John Beauchamp Jones Explained

John Beauchamp Jones
Pseudonym:J. B. Jones
Birth Name:John Beauchamp Jones
Birth Date:6 March 1810
Birth Place:Baltimore, Maryland
Death Place:Burlington, New Jersey
Language:English
Nationality:American
Spouse:Frances T. Custis

John Beauchamp Jones (March 6, 1810 – February 4, 1866) was a novelist (particularly of the American West and the American South) whose books enjoyed popularity during the mid-19th century and a well-connected literary editor and political journalist in the two decades leading up to the American Civil War. During the war, he served as a senior clerk in the Confederate War Department and is today remembered for his diary, published as A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital.

Antebellum life

Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri

Jones was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Joshua Jones, Jr., one of the defenders of Baltimore during the War of 1812, and Mary Ann Sands. Financial losses overtook the family and prompted a move to Cynthiana, Harrison County, Kentucky in about 1815.[1] Jones traveled to Missouri in 1830 to assist his brother, Joseph, who was opening for his employer—an established merchant in New Franklin—a branch store at Arrow Rock in Missouri's Boonslick region.[2] John Beauchamp Jones participated as a clerk in the enterprise from 1830 until about 1836, with his experience in the role the basis for his novel The Western Merchant, written under the pseudonym Luke Shortfield.[3] Jones's later minor notoriety along with his recital of the details and particulars in The Western Merchant of the store opening may have led to his being solely credited by some sources with establishing the first store in Arrow Rock.[4] [5]

In Arrow Rock, John B. Jones became friends with genre painter of the frontier and Missouri Whig politician George Caleb Bingham. Bingham is featured in Jones's novel, The Life and Adventures of a Country Merchant (1854). Bingham may have reciprocated. According to Robin Grey, in Bingham's famous election "genre" studies, Jones is the seated figure on the left in the painting Canvassing for a Vote (1851—52).[6]

Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Washington, D. C.

Jones left Arrow Rock sometime in the mid-1830s, returning east, where he wrote fiction and various newspaper articles. In 1835, a book of his poetry, Seven Ages, Memory, and Other Poems, was published in Cincinnati, Ohio.[7]

During the late 1830s and 1840, Jones was a nearly penniless writer, residing in turns in Baltimore and Philadelphia.[8]

Jones was in Baltimore, Maryland, at least by the middle of 1839, when he exchanged correspondence with Edgar Allan Poe, about the time Poe became the assistant editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine and American Monthly Review in Philadelphia. On August 6, Jones wrote Poe, informing him that he had been criticized by The Sun and other newspapers in the city. Poe replied on August 8.[9] In November, Burtin's published Jones's lengthy essay about the plight of American authors, Thoughts on the Literary Prospects of America in Burtons, which included Poe's and Jones's joint concern about the lack of copyright protection, "But the most powerful and withering cause which has operated against the chances of our country in the competition for literary honors, has been the piratical course pursued by our publishers, in reprinting the productions of foreign pens, because they could be procured without expense."[10]

In December, his story, The Lump of Gold, was published in Burton's.[11]

Jones married heiress Frances T. Custis[12] of Drummondtown on the Eastern Shore of Virginia on April 14, 1840.[13] The couple had been introduced by Baltimore area socialite Sally Parson, Custis's aunt, a spinster.[14] Through his wife's social and familial connections, Jones became acquainted with influential men such as John Tyler and Henry A. Wise, then a member of United States House of Representatives representing Virginia. Jones mentions his wife's property on the Eastern Shore early in his diary.[15] Jones's marriage into the politically connected Virginia slave-holding family influenced both his fiction and newspaper career.

In May 1840, he became joint proprietor—probably from the dowry of his new wife[16] —and editor of the weekly Baltimore Saturday Visiter.[17] [18] Later that year, Jones launched a monthly literary magazine, in which he held a significant financial stake, called the Baltimore Phoenix & Budget. Having failed to interest publishers in his first three novels— Wild Western Scenes, The Western Merchant, and Freaks of Fortune—, Jones serialized them in Baltimore Saturday Visiter and Baltimore Phoenix & Budget. He sold his interests in both periodicals to Joseph Evan Snodgrass in the fall of 1841.

