III4
VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
of him: "He was a modest, unpretending
soldier who did his whole duty and never
thought it necessary to parade it. He was
a man of broad business capacity, ready to
do his duty and always in a pleasant way.
He knew how to do things! He never
sought place nor shirked duty. He never
complained and was never complained of.
He stood at his post and did his best and
was a true Confederate soldier with a clean
record, commanding respect by winning it."
Lieutenant-Colonel W. F. Graves says of
him. He was a soldier who never shirked, a
man that you could rely on in every way."
When the war was over, he turned his back upon that chapter of his life, honorably though he had lived it, and courageously faced the future. It is characteristic of him that in a country where time was marked by the "War," he rarely mentioned it, and his own brave drudgery in ranks he looked upon so as a matter of course that he felt no claim to place among Confederate heroes. He would be unable to recognize himself in the belligerent bronze twins, masquerading in soldier garb and accoutrements under his name, in the city where he sought so earn- estly to place at the service of the people the fruits of his success as a business man.
After Lee's surrender in April, 1865, until December of that year, he remained on his farm in Bedford county, gathering up the loose ends of his business and piecing to- gether the fragments the war had left of his capital. In December he formed a partner- ship with his two brothers-in-law. and they immediately began business as wholesale and retail hardware merchants in Lynch- burg. The foundation of his fortune thus laid was built up steadily and rapidly as the city recovered from the ravages of war and developed to an important business centre. The firm prospered greatly. The industry of its members, their fearless undertaking of the hardest physical labor, their careful conservation of every cent of their resources, made the name of Jones, Watts & Co. a synonym for hard work and close counting of cost. They had all just emerged from the hard school of the Confederate army, where they had known need of the simplest com- forts of life. They brought to their busi- ness a keen realization of the commercial truths that dollars at work are the most profitable of servants, and that dollars are made up of cents. They counted every
penny and demanded its full equivalent in
every business transaction. The hardware
business in Virginia is controlled to-day by
men who learned it in their hard school of
close economy and grilling work. Many are
the stories told of the strict discipline main-
tained among their employes, but in all ac-
counts given of life in their establishment,
of the stern demand for every hour of labor
paid for, of the intolerance of waste and
shirking of any sort, there stands out the
voluntary and undisputed testimony that
i\Ir. Joiics was always just and fair. He de-
manded what he paid for, but no more, and
rendered with exactness all that was due
from him. His was the recognized brain
that made the fortunes of the firm. "Ask
Brother George" was so invariably the
answer to every business problem submitted
to his partners that the expression became
a fixed one in local parlance. Until his clear
mind and cool judgment could be brought
to bear upon a question, it remained un-
answered. He recognized commercial life
as a cruel game played with money as coun-
ters and he played it without quarter to the
incompetent, but he played it according to
the rules laid down in good conscience,
wherein honesty is the only policy and trick-
ery and misrepresentation and unfair ad-
vantage have no place. He played on a fair
field and asked no favor. He was a mer-
chant with a merchant's mind and a mer-
chant's talent, but he dignified his occupa-
tion of tradesman with an ethical perception
of that exact and honest distribution of com-
modities essential to the development of a
complex community life for the greatest
good of the greatest number.
As his business methods brought repu- tation to the firm of Jones Watts & Co., their trade stretched out through the State and made profitable the establishment of branch houses in Danville, Bedford City and Salem. His prominence in the mercantile world created many demands upon him out- side of his hardware business, and all that was conducive to the material welfare and prosperity of Lynchburg had his earnest support. The twenty years he was presi- dent of the National Exchange Bank were the years of its greatest growth. He was the first president of the Lynchburg Board of Trade, and connected with all the general business activities of the town, as well as the more important ventures of Lynchburg
