In 1828, Robert Jones was injured when he fell in an unused mineshaft in Abergavenny, South Wales. He decided to accept a land grant in North Frederick County, near Winchester, Virginia. "I can't go down in the mines again," he told his wife Sarah. "And there's a good hundred acres being offered in Virginia. We can go to America and start our lives anew with a farm." Thus the family began an exciting adventure and their new life.