On April 4, 1841, President William Henry Harrison died after just 31 days in office, succeeded by Vice President John Tyler. One of Tyler's first presidential actions was to designate The Daily Madisonian, a Washington newspaper, as his administration's journalistic organ. Jones purchased the newspaper from Thomas Allen, where he became the editor as well as proprietor.[19]

Jones was offered the post as chargé ď affaires at Naples during the Polk administration by Secretary of State John C. Calhoun. Jones declined the offer despite his respect for Calhoun.[20] [21]

In the 1840s and 1850s, Jones repeatedly connected government, business, and banking in his books, sometimes in mystery and seriousness and other times hilariously comedic. As early as the 1940s, Jones warned his readers to follow the money, to observe where it had come from, where it was going, and what it was used for.[22]

In 1857, Jones founded and edited the pro-South Southern Monitor in Philadelphia,[23] [24] living across the Delaware River in Burlington, New Jersey.[25] Anticipating the outbreak of the American Civil War, he abandoned the paper, left his family behind, and fled to Montgomery, Alabama,[26] [27] arriving in Richmond, Virginia on April 12, 1861, the day Fort Sumter was fired on.[28] His fears were realized when the office of his Southern Monitor was visited and attacked by mobs seeking the newspaper's editor on April 15.[29] [30]

Civil War

Family

The Civil War as a fratricidal war—with brothers and relatives on opposing sides—was clearly demonstrated by the case of John Beauchamp Jones and his five brothers. John was ultra-southern. Richard and Robert were both Union men. Robert had been shot by a secessionist and badly wounded. William was a rebel, arrested and taken to Jefferson City, Missouri, where he was released without trial after being detained for a few days. Ben left Missouri, returning to Kentucky.[31] Caleb, a wealthy former merchant and farmer in Missouri, while opposed to secession and believing there was no right to secede, thought the Southern grievances justified rebellion and revolution.[32] Caleb's family and fortune suffered from demands made on them from both sides and, in 1864, took refuge in Canada, writing, "Our State is in a deplorable condition every crime is committed with impunity. Most of our friends have left." He thought that between the Jayhawkers and the bushwhackers, Missouri would be devastated and only a fit abode for the lawless for years to come.[33]

Diary

With recommendations from influential southerners, including a memorial from John Tyler and members of the Virginia secession convention to Jefferson Davis,[34] Jones was able to secure employment as a high-ranking government clerk in the Confederate States War Department at the first Confederate capitol in Montgomery. When the Confederate government moved to Richmond, Virginia, his family joined him. From the first day of his flight from the North, Jones kept a diary to preserve the details of these eventful times for future publication.[35] After the war, Jones and his family returned to his home in Burlington, New Jersey, and prepared his manuscript for publication. In 1866, it was published as A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital. Jones died of tuberculosis on February 4, 1866, never seeing his diary in print.

The published diary is one of the best sources of everyday life in Richmond during the war; also with details concerning the inner workings of the War Department.[27] [36] James I. Robertson, Jr. has called him "The Civil War's Most Valuable Diarist."[37]

Literary activities

Jones's fiction and activities as an editor attracted the attention of other literary notables of the period, including Edgar Allan Poe and William Gilmore Simms. Jones's early novels, Wild Western Scenes: A Narrative of Adventures in the Western Wilderness, Forty Years Ago (1841), The Western Merchant: A Narrative . . . (1849), and Life and Adventures of a Country Merchant: A Narrative of His Exploits at Home, during His Travels, and in the Cities; Designed to Amuse and Instruct (1854), capture the picturesque and generally Edenic qualities of the West, where he spent his early years. Jones's novels commend the honesty of "the People" and predict their abiding success, based on the democratic republicanism of Thomas Jefferson[38] [39]

Edgar Allan Poe took note of Jones in 1841 in "A Chapter on Autography", published in Graham's Magazine in December 1841.

In Wild Southern Scenes. A Tale of Disunion! and Border War!, Jones wrote of

In popular culture

Jones appears as a humorous supporting character in Harry Turtledove's The Guns of the South, a science fiction novel set in the 1860s.

