Name/Title
Frank Jones Album (Selected Photos) - Frank Blair Jones at the southwest marker along the Pennsylvania / West Virginia borderEntry/Object ID
2020.8.15Description
Dated 6 November 1937. Frank Blair Jones at the southwest marker along the Pennsylvania / West Virginia border (Mason-Dixon Line).
Frank Blair Jones was very interested in early local history and served as curator at the Greene County Historical Society.
The following history of the boundary marker was provided by local historian, Pete Zapadka, 2021.
“This granite monument, commonly called The Cornerstone, stands at the true western end of the Mason-Dixon Line. Though Mason and Dixon never reached this spot, it is here there were headed, so the line still bears their name to this point but not beyond.
The Cornerstone stands on the edge of a ravine on private property off of Young Road in Springhill Township. It was placed at an agreed-upon 5 degrees in longitude from the Delaware River. So while the Mason-Dixon Line ends, here begins the Ellicott Line -- Pennsylvania's western border, which runs north to Lake Erie.
The southwest corner of Pennsylvania was established initially by astronomical observations in 1784 by Andrew Ellicott and others. Ellicott later completed the survey of Washington, D.C., and did the survey of Florida's northern border, among other significant works.
The emblazoned date of 1883 indicates The Cornerstone was set during the West Virginia-Pennsylvania border resurvey after W. Va. became a state in the Civil War in 1863. A team lead by Cephas H. Sinclair and C.H. van Orden did the surveying. Interestingly, Sinclair (1847-1904) was a former Confederate soldier from Charlottesville, Va.”
Original, candid.Photograph Details
Subject Person or Organization
Jones, Frank Blair [1879-1951]Collection
Zenia Gilbert CollectionLexicon
Search Terms
Jones family, Springhill (Greene County, Pa. : Township)Other Names and Numbers
Other Number
GILB-AN001-0001-0017Provenance
Provenance Detail
Frank Blair Jones Album - Zenia Gilbert CollectionOwner/Agent
Gilbert, Zenia JaneAcquisition Method
DigitalAcquisition Date
2015Notes
The Frank Jones Album Series of the Zenia Gilbert Collection was assembled by Frank Blair Jones [1879-1951] - husband of Lydia White, son of Ephraim McClelland Jones and Julia Ann Henderson. Frank was a U.S. Navy veteran and bandmaster. He was very interested in early local history and served as curator at the Greene County Historical Society.
The album was passed from Frank Blair Jones [1879-1951] to his son Frank E. Jones [1919-1993]. Frank's niece, Valerie (daughter of William Ephraim Rodman Jones, granddaughter of Frank Blair Jones) received the album after her uncle's passing. Valerie arranged for the album to be maintained locally in the custody of Violet Elizabeth (Stockdale) Gilbert [1918-2006]. Violet's mother was Rachel Jane (Jones) Stockdale, sister to Frank Blair Jones. Violet passed the album to her daughter Zenia Gilbert who shared the photographs with the Greene Connections: Greene County, Pennsylvania Archives Project in 2015.
SOURCE CITATION: Frank Blair Jones Album - Frank Blair Jones at the southwest marker along the Pennsylvania / West Virginia border; dated 6 November 1937; item no. GILB-AN001-0001-0017, Frank Jones Album Series, Zenia Gilbert Collection; Greene Connections Archives Project (GreeneConnections.com).