Jones County (N.C.) towns have diverse backgrounds

Imagine the day when “peace-and-quiet” Trenton, the county seat of Jones County, N.C., had not one but two saloons.

Jones County Courthouse

 

Historian Jerry Dale “J.D.” Lewis of Little River, S.C., creator of the Carolana database, knows these things. 

Lewis reported that in 1880, one of the popular Trenton watering holes was owned by Charles C. Green, who was also a local druggist. The proprietor of the other tavern was a chap identified as W.H. Cox.

Located on the banks of the Trent River, Trenton was formed in 1784, and Abner Nash was among its “founding fathers.” Nash had served as North Carolina’s second governor in 1780-81.

 

Today, Jones County has just two other incorporated towns, Pollocksville and Maysville. 

Pollocksville was originally formed as Trent Bridge in the early 1800s. The name of the place was changed to Pollocksville in 1834, as a tribute to George Pollock, a large landowner in the area.

 

He was a descendant of Thomas Pollock of Glasgow, Scotland, who served twice as an acting royal governor of the North Carolina province (1712-14 and 1722). Obviously, his family put down roots in Jones County. 

Maysville started out as Young’s Crossroads, taking its name from John Young, a prominent resident who lived along the White Oak River. After Young’s children moved away, the community became known simply as Cross Roads in the 1820s. 

The community eventually took the name of Maysville to honor John D. May, who was a teacher and helped to establish an elementary school in town. The Maysville post office opened for business in 1875.

 

Maysville was a logical location to establish a train depot on a new railroad line that was being built in 1893 by tycoon Henry Walters of Wilmington. His plan was to extend the Wilmington, Onslow and East Carolina Railroad from Jacksonville to New Bern, a distance of about 35 miles. 

The arrival of the railroad boosted the spirits of the Maysville townspeople, as Jacksonville and New Bern, were “two of North Carolina’s largest cities and strongest markets at the time,” wrote Megan Funk, a railway historian. 

“Not only would residents of Maysville gain quick rail transportation to both cities, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (as it came to be known) would provide a huge benefit to Jones County’s agricultural economy,” Funk said.

 

“By 1950, the dominance of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad had been overshadowed by the Seaboard Air Line Railway, and in 1967 the two railroad companies merged as the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad,” she said. 

Around 1984, the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad discontinued rail service between Jacksonville and New Bern and removed the tracks. Land was returned to the heirs of the original owners. 

In 2020, a 2.5-mile section of the rail bed located just north of Maysville, running through the Croatan National Forest, was evaluated by the U.S. Forest Service and the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources for possible inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. 

The Historic Structure Survey Report prepared by Commonwealth Heritage Group, Inc., of Tarboro, concluded, however, that the rail site did not meet the qualifications for such designation. 

The trains are gone but not the planes. Today, Jones County is “military friendly” in every sense and is home to Marine Corps Outlying Landing Field Oak Grove, located near Pollocksville. The facility was constructed in 1942 as a training field for Marine Corps aviators. It is a unit of Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.

 

Jones County was site of Civil War ‘activities’ by Union forces

Have you heard about the Civil War Battle of Trenton that occurred on Dec. 6, 1863, in Jones County? 

Writing for the NCPedia website in 2006, Thomas J. Farnham said the “Battle of Trenton” was really “more of a skirmish.” It occurred on the banks of Chinquapin Creek, about six miles west of Trenton. 

“The Union’s Capt. C. H. Roche left New Bern to retrieve…three Confederate deserters who subsequently joined a regiment fighting for the Union,” Farnham said. “Roche sent a force of 23 men to Trenton to get two of the men and their families.” 

The Union soldiers “crossed the Trent River and rescued the two families without encountering Confederate troops,” Farnham wrote. 

“Roche took his remaining 50 men farther up the Trent Road to remove the third family. On their way to the area known as Chinquapin Chapel, where the family lived, the Union troops confronted a dozen Confederate cavalry.” 

“The Confederates removed the planks from the bridge spanning Beaver Dam Creek, hoping to prevent Roche’s advance. The numerically superior Union force drove the enemy back, repaired the bridge and continued its march,” Farnham said. 

But at Chinquapin Creek, Confederates had destroyed the bridge and were waiting for Roche on the opposite side. Farnham said that Roche “dispersed the Confederates with his howitzer (small cannon) but did not cross the creek for fear he would encounter a substantial Confederate force.” 

“Roche and his men abandoned their efforts to retrieve the third family and returned to New Bern,” Farnham said. 

There were a few casualties at Chinquapin Creek, he said. The Union troops suffered one death and one injury, while three Confederate soldiers were wounded. 

Perhaps the bigger Civil War story in Jones County was when Union arsonists burned down the courthouse in Trenton in 1862. Important documents went up in flames. 

Among the “hall of fame of all-time community leaders” in Jones County is Annie Koonce Jenkins of Maysville. Our State magazine reported that she was the first woman to be elected mayor in North Carolina, winning her seat in 1925. 

Mayor Jenkins served for six years, and she was responsible for planting the oak trees that still line the streets of Maysville today.

 

Another Jones County hero is Alfred K. Flowers, 74, a retired U.S. Air Force major general who served in many roles, culminating as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget. He was born in 1947 near Phillips Crossroads off N.C. Route 58 west of Trenton. 

At the age of 10, Alfred started working in the fields with his grandparents who were sharecroppers. He graduated from Jones High School in 1965 and joined the Air Force. Because he was only 17, his grandmother had to sign a release allowing him to enlist. 

At the time of his retirement in January 2012, Flowers had served more than 46 years on active duty, making him the longest-serving airman in Air Force history and the longest serving African American in the history of the U.S. Department of Defense. 

Flowers and his wife, Ida M. Flowers, also an Air Force veteran, now reside in San Antonio, Texas. He is the author of an autobiography “Reflections of a Servant Leader.” 

The couple has one son, Brig. Gen. Alfred K. Flowers Jr., who is Chief of the Medical Service Corps in the Office of the Air Force Surgeon General, based in Falls Church, Va.