Works

Novels

Diary

References

Cited literature

External links

Notes and References

  1. Culpepper, Marilyn Mayer; Women of the Civil War South: Personal Accounts from Diaries, Letters and Postwar Reminiscences; McFarland & Company, Jefferson, North Carolina, 2003
  2. News: Boon's Lick Sketches - A Boon's Lick Country Merchant Part 2 . 5 July 2023 . The Tipton Times . 18, Vol. 64 . Everett Pizer & Son . December 1, 1939 . Tipton, Missouri . 4 . ... it was pointed out that he came to Franklin about 1830 and soon after moved to Arrow Rock where he and his brother Joseph opened the first store. Here he lived for several years..
  3. News: Historical Society of Howard and Cooper Counties . Boon's Lick Sketches - A Boon's Lick Country Merchant . 30 June 2023 . The Tipton Times . Tipton, Missouri . 18 Vol 64 . Everett Pizer & Son . December 1, 1939 . 6 . ... when twenty years of age, he came to Missouri to join his brother Joseph, who was operating a store in New Franklin. Joseph was in the employ of an established merchant, who had seen the possibilities of the new town of Arrow Rock which had been laid out in 1829, and offered Joseph the opportunity to open a branch store there promising him half of all the profits which he made. Joseph accepted the offer and sent for his brother John to help him. John's experiences in Missouri furnished the basis for many of his later books. Within a few years he returned east determined to become an author..
  4. News: van Ravenswaay . Charles . Charles van Ravenswaay Tells of Latest Arrow Rock Visit . 2 July 2023 . The Daily Democrat-News . 77, 67th year . February 8, 1947 . Marshall, Saline County, Missouri . 1 . John Beauchamp Jones (1810-1866), later famous as an author and journalist, opened the first store here in a crude log building. He recounted his adventures in his "The Western Merchant" (1849)..
  5. News: Page . Charles . The History of Arrow Rock Points to A Glorious Past . 2 July 2023 . The Daily Democrat-News . 265, 60th year . Democrat-New Ptg. Co. . July 24, 1940 . Marshall, Saline County, Missouri . 1 . John Beauchamp Jones established the first store at Arrow Rock in 1830. The earliest known description of Arrow Rock was by Jones..., 'I have said that the building that my brother and my self were to occupy was the only one in town. This was an error...'.
  6. Book: Grey . Robin Sandra . Kopley . Richard . Argersinger . Jana . Poe Writing/Writing Poe (AMS Studies in the Nineteenth Century) . 2013 . AMS Press . New York . 978-0404644758 . 71–97 . Patronage, Southern Politics, and the Road Not Taken: Poe and J. B. Jones. This is my own attribution based on photographs of J. B. Jones from various archives. Although other figures in the painting have been identified, this figure has not. It is noted, moreover, in Paul C. Nagel's George Caleb Bingham that Jones's autobiographical character Nap Wax (in Life and Adventures of a Country Merchant) was told that every citizen in the town was likely to be in the picture or in the Election Series: 'Me, too, with my pot-belly. I've seen the first sketch of it, and it'll be a famous picture..., better than an advertisement'.
  7. Book: Catalogue of The Young Men's Mercantile Library in Cincinnati . 1846 . Young Men's Mercantile Library Association . Cincinnati,Ohio . 67 . Jones, John. Seven Ages, Memory, and Other Poems. 18mo. Cincinnati. 1835. Donated by G. W. Medary..
  8. Book: Grey . Robin Sandra . Kopley . Richard . Argersinger . Jana . Poe Writing/Writing Poe (AMS Studies in the Nineteenth Century) . 2013 . AMS Press . New York . 978-0404644758 . 71–97 . Patronage, Southern Politics, and the Road Not Taken: Poe and J. B. Jones.
  9. Web site: Edgar Allan Poe to J. Beauchamp Jones — August 8, 1839 . The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore . 27 June 2023.
  10. Book: Jones . John Beauchamp . Poe . Edgar Allen . Burton . William E. . Burtons' Gentleman's Magazine and American Monthly Review, Volume 5 . November 1839 . William E. Burton . Philadelphia . 267–271 . https://books.google.com/books?id=lJXPAAAAMAAJ&dq=%E2%80%98%E2%80%98Thoughts+on+the+Literary+Prospects+of+America%E2%80%99%E2%80%99&pg=PA267 . 10 July 2023 . Thoughts on the Literary Prospects of America—An Essay.
  11. Book: Jones . J. Beauchamp . Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, and American Monthly Review . December 1839 . William E. Burton . Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . 304–308 . https://books.google.com/books?id=o28yAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22burton%27s+gentleman%27s+Magazine%22+%22J.+Beauchamp+Jones%22&pg=PA304 . 4 July 2023 . The Lump of Gold.
