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Encyclopedia Of Arkansas Minute: Green Hill Jones

Born into slavery in 1842, Green Hill Jones would rise to become a Baptist preacher and Arkansas legislator.

Jones grew up as a field hand on the Rayner plantation in Chicot County, but during the Civil War escaped to Memphis, where he joined the Third U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery. Returning home after the war, he was shot and wounded by bushwhackers.

Jones moved north, where he was affiliated with the Free Will Baptist Church, learned to read and write, and graduated from Hillsdale College in Michigan. He returned to Chicot County in 1873, farming and pastoring at several churches near Grand Lake and Eudora.

A Republican, he was elected Chicot County treasurer in 1874 and served terms in the General Assembly in 1884 and 1888 before Democrats passed laws driving Republicans from power by breaking the alliance between Blacks and white populists.

Green Hill Jones died on November 12, 1924, and is buried in Mason Cemetery south of Eudora. You can read the entire Encyclopedia of Arkansas entry at encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/green-hill-jones-13287.

Mark Christ produces and hosts Encyclopedia of Arkansas Minute on KUAR. He is head of adult programming for the Central Arkansas Library System. He previously served as community outreach director for the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, which he joined in 1990 after eight years as a journalist.