Article given by Allegany County Historian Craig
Braack and submitted by William A. Greene unknown news paper,
probably either Olean Times Herald or Bolivar Breeze.
LAST OF THE
BOYS IN BLUE
Written by John P. Herrick
Death
came to Dr. John A. Jones of Short Tract, On May 10, 1941, as it
comes to all men. Only 30 out of a million live to be 100 years
old. Dr. Jones was born April 22, 1840, and last month observed his
101st birthday, the oldest man then alive in Allegany
County, and the last surviving Allegany County veteran of the Civil
War.
Dr. Jones
enlisted in Company E, 85th New York Infantry, served
from September 7, 1861 to June 16, 1865, and was mustered out as a
sergeant. Eleven months of the time he spent in Andersonville
Prison. Once in Washington he met and chatted with President
Lincoln, and cast his first vote for him. He came of fighting
family; ancestors fought with General Washington and in the War of
1812. One of his three sons fought in the Philippines in the war
with Spain.
His love
of farm animals, especially horses, led him to become a
veterinarian, and his practice extended over many townships. He was
a sturdy, likeable man, broad of shoulder, possessed a keen sense of
humor and could spin a yarn. For 30 years he served his community
as Justice of the Peace, a Supervisor, as Commander of the Grand
Army Post, as postmaster and in various other capacities. When a
couple came to be married and were short of money, he performed the
ceremony and sent them on their way with his blessing.
It was a
busy, useful life that he lived. He knew joy and sorrow. His
devoted wife, Francis Minard Jones, died 38 years ago, and he never
re-married. “Never a woman like her,” he said on his century
birthday. He saw the first railroad train bearing President
Fillmore across Allegany County, and the first canal boat to reach
Oramel from Rochester on the Genesee Valley Canal. He trapped a
mink and sold the pelt to pay a year’s subscription to Horace
Greely’s Weekly Tribune. When he was a young school-boy he made his
own quill pens. ‘As justice of the peace, he set down his records
with goose quills.
There was
another unusual distinction that Dr. Jones enjoyed; he was the
oldest Mason in Allegany County, one of the oldest in the State, and
served five terms as master of his lodge. He was the first member
initiated by Maple Grove Lodge No. 761, at Short Tract, in 1875, a
Mason 66 years, and possessed a 50-year service medal and a 60-year
palm presented to him by the Grand Lodge.
Dr. Jones
enjoyed good health until the last year, when he found it necessary
to motor to Buffalo several times to consult a specialist. During
the last month of his life his mind wandered at times. He was young
again. He talked of olden times and old friends long dead. He
asked the nurse to pin his Masonic service medal on his night shirt;
it was a prized emblem of an ancient order that he loved.
The
funeral service on the afternoon of May 13, 1941 was a triple
service. The first service was held in the white farmhouse in the
Town of Allen, his home for 69 years, conducted by Rev. Poland,
pastor of the Methodist-Episcopal church at Short “Tract, who paid
deserved tribute. At the grave there was a Masonic service
conducted by Maple Grove Lodge, and military service conducted by
the American Legion, who were joined by Veterans of Foreign Wars and
members of the Woman’s Relief Corps. At the end of the ritual
service, the American Legion squad fired a volley over the grave.
The bugler sounded taps. As the last faint not of the bugle died
away in the far hills, the casket was lowered into a grave beside
that of his wife in the old Fink Hollow Cemetery. The last lone
survivor of the legion of Allegany County boys in blue, who marched
away to war in 1861, was re-united with his comrades who tent on
fame’s eternal camping grounds.
