Jones County, North Carolina: History
The area eventually encompassing Jones County was inhabited by Tuscarora Native Americans before the arrival of German and Swiss settlers in the early 1700s. The county was formed in 1779 from the southwestern part of Craven County. It was named for Willie Jones, a planter, slaveholder, Revolutionary leader, and president of the North Carolina Committee of Safety during the war. He opposed state ratification of the United States Constitution and did not attend the Fayetteville Convention, which voted to ratified it. In 1784, the town of Trenton was made the county seat of government.
The rural Low Country county was originally developed for plantations, which were dependent on the labor of enslaved African Americans. The county has heavily relied on agriculture (mostly tobacco) and lumber from its nearby forest.
In 2004, the county's population slightly rose above 10,000 in a census estimate but has since decreased to 9,172 in the 2020 census.