  12. Book: Grey . Robin Sandra . Kopley . Richard . Argersinger . Jana . Poe Writing/Writing Poe (AMS Studies in the Nineteenth Century) . 2013 . AMS Press . New York . 978-0404644758 . 71–97 . Patronage, Southern Politics, and the Road Not Taken: Poe and J. B. Jones. In response to a question about what Jones could expect by way of dowry, Sally Cable Parsons (Custis's aunt) wrote in June 4, 1840, that Frances ought to have inherited a handsome property from her father and money from her mother. This inheritance, however, was only partially relinquished by her uncles, who held the estate in trust while she was a minor. .
  13. News: Married . 5 July 2023 . The Baltimore Sun . 131, Vol. VI . April 18, 1840 . Baltimore, Maryland . 2 . On the 14th inst., at the village church, Drummond Town, Va., by the Rev. Mr. Bartlett, Mr. J. Beauchamp Jones, of Baltimore, to Miss Frances T. Custis, of the former place..
  14. Book: Wise . Jennings Cropper . Col. John Wise of England and Virginia (1617-1695); his ancestors and descendants . 1918 . The Bell Book and Stationary Co. Inc . Ricmond, Virginia . 75–76 . 9 July 2023.
  15. Book: Jones . John Beauchamp . A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1 . 1866 . J. B. Lippincott & Co. . Philadelphia . 31 . 9 July 2023 . May 3D—No letters from my wife. Probably, she has taken the children to the Eastern Shore. Her farm is there, and she has many friends in the county..
  16. Book: Robertson . James I. Jr . A Rebel War Clerk's Diary: At the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1: April 1861-July 1863 (Modern War Studies) . September 18, 2015 . University Press of Kansas . Kansas . Editor's Preface. 978-0700621231 .
  17. News: The Baltimore Visiter . 4 July 2023 . The Baltimore Sun . 150, Vol VI . A. S. Abell & Co. . May 11, 1840 . Baltimore, Maryland.
  18. Book: Grey . Robin Sandra . Kopley . Richard . Argersinger . Jana . Poe Writing/Writing Poe (AMS Studies in the Nineteenth Century) . 2013 . AMS Press . New York . 978-0404644758 . 71–97 . Patronage, Southern Politics, and the Road Not Taken: Poe and J. B. Jones . In May 1840, just after his April marriage and perhaps with some of his wife's dowry, Jones acquired a stake in and coedited (along with T. S. Arthur [1809–85]) the weekly Baltimore Saturday Visiter..
  19. Web site: The Madisonian and The Daily Madisonian . Chronicling America . Library of Congress . 10 July 2023 . (In 1841) Thomas Allen sold the paper (The Madisonian) to John B. Jones, and it became The Daily Madisonian In addition to the title change and change in publication frequency (daily except Sundays), the change in ownership brought with it changes in style and format as the newspaper began to utilize Old English font in the masthead as well as section headings. The managerial change also brought with it different political affiliations, as illustrated in the paper's new Prospectus published by John Jones on November 9, 1841: 'It is our design to pursue the Right, alike heedless of party names and party interests, and to expose the Wrong, emanate from what men or in what sections it may.' The Madisonian began to support the Whig party and became a firm supporter of the Tyler Administration, yet it maintained its mission to disseminate news of all political backgrounds to best inform American citizens. On May 3, 1845, the newspaper was sold to J.E. Dow & Co. and became The United States Journal..
  20. Book: Graham . John Remington . Aiken . David . Blood money: the Civil War and the Federal Reserve . 2006 . Pelican Publishing Company . Gretna, Louisiana . 1589803981 . 10 . Forward . John C. Calhoun had offered Jones as chargé ď affaires at Naples during the Polk administration. Jones declined the position even though he respected the man offering it. As a quiet and introverted family man who had seen both the best and worst of the inner workings of Washington, D.C., Jones was never inclined to seek or accept a political position. The very idea of using money as power disgusted him. The misuse of money in politics was irritating enough to find its way into Jone's' novels..
  21. Book: Grey . Robin Sandra . Kopley . Richard . Argersinger . Jana . Poe Writing/Writing Poe (AMS Studies in the Nineteenth Century) . 2013 . AMS Press . New York . 978-0404644758 . 71–97 . Patronage, Southern Politics, and the Road Not Taken: Poe and J. B. Jones. ...John C. Calhoun, who had offered Jones a (patronage) chargéship in Italy after Polk's Democratic victory in 1844..
  22. Book: Graham . John Remington . Aiken . David . Blood money: the Civil War and the Federal Reserve . 2006 . Pelican Publishing Company . Gretna, Louisiana . 1589803981 . 9 . Forward . In book after book, Jones tried to entertain and to educate his readers who were lamentably unversed in emerging economic practices. Jones accurately predicted much of what took place throughout the country before, during, and after the War Between the States as he focused on the signs of growing civil unrest. Being savvy about matters of money, he knew how easily civil discord could be translated into dollar signs for those invested in conflict rather than peace..
