Martin V. Jones

Martin V. Jones was born in 1833 in New York.

Martin was married to New York native Almira Lester (b. 1834) , on November 18, 1855, in Grand Rapids, Kent County, and they had at least one child, a daughter Laura or Lora (b. 1856). By 1860 Martin was working as a farmer and living with his wife and child in Leighton, Allegan County. That same year there was a Martin Jones (b. 1786) and his wife Doris (b. 1793), living with the Jonathan Morry family in Cheshire, Allegan County.

In any case, Martin had blue eyes, brown hair and a light complexion and was 29 years old when he enlisted in Company F on August 22, 1862, at Grand Rapids for 3 years, crediting Leighton, and was mustered the same day at Detroit. He joined the Regiment on September 7 at Fairfax Seminary, Virginia, and was transferred to Company F, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864. He was killed in action on June 16, 1864, near Petersburg, Virginia, and was presumably buried among the unknown soldiers interred near Petersburg.

In November of 1864 Almira was probably living in Leighton, Allegan County when she applied for and was granted a widow’s pension (no. 42954); in 1889 in Michigan she applied on behalf of her minor children for a pension which was also granted (381237).