Jones Family Papers, 1817-1964

Collection number: MC 223
Size: 1 box (0.33 cu.ft.)

About the Jones Family

Levi Jones (1771-1847) was a farmer, businessman, innkeeper, and prominent mason of Milton, N.H. He married Sally Worcester Wallingford (1799-1863). Their only child Charles (1834-1873) married Betsy Varney (1836-1878) in 1856. Charles and Betsy had three children, Fred P. (born about 1860), Nellie V. (born about 1862), and Charles Dana (1863-1908). Charles Jr. married Pauline Hart (b. 1966); they had five children - Katherine Mary (b. 1887), Russell Hart (b. 1893), Levi Dana (b. 1891), Hanson Varney (b. 1899), and Dorothy (b. ca. 1900). Fred married Emma Jane Cowell and had at least two children, the second of whom was Robert Edmond (1887-1958).

The Jones Farm now forms part of the New Hampshire Farm Museum on Plummer's Ridge in Milton, N.H. and was gifted to the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (SPNHF). A companion parcel, 322 acres in size, located on Piggott Road in Milton, was gifted to the University of New Hampshire by the Jones family. In the past, it was used extensively by forestry classes for management exercises. The variation in vegetative makeup and terrain made it ideal for educational study and for wildlife habitat management. The property is multi-use, so is open to the public for most forms of non-motorized recreation including hunting, fishing and all forms of pedestrian traffic.

About the Jones Family papers

The Jones family papers include account books kept by Levi Jones that provide a picture of the family farm operation, a series of deeds, land records, and receipts, two wills (those of Joseph Plumer, a neighbor, and Betsy G. Varney), as well as a speech delivered in 1834 by Levi on the subject of temperance. One incidental item is the transference to Elizabeth Jones in 1964 of the royalties to be earned by the work of set designer Robert Edmond Jones, one of the most influential figures in 20th‐century American theatre. He was the son of Fred P. and Emma (Cowell) Jones of Plummer's Ridge, Milton and the great-grandson of Levi Jones.

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

This collection is open.

Copyright Notice

Contents of this collection are governed by U.S. copyright law. For questions about publication or reproduction rights, contact Special Collections staff.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Jones Family Papers, 1817-1964, MC 223, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA.

Acquisitions Information

Multiple accessions: #7944 (purchased from the Manuscript Co. of Springfield, March 17, 1980); #2009.07; #2012.13 (purchased from Shelley Cardiel, Kirkland, WA)

Collection Contents

Box 1
Box 1, Folder 1Levi Jones account book. Mostly running accounts from the operation of the family farm, 1817-1834
Box 1, Folder 2Levi Jones account book. Mostly running accounts from the operation of the family farm, 1833-1847
Box 1, Folder 3Levi Jones Militia/Justice of the Peace record book, 1813-1845 and estate inventory and account book, 1847-1860
Box 1, Folder 4Levi Jones, speech on temperance, 1834
Box 1, Folder 5Levi Jones deeds (9), 1817-1847
Box 1, Folder 6Joseph P. Jones deeds (6), 1827-1838
Box 1, Folder 7Sally Jones deeds (3), 1849-1859
Box 1, Folder 8Charles Jones deeds (9), 1845-1859
Box 1, Folder 9Charles Jones deeds (9), 1860-1864
Box 1, Folder 10Charles Jones deeds (9), 1865-1868
Box 1, Folder 11Charles Jones deeds (6), 1869-1871
Box 1, Folder 12Miscellaneous deeds (3): Samuel Wallingford, Joshua G. Hall, and Fred P. Jones, 1820, 1870, 1885
Box 1, Folder 13Miscellaneous land records (5). Agreements on property line, fence construction, and maintenance between owners of the Jones property and the owners of neighboring properties, 1824-1869
Box 1, Folder 14Milton, NH tax receipts, 1865-1868
Box 1, Folder 15Levi Jones receipts (2), 1817
Box 1, Folder 16Charles Jones receipts (25), 1864-1869
Box 1, Folder 17Miscellaneous receipts (2), 1868-1869
Box 1, Folder 18Wills: Joseph Plumer and Betsey G. Varney, 1821 and 1869
Box 1, Folder 19Charles Jones, miscellaneous documents. Include an essay on geography, 2 merit rewards, and one share in the Dover Library, 1844-1875
Box 1, Folder 20Jones family timber management and sale, 1951-1952
Box 1, Folder 21Elizabeth Jones, royalty transfer from Robert Edmund Jones, 1964
Box 1, Folder 22Lydia Worcester, Sally Jones silver coffin plates, 1863
Box 1, Folder 23Photo card of Nellie V. Jones, prob. in her twenties (taken at the Phelps Studio, 942 Chapel Street, New Haven, Conn.), ca.1880s
Finding Aid Image TEMP
  • Garden behind Jones Farm
Collection
Garden behind Jones Farm

Garden behind Jones Farm
©New Hampshire Farm Museum

Formats

Ledgers & Receipts
Legal Papers