This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/BUB.2ACI/6009 Message Board Post: Birthplace of 1840 Now His Funeral Scene DEATH CLOSES EYES THAT WATCHED U. S. GROW FOR A CENTURY Dr. John A. Jones, 101, Was Last of Allegany County's Civil War Veterans ALLENTOWN, MAY, 12. -- In the Fink Hollow homestead where he was born 101 years ago last month and died Saturday after a short illness, simple funeral rites will be held for Dr. John A. JONES, dean of Allegany County veterinarians and its last Civil War veteran. Great-grandsons will act as pallbearers. Burial will be in the family cemetery near the home. Dr. JONES had a colorful career although, except for the years he served with the Union Army, he was rarely out of Allegany County. He was a member of Company E of the 85th New York Volunteers and his war experience included nine months in Andersonville, (N.C.) Prison, where he lost nearly 100 pounds. He was one of the last surviving persons who had shaken hands with President Abraham Lincoln. Dr. JONES saw many important changes in his lifetime, including the abandonment of the Genesee Valley Canal which was once an important waterway from Olean to Rochester. Dr. JONES took up the study of veterinary medicine when he was a small boy, having been encouraged to do so by his father after the latter's cattle became ill with a mysterious disease. At 15 he was a full-fledged veterinarian, a profession he followed for 80 years, retiring in 1935. He served for 30 years as a Justice of the Peace and was Supervisor of the Town of Allen in 1892. He was also a 32nd Degree Mason, having joined the Melrose, F. & A. M. at Short Tract many years ago. Surviving are: three sons, Clifford, with whom he lived, John M. of Vashion, Ore. and Harrah of Angelica; five grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. [Northern Allegany Observer obituary, transcribed by Louise Y. Mills, 2003, from Cora Lahr's scrapbooks, Fillmore, NY]