Judge Erastus Beverly Jones was born on this day in 1852, in Bethania, to Dr. Beverly and Julie Courel Jones.
He graduated from Wake Forest College in 1877, and studied law with Judge Thomas J. Wilson and Dick and Dillard of Greensboro. He was licensed to practice law in 1880.
His first position as a lawyer was in Taylorsville, and in 1884 he served his first term as a member of the general assembly of North Carolina.
He returned to Forsyth County in 1890 and formed a partnership with Robah Kerner. He also worked in partnership with Lindsay Patterson and with John H. Clement.
He served in the North Carolina general assembly on other occasions, and was a candidate for solicitor but was narrowly defeated.
He was elected a judge in 1902 and served for seven years before returning to his law practice.
During a later term in the North Carolina general assembly, Judge Jones presented the Forsyth County road law, which was adopted by other counties. This law led to the creation of the state highway commission.
Judge Jones was married first to Ida Matheson and second to Susie Barbour.
Colonel H. Montague was a fellow student with Judge Jones at Wake Forest. He offered this tribute in a 1909 school publication about the judge: “He was a gentleman of engaging and delightful qualities of mind and heart, a man of marked individuality, a kind-hearted judge who administered justice tempered with mercy, but without discrimination. There was combined in his interesting personality at once the acumen of the able lawyer, the poise of the sound jurist, the ripe wisdom of the true philosopher and the ready wit of the native born humorist.”
Judge Jones passed away in 1923.
Photo courtesy of Forsyth County Public Library Photograph Collection.
