Page 25 - Sojourner Newsletter FALL 2022

Volume 99, Issue 4 25

Most Worshipful Brother Edward Beach Jones

Following the Centennial Founders Memorial Ceremony for Brother Flournoy, everyone travelled
about 50 miles to the gravesite of Most Worshipful Brother Edward Beach Jones, located at Oak
Grove Cemetery in Paducah, Kentucky. Again, our National Commander, Brother Randolph Geck
presided over a Centennial Founders Memorial Ceremony honoring Brother Jones, also one of the
founders of our Order, specifically the Brother responsible for originally compiling the Heroes of ’76
degree. Brother Geck was assisted once again by Brother William G. L. Turner, Past National
Commander and Past National President of National Sojourners, as they placed a Centennial Heroes
of ’76 wreath beside Brother Jones’ grave marker. There were 33 people in attendance.

Most Worshipful Brother
Edward Beach Jones was born
near the city of Petersburg, in
Brunswick County, Virginia on
April 11, 1832 and passed away
on August 2, 1894. Early in his
life, Brother Jones entered the
mercantile business specializing
in clothing and gentlemen’s
furnishings and he remained
engaged in that business
throughout the Civil War. In
1868, he was elected Circuit
Court Clerk of McCracken
County. In 1874, he returned to
the mercantile business and later
became Deputy Postmaster, and
in 1892, at the age of 60, he was
re-elected to the office of Circuit
Court Clerk, and he was serving
in this office at the time of his
death.

Brother Jones was made a Mason in Paducah Lodge #127 on Christmas Day in 1854. In 1867, he was elected Grand
Junior Warden of the Grand Lodge of the State of Kentucky, and in 1871, he became Grand Master of the Grand Lodge
of the State of Kentucky. Brother Jones also belonged to all of the York Rite Bodies and served as Grand High Priest of
Royal Arch Masons in Kentucky from 1869 to 1870.