Author: Leila Christenbury

ENTRY

Littleton Owens (ca. 1842–March 11, 1894)

Littleton Owens represented Princess Anne County in the House of Delegates from 1879 to 1882. He was born free in the county where members of his family had lived as free people for generations. In 1864 he enlisted in the 2d Regiment U.S. Colored Cavalry. The regiment participated in many battles around Petersburg and Richmond during the American Civil War (1861–1865). After the war Owens served as a justice of the peace and was appointed an assistant keeper of the Cape Henry Lighthouse. He was elected in 1879 to a two-year term in the House of Delegates where he allied himself with the new biracial Readjuster Party. He was reelected, and unsuccessfully sought to create an asylum for African Americans who were blind, deaf, and dumb. After losing a bid for a third term he worked in the navy yard in Gosport, at Portsmouth. In August 1889 Owens killed a man he believed was having an affair with his wife. He was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to eighteen years in the state penitentiary. In 1893 the governor pardoned him because of his deteriorating health. Owens died of pneumonia on March 11, 1894, and was buried in the Sergeant March Corprew Family Cemetery in Norfolk County.

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Benjamin F. Jones (d. after 1911)

Benjamin F. Jones represented King William County in the House of Delegates from 1869 to 1871. He was born enslaved on the plantation of Anderson Scott, who may have been his father. Upon his death in 1864 Scott emancipated Jones and his family and divided his property among them. Despite a lack of formal education, Jones managed the farm accounts while he was still enslaved. He was elected in 1869 for a two-year term representing King William County in the House of Delegates. After surviving a challenge to his election, he voted to ratify the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U. S. Constitution. Unusually active for a first-term delegate, he introduced many bills related to such issues as hunting, public works, local health care, the indigent, orphans, gambling, and emigration. In 1871 he voted with the majority, including most of the other African American delegates, for a bill to pay the public debt left over from before the American Civil War (1861–1865)­. Jones continued to farm in King William County until about 1911, when he last appeared in the personal property tax records. The date of his death is unknown.

ENTRY

Rufus Sibb Jones (ca. 1834–July 17, 1897)

Rufus Sibb Jones, a member of the House of Delegates (1871–1875), was born about 1834 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His family moved to Pittsburgh by 1850, where he was apprenticed to a wigmaker. He attended a school affiliated with an African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. In the 1860 U.S. Census he reported his occupation as hair worker and owning $1,000 in personal property. Drafted into the United States Colored Troops during the American Civil War (1861-1865), he became a regimental clerk before mustering out as a sergeant in November 1865. Moving to Virginia after the war, in 1869 Jones worked as a postmaster of Newport News, in Warwick County, and briefly taught in a Freedmen’s Bureau School. He won election in 1871 to a two-year term in the House of Delegates representing the counties of Elizabeth City and Warwick. He was reelected in 1873 but lost a third term in 1875 as well as a bid to the Senate of Virginia in 1877. A practicing attorney, he also served as a justice of the peace, a customs inspector, and a deputy sheriff. He died on July 17, 1897, and is buried at Hampton National Cemetery.

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Dabney N. Smith (September 1846–August 27, 1920)

Dabney N. Smith, born probably into slavery in Charlotte County, was a member of the House of Delegates (1882-1883). He became interested in politics around 1878 and attended the March 1881 convention of African American Republicans in Petersburg when they agreed to join with the biracial Readjuster Party. Smith won the Republican Party nomination for the county’s seat in the House of Delegates in September 1881, and in November he defeated a white Democrat by a comfortable margin. He served in the important reform session of 1881–1882, where he unsuccessfully introduced motions to abolish petty larceny conviction as a disqualification from voting and another from Norfolk County residents for a local option liquor law. He lost his bid for reelection in November 1883. Smith remained active in local politics, and on March 26, 1887, addressed African American voters in Charlotte County prior to an election. Smith married Bettie Jordan on February 25, 1885. They had four daughters, two of whom became teachers, and one son. On the death of Smith’s father in March 1892, he and two of his brothers inherited their father’s property in Smithville. Smith resided on his farm for the remainder of his life. Smith died at his home in Charlotte County on August 27, 1920, and was buried on his farm.

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