Truckin' on the Western Branch

James Webb Jones Jimmy Jones, former Senior Assistant Attorney General and a lay minister at Jolliff United Methodist Church, lives in Western Branch but his roots go back to the village of Churchland. My great-grandfather was Flwyllin L. Jones (our family came from Wales so he had a name no one could spell or pronounce). My family came here sometime in 1700s/1800s but never served in the Civil War—probably because they spoke Welsh. Great-grandfather had a large truck farm in Driver and was the co-owner with my grandfather, Clyde Vernon Jones, of a Chesapeake Bay schooner that transported produce under sail for local truck farmers from here to Baltimore. He bought the John Clarke schooner because he was tired of paying to ship crops. The schooner hauled stuff free for family and charged others. My grandfather Clyde was the captain of the John Clarke . Schooners lined the Norfolk waterfront—where Waterside is today—to serve the truck farmers in the 1880s and 1890s. The vegetables were packed in barrels and loaded on the schooners for shipment to Baltimore. The barrel and basket industry was huge in this area because of the needs of the truckers. Local farmers had to have access to wharfs or landings for produce transport and many families had sailing canoes. My grandfather learned the art of sailing in those canoes, which were dugouts made from large Cyprus trees.

James Webb Jones. Image by Sheally

My grandfather Jones was also a boat builder and kept a 26' Hatteras-style boat at Shep’s Marina in West Norfolk. He was aboard the John Clarke when a yacht owner approached and asked him to sail his yacht in the 1907 Jamestown Exposition regatta. He said his skipper had lost his nerve and he heard my grandfather never lost his. Granddaddy replied it’s impossible—I don’t sail without my own crew. When the persistent yacht owner came aboard and inspected the crew, he saw that all, including the first mate, were African American. He was flustered but went to the regatta committee, got an exemption to let them sail and bought them uniforms. As the race was closing they were ahead, and the owner and his buddies put up a pot of prize money for anyone who could climb the mast and wave an American flag. One of Granddaddy’s crew scampered up the mast and, just as they crossed the finish line, whipped out the flag and waved it.

My Dad and Robert Waldo, who became Commissioner of Revenue for Norfolk County and later Chesapeake, owned a grain brokerage business, Churchland Grain & Supply, Inc., from the time I was about 10 years old. The business was located where the Harris-Teeter store is now located in Churchland.

I started elementary school in Holland, then a thriving railroad town. By contrast, Churchland seemed rural and quiet. It was a big change to move to suburbia and it took a while to adjust but Churchland was a friendly place.

Jones graduated from Churchland High in 1958 and followed his good friend Nathaniel Howell to the University of Virginia.

Nat lived in Simonsdale, close to City Park, and we met on the Churchland debate team. He was a year ahead even though he was only a month older. He’s brilliant, had great study habits and became the best Arabic speaker the State Department ever had. I’ve wanted to be a lawyer since I was a kid and was told I should be a lawyer or preacher with all I talked—now I’m both. Nat wanted to be in foreign service. He had an uncle who worked for Exxon in the Middle East and had a wardrobe full of tuxes and a head full of stories—sort of a James Bond type.

Produce boats at Norfolk waterfront

102