Charlie Jones, Company I

The veteran settled in Norfolk, Virginia when his service ended and several comrades-in-arms offered supporting depositions for his pension claim. As it happened, his application was handled by an attorney who had a reputation for questionable practices. More research is required to find out why he was transferred from the National Soldiers Home in Virginia to the National Soldiers Home near Dayton, Ohio in 1919.

Invalid — 886,276 / 663,860

Deposition A, Charles Jones, 10 May 1893
about 60 years old; occupation, cook; residence and post-office address, 243 Queen St., Norfolk, Va.
“Q. Who was your attorney in the presentation of your claim under the Act of June 27, 1890?
A. Mr. W.R. Drury of Norfolk, Va.
‘Q. Who was present when you made out your claim?
A. Doctor Johnson or Johnson Doctor … He was my identifying witness. Jubilee was to be one but he never got there that day. He was there the day before.”
“Q. Do you know S. Cherry?
A. No, sir.”

Deposition B, Oscar Jubilee, 11 May 1893
54 years old; occupation, laborer; residence and post-office address, 30 Lee St., Barboursville, Norfolk, Va.
“I think I was a witness that he was in my company. I went with him before Mr. W.R. Drury of this city.”
“Q. Who was the other identifying witness?
A. I think Dick Grant and Owen Woodus, who are both dead, but I don’t remember.”

Questionnaire (Form 3–402), Charles Jones, 12 March 1898
“[Married?] Yes. Her full name is Emily Jones. Her maiden name was Emily Butcher.
[Where, when, by whom] August 12, 1875 in Norfolk, Va. by Rev. Lyons.
[Living children] I have no children, living or dead.”

General Affidavit, John Moore and Albert Merchant, 28 July 1894
[Moore] 51 years old; residence, 28 Allyntowne Road, Norfolk, Norfolk Co., Va.
[Merchant] 67 years old; residence, 172 Cumberland Street, Norfolk, Norfolk Co., Va.
“That they are both well acquainted with Charles Jones … have known him for at least thirty (30) years during which time witnesses have lived near claimant and would see him on average two times each week. They say that claimant is a man of sober habits and regular and temperate in his mode of living”

Deposition, Charles Jones, 21 February 1902
about 60 years old; occupation, cook; residence, 313 Queen St., Norfolk, Va.
“I was born in Clark [sic] County, Virginia and I was a slave: was owned by Richard Parker but his sister married a Crenshaw of Charles City Co., Va., and they fell heir to me. My father was Wm. Jones…. I was in the army one or two years. I was discharged shortly after Christmas the year after Richmond fell.”
“I have only been married once: married Emily Jones in Norfolk, Va., in three years after my discharge. We were married by Rev. Lyons. My wife had never been previously married. We have no children.”

General Affidavit, Charles Jones, 25 January 1908
70 years old; residence, Norfolk, Norfolk County, Virginia; post-office address, 313 Queen St., Norfolk, Va.
“I count my age from what my owner told me before the war which makes me now over 70 years old but my white people are all either dead or moved and there is no way I can prove my age.”

Questionnaire (Form 3-389), Charles Jones, 7 April 1915
[Wife] Emily Jones — died 10 April 1909 at Norfolk, Va.

Letter from Charles Jones, National Soldiers Home, Va. to the Commissioner of Pensions, Washington, DC, 31 January 1917
“I was born in 1841.”

(Form 81), Central Branch, National Home for D.V.S., National Military Home, Ohio, 25 November 1918
“Charles Jones … was Transf’d to this Branch on the 8 day of Nov. 1918 from Southern Branch.”

Form 37, Central Branch, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 17 August 1919
“Charles Jones … died at Central Branch on the 17 day of July, 1919. Cause of death, mitral insufficiency, Social Condition, widower. The name, address and degree of relationship of his next of kin, so far as indicated by the records of this Home, are as follows: Cousin, Mrs. William Rowe, 124 Mallory St., Phoebus, Virginia”