There’s a small cemetery behind the snack bar at Holliday Lake State Park that always has intrigued me. It has three marked graves with several other suspicious-looking indentations nearby. It is the Jones Family cemetery.

Holliday Lake State Park's Jones Family Cemetery

William Jones and his wife, Caroline, had eleven children. Two were boys and nine were girls. Park staff members (including me) have researched the family history a little bit. A few years ago, a descendant of Henrietta Jones contacted the park and gave us even more history on this family.

Victoria was born in 1838, the seventh child born into this large, wealthy family. We know they were wealthy because the 1860 census valued their land and property at $64,000. They were farmers, but had found gold on the property. There is no known photo of Victoria.

Sadly, we don’t know a whole lot about Victoria. We know just enough to keep us wondering and imagining what her life was like. Her tombstone is ornate and has a lovely inscription.

Victoria's Gravestone

It’s difficult to capture in a photograph, but here are the words:

IN

MEMORY

OF

VICTORIA L JONES

DAUGHTER OF

W.A. AND C.H. JONES

DIED DEC 8, 1852

IN THE 14^TH YEAR

OF HER AGE

THOUGH YOUNG

SHE DIED IN THE

FULL TRIUMPHS OF

FAITH

Victoria's View of Holliday Lake

Two of Victoria’s sisters died within two weeks of her passing. In trying to come up with a reason for the deaths of these three girls, I have decided on some possibilities. Surely it was some kind of contagious disease, probably involving a fever. In those days, medical professionals usually treated fevers not as a symptom but a problem in itself. Treatment goals would simply be to bring down the fever. It was believed that once the fever was gone, the patient would be healed. To bring a fever down, a doctor might have used plasters or purges.

Plasters were rags soaked with either mustard or sulfur applied to the body, usually on the throat or chest. Doctors would charge fifty cents to one dollar for a “blistering plaster.” Many local herbal healers or midwives would have their own “recipes” for these plasters. If your mother or grandmother ever sent you to bed with Vick’s Vapor Rub on your chest, you’ve experienced something similar.

Purging was the practice of “sweating out” the fever. Doctors would have placed the infirmed in a very hot room and give them hot liquids to drink along with herbal laxatives. It was believed that the body would “purge” itself of the disease. Steam was used to help clear up coughs and chest congestion, along with herbal teas, honey, and whiskey (even in children). If you ever spent a couple hours with a child who has a “croupy” cough in the bathroom with a hot shower running, you understand the healing power of steam.

Was it something like Typhus, Measles, Diphtheria, or Small Pox that took these young lives? Could it have been something as simple as dysentery or influenza? We tend to forget that they didn’t have the medical advancements we have today, where a simple vaccination can protect against something so deadly. Modern medicine can, in many cases, pinpoint the cause of an illness. A treatment plan can be enacted quickly and efficiently.

I wonder if any other family members became ill but recovered from whatever took those three lives. How long were they sick? How long did it take for the recovery? Did they ever fully recover?

If you visit Holliday Lake State Park, take a moment to visit Victoria’s resting place. She forever keeps watch over the lake, behind the concession stand.

Over the Rainbow at Holliday Lake State Park's Jones Family Cemetery

Holliday Lake State Park is located off Route 24 between Appomattox and U.S. 60 and from Routes 626, 640 and 692. For more information click here, or call the park office at 434-248-6308 or by email.

Drive Time: Northern Virginia, three and a half hours; Richmond, two hours; Tidewater/Norfolk/Virginia Beach, four hours; Roanoke, two hours. Click here for a map.