Jones, Louis A.
(born: 1852)Louis A. Jones was born on the Cassiday Plantation near Bowling Green, KY. At the age of six, he and his mother were sold by his slaveowner father John T. Jones to a slaver in Okolona, MS. John T. Jones was married to Nancy J. Cassiday. His father died about a year later.
Louis Jones was freed in Mississippi two years after being sold to John T. Jones. As an adult, he had a series of jobs, including, in 1881, working as a janitor in the Office of the Railroad and Warehouse Commission in Springfield, IL [source: p. 113 in Gould's Springfield Directory for 1880-81].
Louis Jones was a member of the early African American community that had migrated to Springfield from the south. He belonged to the Masons Blue Lodge No. 3. He was briefly married to Ada Chavons (1856-1879), a member of Shiloh Court No. 1 and Eastern Star Chapter No. 2.
For more see History of Sangamon County, Illinois; together with sketches of its cities, by Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago) [available online at Google Books]; and information on Louis and Ada Chavons (Addie Chaverous) in Richard E. Hart, "The Colored Section / Oak Ridge Cemetery: Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois" on The Abraham Lincoln Association website.