Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-08-23
From the Raleigh Sentinel.l
Miss Lees Monument" Honor to Whom Honor
is Due, of its Locality, etc.


Miss Lees Monument-"Honor Whom Honor
is Observation-Disclosures of its Locality, etc.
MEssRs. EDITORS Your editorial request for
some friend to furnish your paper with an account
of the erection of the monument of Miss Anna c.
Lee, late daughter of General r. E. Lee, by the
citizens of Warren County, n. c., was subsequent
to that event, but as of the Committe of az
rangements and your friend, I nevertheless would
have most promptly responded but for the knowl-
edge of the fact that two three newspaper re-
porters were present, and that communication
from me at that period would have been work
of supererogation. Nor would 1 trouble you or
your readers now with any remarks upon the sub
ject but for the that the honor Of erecting
this monument has been unintentionally, am
sure given to those who neither claim desire
it, while the name OF Joseph Speed Jones, Esq,
who alone is entitled to all the honor, is entirely
ignored by the correspondent of the Petersburg
hader. Mr.. Jones petitioned to General Bragg,
two or three years ago, to detail Mr. Il. Crowder,
the patriotic artist, for the special purpose urging
as additional reason, that Mr.. Crowder had
volunteered in the regular army after he had pas
sed the then conscrlpt age, and not conscrlpted
as reported, that he had participated in all the
hard fought battles in Virginia up to that time,
and then in feeble health General Bragg
promptly consented.
Mr.. Jones, whose patriotism is only equalled by
his philanthropy, projected and erected this mon
ument, through the aid of Mr.. Crowder.
Col. Heck and few of the prominent citizens
of the neighborhood then proposed to Mr.. Jones
to allow the citizens of Warren to share its hon
| ors, to which he most cheerfully consented, but
stated to the meeting Of those neighbors that he
had calculated to defray the whole expense of it
himself, and had purchased the iron railing to
close the cemetery, which they positively refused
to let him do, though he still refuses to accept
any remuneration for the railing, and claims the
| right to share IN the expenses of the monument
! am perfectly cognizant of all these facts and
they are well known by all his neighbors and
hence, as token of gratitude to him and as an
act of Justice to his accomplished wife, the Com
mittee of Arrangements elected her President of
the Ladies' Society by acclamation. How we'll
she deserved that distinguished honor you may
judge, when l inform you that the letter of lnvl
tation to Gen. Lee to attend the erection, was in
dited by her in few hours and without previous
notice. For its sublime devotion and patriotism,
its elegance, harmony and perfection of language,
and for it's soul-strrng illusions to the modesty,
greatness and goodness of this illustrious chief
tain under the vcissitude of fortune it is not
passed, in my humble opinion, by any record of
| epistolary bellies letters
| The locality of the monument is in the cemete-
~ of the Jones family of this county. It is on
Shocco Creek, near the White Sulphur and Shoe
CO Springs, and in full view of Gen. Jethro Sum-
ner's monument-one of the first Generals ap-
pointed by Congress and one of the heroes of '76.
The surrounding country is highly picturesque,
and it's inhabitants educated and refined. It
settled by Edward JONES' who emigrated from
Virginia in 174O, with his wife, whose maiden
|
that she the first white lady that crossed the
Roanoke river. MI. Jones left large family of
children, and his widow married Thomas Cook :;
and she is known to posterity as " Grandmother
| Cook
She was said to have been remarkable woman
for the strength of her intellect, and for the firm
ness and energy of her character. In a wilder
ness surrounded by savages and wild beasts, and
left widow at early age with house full of
children, by her indomitable energy she raised
a1u ata6t oil fO hacOrna
most useful citizens of the country-fve of whom
were, at one and the same time, members of our
Legislature, and two of them in Congress.
Beneath the sacred shades of this cemetery
once gambolled in girhood her daughters-the
mothers of the Hons. Nathaniel Macon, Willis
Aston, M. T. Hawkins and Judge Seawell The
Hills, the McLemores, with their compass and
hatchet opened the way for civilization in Geor-
gia and Tennessee. The Joneses, Eatons, Mar
tins, Johnsons and Green's have left their civic,
legal and Legislative services legacy to their
country. The Pegrams, and those noble brothers,
Major Gen. Robert and Matt. Ransom, besides
many others in the Southern and Western States,
are the descendants of grandmother Cook When
I was boy, the aged father and mother of our
venerable citizen VIM. D. Jones, resided hard by
this cemetery. Their commodious and spacious
dwelling on level plat of ground, gently un-
dulating from the yard to pebble brook in front,
and in the centre of several acres of ground clad
with verdant sward and shaded with the original
forest trees, grand and hoary with age. 1t was
literally the seat of hospitality refinement and
ligion. Bishop Early's first wife was member of
this family and sleeps in this cemetery, and the
Rev. Messrs Glenn and Jones married two of her
sisters. What history this sacred spot could
unfold, if it had tongue to speak, but not sol
tary tree or stone is left to tell the joys and sor
rows of its former inhabitants Sic transit gloria
mundi."
would give you a description of this exquis-
| itely wrought monument and the highly inter
esting ceremonies that attended its erection, if it
had not been SO graphically done by abler hands,
It was eminently proper for the citizens of North
Carolina to pay this tribute of affection and re-
spect to the daugher of that great and good man,
who so often led our to victory against such
unequal numbers, and likewise an indispensable
debt of gratitude they under to the ladies of
Virginia for their munifcent kindness to our citi-
zensoldiers in sickness and health, as well as for
their pious care in collecting the remains of our
heroic dead into cemeteries and bedecking their
graves with floral offerings.
SUMNER.
August 15th 1885,
"Dont write there" said one to lad who was
writing with diamond pin pane of glass in