Toombs County, Georgia History and Genealogy Project

Toombs County, Georgia

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ARTHUR PERRY JONES. Widely known as manager of the Vidalia Commission Company, which is carrying on a large wholesale and retail business, dealing in grain, provisions, lime, cement, seeds and building material, Arthur Perry Jones is a true type of the energetic and enterprising men who are so materially advancing the mercantile interests of Vidalia, and of Toombs county. A native of South Carolina, his birth occurred at Salkehatchie, Colleton county, May 26, 1878.

His father, Asbury Morgan Jones, was born and reared in Colleton county, South Carolina, and died in Pavo, Georgia, in 1908. He was a veteran of the Civil war, in which he rendered good service. He subsequently carried on a thriving business as a planter and a merchant for many years, in Colleton county, South Carolina, in his operations acquiring considerable property. The maiden name of his wife was Emeline Dassy Mood, of Charleston, South Carolina.

Receiving his early education in the town of his birth, Arthur Perry Jones completed his studies at the Stanley Business College, in Thomasville, Georgia. The ensuing year and a half he was employed as a telegraph operator, first with the F. C. & P. Railroad Company, now a branch of the Seaboard, and later with the Georgia Northern Railway Company, at Moultrie, Georgia. Going then to Tifton, Georgia, Mr. Jones was associated with the Western Union Telegraph Company for four and one-half years. Returning then to Tifton, he was manager of the Postal Company there for two years, after which he conducted a retail grocery in that city for two and one-half years. Disposing then of his store, Mr. Jones was for six months manager of the Postal Company at Thomasville, Georgia, after which he was agent for a year and a half, at Ashburn, for the Gulf Line Railroad Company. Coming from there to Vidalia, Mr. Jones became identified with the Vidalia Commission Company, which was incorporated January 1, 1911, as a stock company, and of which C. L. Herring is now president, and Mr. Jones is the efficient treasurer and general manager. This company was capitalized at $6,000, with the privilege of increasing it to $25,000, when occasion demanded, and is carrying on a rapidly growing business that even now amounts to $35,000 each year. The store occupies a floor space of three thousand, six hundred feet, and is well stocked with all goods handled by commission brokers, including groceries, grain, hay, flour, lard, hams, lime, cement, building materials, roofing, typewriting machines, showcases, and like productions, the business being extensive and lucrative.

On October 16, 1901, Mr. Jones was united in marriage with Allie Mae Harman, who was born, March 25, 1882, in Boston, Georgia, but was brought up and educated in Dixie, Brooks county, where she lived until her marriage. Her father, James Jackson Harman, was born in Ringgold, Georgia, April 17, 1855, and at the age of nine years, during the Civil war, accompanied his parents to Boston, whither they fled as refugees. On October 15, 1878, Mr. Harman married Sophronia Grovenstein, who was born, March 23, 1857, in Effingham County, Georgia, being a granddaughter of William Grovenstein, who was a lineal descendant of that branch of the Salsberger family that settled near Savannah, Georgia, in early colonial days.

Six children have been born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Jones, namely: Agnes Lucile died at the age of twelve months; Asbury Har-man, born in 1904; Emily Mae lived but one short year; Martha Perry, born in 1908; Alfred Joseph, born in 1910; and Margaret Louise, born in 1911. Fraternally Mr. Jones is a member of the Knights of Pythias. Religiously he, his wife, and his son Harman, are members of the Methodist church.

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