Sawdust In My Shoes: A Profile of J.Wilson Jones, Jr.

By Don Pendergraft, Director of Regional Museums

There have been many lumbermen in the storied history of logging, milling and forestry in the Albemarle region. Many of the early ports were named “shingle landing” after the split cypress shingles bundled, stacked and ready for market in Colonial times. The region was known for cypress, juniper and pine trees, found in virgin growth forests surrounded by water. They were sought by boat builders, house builders and furniture makers for the strong grains that could be fashioned into useful items. The tall trees stood for millennium until after the Civil War. The Union soldiers who occupied the region during the war made note of the great forests and a ready supply of wood. They returned to begin the work of timbering and bringing the trees to market in 1870s. The market held true well into the 1930s, when much of the original forests had been timbered-out & reforested.

Left to Right. Stephen Jones, J. Wilson Jones, Jr., Wilson Jones, III.

Courtesy of Timber Processing Magazine, Dec 2017

“Bad Weather Makes Good Lumber”

It was in 1939, when a young man from Camden County began a small sawmill, north of Elizabeth City. Johnny Jones had moved around the country and returned to try his hand in a trade he knew well, sawmills. The Foreman, Kramers and Blades Mills with a multitude of others were also harvesting and milling lumber for local and international markets.

In an interview with J. Wilson Jones, Jr. he described his father’s mill as hard work, done by hand with 8-10 people working together. He remembers the days fondly and as a great learning experience. He began helping his father turning tree trunks with a cant-hook on the yard at about thirteen years old. The operation was steam-driven with electricity still on the horizon. The Rural Electrification Act (REA) was delayed until after the Second World War. Jones was enrolled in gradeschool near South Mills with about seventy students of all ages and three teachers to provide reading, writing and arithmetic. He enjoyed playing sports and would later travel to attend high school in Elizabeth City High School. He went on to attend North Carolina State University and later graduated in Forestry, Manufacturing and Mercantile. He described the rapidly changing technology used to cure lumber with the adding of kiln drying equipment to help process and produce lumber for an ever-increasing market post WWII. The mill would also adopt automated and computer driven technology to help with the recording and production in the mill. The new technologies advanced the milling processes to ensure more lumber and less waste from every tree. He credits the success of the mills to the ingenuity of the employees, who steered the business through rough and prosperous times. The success can also be attributed to good forestry to replant and harvest trees as a renewable resource. Jones is a student of good practices in the lumber business and in the process purchased a chipping plant to use more parts of the tree. The mills operation also expanded by purchasing Mackey Ferry Mill in Roper, NC for milling hardwoods. I asked him, why he chose the wood industry as his life’s work. His reply, I got sawdust in my shoes at an early age.

J. WILSON JONES JR. GOES OVER PLANS WITH SONS STEPHEN, LEFT, AND WILSON III.

Courtesy of Timber Processing Magazine, Nov 1996

Making a Difference

The two largest structures in the museum’s Our Story-The Story of the Albemarle, (the chronological gallery) the 1750s Jackson House and the 1840s Proctor Smokehouse were assembled using the original wood with parts reconstructed using wood donated by Jones’ mill. The museum’s Festival Portico and Stage is named for Mr. J.W. Jones, Jr. and Mrs. Margeret Jones. We are lucky to have the Jones as part of our museum family.

MACKY FERRY MILL IN ROPER, NC

Courtesy of Timber Processing Magazine, Dec 2017

Today the company is run by their two sons, J. Wilson Jones, III and Stephen, the fifth generation of lumbermen in the business. They are surrounded by a multitude of loyal employees, excuse the pun, who are engrained with a love for their work and sawdust in their shoes.

J. Wilson, Jr. and Margaret are retired, enjoying grand-children, and exploring life on the river.