In the early part of the 20th century Grover C. Jones Sr. and Annie Grace Buckland Jones had seventeen children. Sixteen consecutive boys, and one girl. The large size of their family and the sixteen consecutive births impressed many Americans including President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In short order the family became celebrities, and at the New York Worlds Fair of 1940 they were President Roosevelt's guests. Jones was approached by numerous unscrupulous business men about various quick money schemes utilizing their fame, but he wisely refused and returned his family to Peterson, West Virgina.
But their lasting fame would come from a discovery years before, that time by William P Jones (Punch). In April of 1925 Punch discovered a shiny stone on the ground while pitching horseshoes with his father and took it home. Those who looked at it assured him it was a piece of quartz, which is common in West Virginia, so it was placed in a cigar box and left in the tool shed.
In 1942 he re-discovered it in the shed and became very inquisitive about it, so he took it to Virginia Polytechnic Institute, now Virginia Tech, and showed it to the professor of Geology. Much to his shock, Punch learned that he was in possession of an uncut naturally formed dodecahedral crystal, with 12 natural facets, weighing 34.48 carats with a white color and bluish tinge. It was the largest alluvial diamond ever found in North America. The Jones family was thrilled at the discovery, and wasted no time securing the stone by sending it to the Smithsonian for safe keeping. In 1945 Punch was killed in combat during WWII, and the ownership of the stone passed to his parents. In 1964 Grover Jones Sr. took the stone back and placed it in a safe deposit box. He passed away in 1974, and his family sold the diamond ten years later to an undisclosed buyer at Sotheby's for $74,250.
-Professor Walter
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