HE WAS A CONFEDERATE SOLDIER
CO A
?? Infantry Regiment
VA TROOPS
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He volunteered for the Confederate States Army at the age of 16.
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He was a Methodist.
He owned Phospho-Lithia Springs which was 2 miles North of Ridgeway, in Henry County, VA.
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For many years he was the President of the Bank of Ridgeway.
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George was a widely known merchant and tobacco manufacturer in Henry County, Va.
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Below is from the book pub. in 1925, "The History of Henry County, Virginia."
"Geo. O. Jones was born in 1846, at Ridgeway, where he spent his life.
He attended the Joshua Smith School there and became proficient in mathematics.
He was 1st Sergeant during the Civil War in a 16 year old company.
He early entered the tobacco business. He married Mary Churchill in 1873 and reared eight children to maturity.
Besides manufacturing tobacco thirty years, he was in the mercantile business with Geo. I. Griggs, and when the latter died, the firm of Jones & Griggs was the oldest business house in the county.
He also owned a large quantity of land, and did extensive farming on a paying basis.
He bought the old mineral springs property, later known as the Phospho-Lithia Springs, two miles north of Ridgeway, and developed this popular watering place.
In fact, he was the builder of the greater part of his town. (Ridgeway, Va.)
Besides scores of dwellings, he built a large tobacco factory, a drug store, warehouse, was the largest contributor to the building of the Methodist church and Ridgeway Institute when organized, as well as a large stock-holder in the Bank of Ridgeway. He was president of the latter for many years.
He was a great believer in the Methodist Church, and supported its institutions liberally. He was active in the Sunday School, and attended whenever possible. His home was always ready for the ministers where they were hospitably entertained.
It was not his nature to refuse aid to his friends and the needy, and his expenditures this way would have crippled the finances of most business men in the county; but he was, with all his losses, a good financier, and accumulated much property.
He was a model neighbor, a patriotic citizen, and the most indulgent of fathers.
In his home he extended a wholesouled welcome that few men knew how to bestow on visitors.
In his office he offered every help reasonable to his fellowman, and in his private life he presented to the world a kind heart, and did his best to walk in the way of his Master.
He died in Nov. 1922, and was buried at the Ridgeway Cemetery."