My mother is 92 years old. Older than her grandmother Viola May Spence Jones, who died at 89 in 1956. I loved my great grandmother and the heritage of her family. I found just recently stories that mother wrote years ago as a legacy for her grandsons. Mother has problems remembering things now and is some what stuck in a period of time when she was in her late teens and early twenties when she had to take over the household responsibilities because her mother became ill. I will try to write this down as she did in her note book.
From the writings of Beverley Porter Lewis:
When I was a child, before the age of television, one of my greatest pleasures in the evening was to have my father tell me a story. He was a wonderful weaver of tales and dreams. The ones that I liked the most were the stories about the animals of the forest. They all became living characters to me. During the telling of these tales I learned about the habits of these animals and how they lived. What an easy way to learn snuggled in my father's arms.
My grandmother told different tales of growing up after the Civil War in rural North Carolina. It was a story of survival and heart brake. Her stories made me realize how brave and courageous my ancestors were.
I am writing this for my grandsons, and great nieces and nephews, so that you will know the stories of our family. These are stories that I would like you to pass on to your children and grandchildren. I hope that one day that you will enjoy reading them.
It is indeed nice to know that we come from wonderful, strong, brave, and courageous people who were able to endure hardships and still have exciting and happy lives. In my writings, I hope that I will be able to bring some of these adventures alive for you, so that you too will realize the the possibilities that you have within you. God and your ancestors have given you these wonderful traits, all you have to do is draw upon them.
My great grandparents were married in 1847, Dempsey Milton Spence and Polly Nash. He was known as Squire Spence and served as recorder of deeds in Camden County North Carolina. He also owned a Plantation on the Nancemond River. According to my grandmother he was very handsome.
The family did own slaves, as it was necessary to the running of their plantation. Years after the end of the Civil War, freed slaves came to visit my Grandmother to tell her how much they cared for the family. There was one instance where Polly had nursed a black infant along with her own child.
With the beginning of the Civil War life change from a happy easy living to hardship after the slaves were set free. Because he was a good Master many of the slaves wanted to stay, but the farm could not produce enough to pay them. The Spences worked continuously trying to keep the Plantation going. They had a large family, Marietta 14, Mortier 12, Cyrus 10, and John 4 with Roland Leigh born in 1862, and Viola May (my grandmother) born in 1864.
One of the stories that my grandmother told me was that during the Civil War they got word that the Yankees were coming. They set about protecting what was theirs. They hid the live stock in the woods and buried their silver in the garden. When the Yankees arrived, they managed to carry off whatever they could. After going through picking up the things that they wanted they started ripping up pillows and slashing paintings. One soldier even picked up her mothers hair brush and proceeded to brush his hair with it leaving behind heavy black hair in her brush. They generally wrecked havoc, but the horses and cattle were safe.
In 1865 Polly gave birth to yet another child, Nashville. She died in 1868 at the age of 38. Although she was only four years old at the time, she was able to remember many details. She was taken in to visit her mother one last time as she lay dead. They went into the dining room and she saw her lovely mother dressed all in white laid out on their dining table that had been covered with a white cloth. There were candles burning. Someone picked her up and told her to kiss her mother goodbye. When her lips touched her mother's check it was not the warm soft check that she knew so well. It was cold. It was then that she truly realized that her mother was gone.
Her older sister Marietta, who she called Sis, gathered her into loving arms trying to comfort her broken heart. From that day on they remained very close Sis trying to take the place of her lost mother. Sis married Albert Keeter and they lived near by.
Viola's father tried to take care of his family, but found it very difficult without a wife to help. He finally decided to marry a widow friend, Harriet Norcom Forbes, who had two daughters of her own. Together they had three more daughters and a son.
Life had changed drastically for the young Viola. Her siblings clung together, the older sibling had lives of their own, and the new wife pampered her own kin. Viola felt both left out and imposed upon. Her step mother was even cruel at times. She lost her favorite brother Leigh, who died at 23. Sis and her husband Albert and two sons, Nelson and Raleigh decided to join the pioneers going out west. They loaded all their possessions into a covered wagon and headed west. They had not gotten very far before Albert was taken ill in the Mountains of Virginia. They were alone and Sis and her sons had to bury their father along the side of the trail. Sis turned the wagon around and headed home.
Sis and her sons stayed with the family in Camden County until they were able to find a home in Princess Anne County Virginia. She became a dress maker in order to take care of her family. She was 32 at the time.
Mean while things were very hard at home for the young Viola, she was treated more as a servant than a daughter of the family. Sis realizing this asked her to come and live with her. Viola was delighted. This turned out to be a wonderful move for soon after that she met a handsome young lumberman, George Wilkes Jones. This was to be the beginning of her new life. They were married November 8, 1883. She was 19.
George Wilkes Jones was born in Portsmouth Va. in 1860. His father had a feed and hardware store. They lived in a big house on Court Street in what is now called old town Portsmouth. It was a tall house with the entrance and living room on the second floor. This style house was popular. It was called an English basement house. The windows in the living room went all the way down to the floor.
