Family, local legion members pay tribute at local Civil War Vet’s tomb

Local veterans and family gathered in a central Whitley County field Sunday afternoon to remember a Civil War soldier whose tomb had been lost for decades.
Loggers found the mortar and broken-rock resting place of Silas Jones in an overgrown field off Halcomb Pond Road two years ago. Members of American Legion Post 88 in Corbin, along with family members and Whitley County Judge-Executive Mike Patrick gathered to remember the veteran nearly forgotten by time.
“We would like if none of them would ever be missing,” Post 88 Commander Donald “Doc” Butler said after a ceremony at the tomb. “When the call of our country was heard, comrade Silas Jones answered. Self was forgotten in the cause of the greater good.”
Butler said Jones was recruited into the Union army in Whitley County and was likely discharged seven years later from the 7th Kentucky Infantry in either Nashville or Memphis, Tenn. He doesn’t know if Jones ever saw combat or was wounded during the war. When his tomb was discovered, rocks lay strewn about the area and a worn marker bore merely his name … no date of birth or death.
Members of the American Legion Post 88 fixed the tomb. Family members then set about discovering the history of Jones as best they could.
Pauline Gibbs, Jones’ great-great-granddaughter, said she had “Bible records” tracing her family tree back to the soldier, but little else until her son got interested in genealogy.
“I’ve tried to remember if my grandma ever said anything about him,” she said. “I don’t think she did, but I started getting interested in the genealogy of it … more so since my son go into it.”
Gibbs said Jones lived to the spectacularly old age of 85 before he died after being injured when he fell off a bridge in London. After his military service, he went back to farming on the property where he was buried. She said Jones was married to a woman named Mary Mahan, but the family knows little about her, though they do speculate she is buried with him in the tomb.
Butler said the tomb was likely forgotten because family members that knew about it left the area and forgot to pass word to their children about the grave.
Gibbs, ironically, lives only about three miles from the tomb.
Members of Post 88 and the Ladies Auxiliary presented Patrick with a flag during a special service that included the placing of a wreath and a 21-gun salute.
“We have no idea how many [veterans] may be missing, but on behalf of all of them, I think it is good that we come back to pay our respects and pause for a moment to remember them,” Patrick told those gathered for the ceremony. “It if hadn’t been for them, it’s no telling what we would have here in this country today … for that we are appreciative.”
Butler said either current property-owner Jeff Powers or members of the Legion would keep the area around the tomb mowed and maintained. He added that, every Memorial Day, a wreath will be placed at the site to remember Jones’s service.