  23. R. M. . Reviewed Work(s): A Rebel War Clerk's Diary by J. B. Jones . Army Ordinance . July 1936 . 17 . 97 . 8 July 2023 . National Defense Industrial Association . 45375005 . ...when the Civil War broke out he was the editor of a weekly paper in Philadelphia which, although it was pro-South in its attitude, was far from belligerent..
  24. Book: Christensen . Lawrence O. . Foley . William E. . Kremer . Gary . Dictionary of Missouri Biography . 1999 . University of Missouri Press . Columbia and London . 0-8262-1222-0 . 439 . 8 July 2023 . Jones, John Beauchamp . In 1857 Jones established the Southern Monitor in Philadelphia, which, staunchly devoted to Southern Interests, helped fuel the growing sectional crisis..
  25. News: Beirne . Frances F. . A Famous Diary's Unknown Author - War Clerk Jones, of Richmond, Proves to have been a Baltimorean . 19 August 2023 . The Baltimore Sun . A. S. Abell Company . October 28, 1934 . Baltimore, Maryland . 87 . He appears during this time to have lived with his family in Burlington, N. J., for by now he had several children..
  26. Cates 1999, pp. 399-440.
  27. Eicher 1997, p. 58.
  28. Jones 1866, p. 16
  29. Everett . Edward G. . Pennsylvania Newspapers and Public Opinion, 1861-1862 . The Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine . March 1961 . 44 . 1 . 6.
  30. Book: Jones . John Beauchamp . A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1 . 1866 . J. B. Lippincott & Co. . Philadelphia . 19 . 8 July 2023 . April 15—...At night, while sitting with Captain O. Jennings Wise in the editorial room of the Enquirer, I learned from the Northern exchange papers, which still came to hand, that my office in Philadelphia, "The Southern Monitor," had been sacked by the mob. It was said ten thousand had visited my office, displaying a rope with which to hang me. Finding their victim had escaped, they vented their fury in sacking the place. I have not ascertained the extent of the injury done; but if they injured the building, it belonged to H. B., a rich Republican. They tore down the signs (it was a corner house east of the Exchange), and split them up, putting the splinters in their hats, and wearing them as trophies..
  31. Web site: The Civil War Letters of Nancy nee' Chapman Jones . Cooper County Missouri Genealogical Website . Missouri GenWeb . 16 July 2023 . 42 . August 25, 1861 . Ben and John were the last two of the five brothers of Caleb..
  32. Web site: The Civil War Letters of Nancy nee' Chapman Jones . Cooper County Missouri Genealogical Website . Missouri GenWeb . 16 July 2023 . 16 . August 25, 1861. Letter from Nancy Chapman Jones to her daughter, May Jones McCarthy.
  33. Web site: The Civil War Letters of Nancy nee' Chapman Jones . Cooper County Missouri Genealogical Website . Missouri GenWeb . 16 July 2023 . 16 . September 21, 1864. Letter from Caleb Jones in Paris Station, Canada West, to his daughter, May Jones McCarthy.
  34. Book: Jones . John Beauchamp . A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1 . 1866 . J. B. Lippincott & Co. . Philadelphia . 29 . 9 July 2023 . May 5th—President Tyler has placed in my hands a memorial to President Davis, signed by himself and many of the members of the Convention, asking appropriate civil employment for me in the new government. I shall be content to obtain the necessary position to make a full and authentic Diary of the transactions of the government. .
  35. Book: Jones . John Beauchamp . A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1 . 1866 . J. B. Lippincott & Co. . Philadelphia . 29 . 8 July 2023 . April 29—At fifty-one, I can hardly follow the pursuit of arms; but I will write and preserve a Diary of the revolution. I never held or sought office in my life; but now President Tyler and Gov. Wise say I will find employment at Montgomery. The latter will prepare a letter to President Davis, and the former says he will draw up a paper in my behalf, and take it through the Convention himself for signatures. I shall be sufficiently credentialed, at all events-provided old partisan considerations are banished from the new confederacy. To make my Diary full and complete as possible, is now my business. .
  36. Pierpauli 2013, p. 1038.
  37. https://www.virginiahistory.org/read-watch-listen/video-and-audio/civil-wars-most-valuable-diarist-james-i-robertson-jr "The Civil War's Most Valuable Diarist." Virginia Museum of History & Culture.
  38. Lapides 1970, passim.
  39. Bradford 1925, passim.

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