The Life of PROTHEUS EPPS ARMISTEAD JONES
CONFEDERATE SOLDIER
WAKE COUNTY ATTORNEY
JOHNSON SECTION, LOT C-8
Armistead Jones was born on September 23, 1846, in Henderson, North Carolina, the son of Protheus Epps Armistead and Mary Frances Hawkins Jones. As a boy, he attended Horner Military Academy, and while studying, left to join the Confederate Army as a member of Mosley’s Battery. Although only 16 at the time of his entry into service in 1862, he distinguished himself with bravery and valor was captured at the fall of Fort Fisher. At the close of the Civil War, Armistead Jones was confined to the Confederate Hospital at Peace Institute in Raleigh with typhoid pneumonia.
After the war, Mr. Jones who was his father’s name sake, dropped his first two names. He then moved to Raleigh to make his home, taking up the study of law under Judge Battle and working at the local telegraph office to pay his way. Upon receiving his law license, Jones became associated with his brother W. W. Jones, in the legal profession. When his brother moved to Asheville, Armistead became associated with Judge Boykin, as Jones & Boykin, until Boykin’s death. When his son, William Branch Jones, was admitted to the bar, the firm became known as Armistead, Jones & Son, and continued as such until Judge J. Loyd Horton was admitted to the firm, which then became Jones, Jones & Horton and remained so until Armistead’s death.
On January 3, 1872, Armistead Jones married Miss Nancy Haywood Branch, a daughter of General Lawrence O’Bryan Branch who was killed at Sharpsburg during the Civil War.
Early in his legal career, Governor Aycock appointed Jones as District Solicitor, a position he served for more than 11 years. For 25 years he was chairman of the Democratic Committee and up until his death, he served as chairman of the Board of Directors of Raleigh’s Confederate Soldier’s Home.
Jones was offered a judgeship by Governor Fowle, which he refused, preferring to remain devoted to his law practice, to his country and to his family.
In 1925, when Mr. Jones died, the Wake County Superior Court recessed in honor of his memory, the Wake County Bar Association attended the funeral in a body, as did the L.O.B. Branch Camp of Confederate Veterans.