By Salle E. Richards, "An Unforgettable Family" Feb. 11, 2008, Elmira Star-Gazette..
John W. Jones was a former slave who buried Confederate soldiers who died at the infamous Elmira Prison Camp. Lucy Brown, 80, has spent the last ten years trying to preserve his home.
John Jones was born into slavery in 1817 in Leesburg, Virginia, and escaped with five others when he was 27.
After a month, he made it to Elmira where he learned to read and write and became a sexton at the First Baptist Church and a station master on the Underground Railroad and was credited with helping 800 slaves escape to Canada.
During the Civil War, he helped bury some of the more than 3000 Confederate prisoners who died at the prison camp. He always made sure each soldier was buried with respect and kept careful records so that families could later locate their loved ones.
His house was slated for demolition in the mid-1990s when Ms. Brown started trying to save it.
A Former Slave Forgiving Confederates. That is Quite the Story. --Old B-Runner
The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.
