the cleaning process made it less legible because without the dirt the inscription is so shallow.
Once the ledger was cleaned, Janie, Hollie, Jimmy and the employees at the Wright’s Electric Motor Shop fashioned a stainless steel surround on an elevated stand for the ledger. Earlier this spring, Randy and Robbie Weatherford installed this special and unique artifact of the memory of Dr. Calvin Jones next to the house that bears his name. All are welcome to visit the grounds of the Wake Forest Birthplace and Historical Museum at 414 North Main Street, Wake Forest to tour the grounds, gardens and museum.
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The following is taken from Wikipedia.
Calvin Jones was born on 2 April 1775 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, to Ebenezer and Susannah (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.
Jones was elected to the North Carolina House of Commons twice from Johnston County, once in 1799 and again in 1802. He was the first physician in North Carolina to practice the inoculation of smallpox. He helped found the North Carolina Medical Society in 1799.
He was a trustee of the University of North Carolina for thirty years between 1802 and 1832.
In 1803, Jones moved from Smithfield to Raleigh. He served in the House of Commons for Wake County in 1807, and was elected Intendant of Police (mayor) of Raleigh the same year.
In 1808, Jones became an editor with the Raleigh Star, an early local newspaper. He sold his shares to his partner, Thomas Henderson, in 1815.
In 1798, Jones served in the Johnston County regiment of the North Carolina militia. His regiment received a signed letter from President John 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, Jones continued to train them. His efforts were recognized when he was appointed adjutant general of North Carolina in 1808.
After the War of 1812 broke out, Jones resigned from his position to become Major General of the Seventh North Carolina District of Militia. The British landed at Ocracoke and Portsmouth with a 74-gun man-of-war, six frigates, two privateers, two schooners, and up to 70 smaller vessels in 1813. He and his troops showed enough force to send the British off after five days of raids.
In 1820, Jones relocated out of Raleigh to what is now Wake Forest, to a 615-acre plantation. As postmaster he was the first to use the name Wake Forest because the area was called the Forest of Wake.
The property was purchased by the North Carolina Baptist Convention in 1832 and became the first home of Wake Forest College. Dr. Jones, his family and his slaves moved to Bolivar, Tennessee where he had purchased a large plantation. He died there in 1846.
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.
The main dwelling on his Wake Forest plantation, built circa 1820, is now a museum for the Wake Forest College Birthplace Society and the Wake Forest Historical Museum which 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 museum 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.
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