George Jones was my grandfather, he had two older brothers who were killed in The Battle of the Crater, Petersburg, Virginia.
When he was very young he own a confectionery shop. This was located on the Norfolk side of the ferry between Norfolk and Portsmouth Va. This same building was moved to the park area of the renovated East Ghent. Sometime after this he started working for Camp Manufacturing helping them buy lumber.
After they married they moved to Berkley Virginia. He traveled around purchasing areas of forest for the lumber to be used by Camp.
A strange thing happened. One cold winter day George went out with a Civil engineer named Sykes. The weather took a change for the worse. They were caught in a rare Virginia blizzard. Wet and cold they took refuge in a near by farm house. They were fed and cared for, but Mr. Sykes never recovered and died of pneumonia. The strange part of this story is that George Jones yet to be born granddaughter, Beverly Viola Porter, would marry Mr. Sykes' great nephew, Donald Sykes Lewis.
George and Viola Jones had two sons, Charles and William, who were named after his brother's who had died during the Civil War. Then they had a little girl, Lillie Maude. Later they had another son in 1902, George, who was named for his father.
Their home in Berkley was large enough to give the family plenty of room. They had wonderful neighbors. The Sears, and the Doughertys, who lived on either side of their home. They all enjoyed each others company. Their friendship lasted three generations. This was a case of friends becoming like family.
Viola loved her garden. She planted flowers and shrubs to hide the out house. Climbing roses were trained to climb the sides.
There was a well inside the kitchen. One day Viola had to rescue her maid who had fallen into the opening. George had the opening made smaller to insure that this did not happen again.
George loved his family and loved to spoil them. Once when Lillie Maude had been ill, she awoke in the morning to find her bed covered with dolls that her father had bought at a local church bazaar.
At one point George's mother came to stay with the family. Lillie Maude who was full of herself clashed with this grandmother. Angeline Jones, George's mother had no patience with little Lillie Maude. Even as an older woman, she remembered not liking this grandmother.
When Lillie Maude was in her late teens she met a young man, Ralph Wiley Porter, who had started working at the bank in Berkley. Ralph, who was five years older than Lillie Maude, fell in love with her at first sight. He kept this to himself until she was older.
George Jones was a loving father and husband. He was always buying something to please the family. One morning Lillie Maude sat down at the breakfast table at there was something under the table that bumped her toe. There was a big box under the table. When she opened the box she discovered fur muffs and neck pieces for her mother and herself that her father had purchased on his trip to New York City.
Another time he presented Viola May with her own house and carriage. He neglected to tell her that the horse had been retired from the local fire department. All went well until the fire almare went off and so did the horse chasing after the fire. My gram went as fast as the horse could go to the fire. The whole town had a good laugh and Gram received a new horse the old one wasretired to the country.
Grandfather convinced the Camps that by opening an office in New York City that they would increase their income considerably. They thought that this was a good idea. So he packed up the family and their possessions and moved to New York. He headed up the New York office. His two older sons had married so it was just his wife and daughter and young son who moved with him.
They rented a big apartment on Park Avenue. The apartment above was rented by William Randolph Hurst to house his Mistress the Actress, Marion Davies. His house keeper became a friend of Viola's. She gave Viola a beautiful silver loving cup when she returned to her home in England. This cup has remained in the family, and was used in the home baptism of her great great grandson, Donald Lewis Trimble in the 1976.
While in New york Viola lost a baby girl, Lillie Maude took over much of the care of her little brother, George. They became very close.
When Lillie Maude went with her family to New York, she was already very much in love with Ralph. He made the trip up to New York visiting as much as possible and in turn she visited her friends in Virginia.
At long last they were married November 8, 1911 in "the little church around the corner" in New York City. There was a reception at the Apartment with friends from Virginia and the city attending.
They moved into a large house in Berkeley on Main Street. There was more room than they needed so they invited her cousin Georgia Fentress and her new husband Duke Thomas to move in with them until they found a home of their own. They had a great time together.
Added by Leigh:
Sometime after that Viola and George moved to Bronxville, New York into an English Tudor Style Home at 13 West Way. Gram, Viola, was able to garden to her hearts content. Ralph and Lillie Maude with their children George and Beverley visited often. My mother, Beverley has told me that it was a large home with beautiful floors. She remembers that the Kennedy family live not far away and she remembers seeing their children playing with their pony in the yard. Their back door neighbor was no other than Mr. J. C. Penny. My grandmother, Lillie Maude, remembered that he believed in reincarnation and told her that he had known her back when the pyramids were being constructed. Grand father Jones suffered from some form of dementia before his death. I imagine that this would have been very difficult for Gram as she was always babied by her husband.
George and Viola took their young son, George, with them on two separate trips to Europe. They traveled on very large Luxury Ocean Liners.
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