Calvin Jones was an American physician. He is noted for being one of the founders of the North Carolina Medical Society. He was also a Grand Master of Masons in North Carolina in 1817 and 1819, as well as served as a trustee of the University of North Carolina from 1802 to 1832.
Background
Calvin Jones was born on April 2, 1775 in Great Barrington, Massachussets, the son of Ebenezer Jones, soldier in the War of the Revolution, and his wife, Susannah Blackmer. He was the fifth in descent from Thomas ap Jones, a Welsh emigrant to Weymouth, Massachussets.
Education
Calvin Jones studied medicine and received his medical license in 1792.
Career
At the age of seventeen he passed an examination before the officers of the United Medical Society, a body of men of which hardly any records survive, and was licensed to practice medicine. His certificate was signed June 19, 1792. For about three years he practiced with credit and profit in his home county and wrote a Treatise on Scarlatina Anginosa (1794) which was published at Catskill, New York, by the editors of the Catskill Packet.
In 1795, for reasons quite unknown, he removed to Smithfield, Johnston County, North Carolina, and although but twenty years old, plunged into all the major activities of the new community, professional, political, military, educational, and social. In 1798 he was an officer in the Johnston Militia Company and in 1799 he organized the North Carolina Medical Society, was elected to the state legislature as representative of Johnston County, and took a prominent part in legislation, opposing the proposition to build a state penitentiary. He served again in 1802.
The medical society, of which he was corresponding secretary, endured only until 1804, but during its brief life valuable papers were read before it, and material was collected for a botanical garden and museum of natural history. It is probable that when the society disbanded Dr. Jones remained in charge of these collections, and that they formed the nucleus of the material which he presented to the University of North Carolina in 1832 when he removed to Tennessee. In 1802 he was made a trustee of the University.
In 1803 he removed to the state capital, Raleigh, and although by this move he lost his membership in the legislature, he was elected anew, in 1807, to represent Wake County. He was made chief of police of Raleigh and was a trustee of Raleigh Academy.
In 1808 he adventured into journalism and with Thomas Henderson, Jr. , founded a newspaper, the Star, retaining his connection until 1815, when he sold out to his partner.
In 1808, also, a threat of war with France increased activity in militia circles, and Jones was made adjutant-general. After the outbreak of the War of 1812 he was commissioned a major-general of the North Carolina militia, 7th Division; and it was due to his vigilance and preparedness that a threatened British attack on the coast was abandoned. When he resigned from the army in 1814 he was quarter-master-general.
In 1832 he retired from practice and moved to his estate of 30, 000 acres near Bolivar, Tennessee. Here he built a mansion known as "Pontine" and lived the life of a planter until his death in 1846.
Achievements
Membership
Calvin Jones was a prominent Freemason, and at one point he was a Grand Master of Masons in North Carolina in 1817 and 1819.
Connections
Calvin Jones was first engaged to Ruina J. Williams, daughter of Major William Williams of Franklin County. Ten years after she died in 1809 of tuberculosis, Jones married her sister, Temperance Boddie Jones, widow of Thomas Jones of Warrenton.