Grandmother Clark was also a great source of community history, in that she was the Central Office Operator for United Telephone at Maple Hill, from 1914 until her retirement in 1958. Every phone call made in the community when through the switchboard located in her front room. As a result, she was involved first hand in disasters, fires, deaths, tornadoes, floods, and family joys and tribulations. Grandmother was a walking encyclopedia of area and family history.
She often talked about her paternal grandparents, Francis Marion and Roxanna Mary Mariah (Eaton) Jones. Unfortunately, she had very little good to say about her grandfather Jones. Grandmother Clark was born in 1893 and her grandfather was already and old man of 65. His wife, Roxanna, was 55. My grandmother remembered him only as a very cruel, cold, person.....but I digress. Let's begin at the beginning.
Francis Marion Jones was born on March 16, 1828 in Clark County, Ohio. He was the son of Richard Jones, who was born in 1790, a native of Virginia according to the 1850 census. On June 16, 1820, he was married by a Justice of the Peace, to Love Elsworth. She was also born in Virginia in 1800. For some reason, she is listed only as "L" Jones in the 1850 Census. One transcriber listed it as "D" Jones but her name was Love. There were five children living with them and enumerated on the 1850 census: Francis Marion, born in 1828; Mary, born in 1834; Nancy, born in 1836; George Washington, born in 1842 and Joseph Jones born in 1842. In addition, there was also Sarah, Matilda and Victoria, children which were not living with the family in 1850 but were listed on a Civil War Pension affidavit prepared by Love Jones in the 1860s.
At the time the census was taken, they were living in Mad River Township, Clark County, Ohio. All five of the children were born in Ohio according to the census, and both parents were born in Virginia. Richard Jones was 60-years-old and his occupation was given as "Shoe Cobbler." Love Jones was 50-years-old and born in Ohio. Her occupation was given as "Keeping House" and was preceded by the "W" which stood for wife.
We have looked for the parents and siblings of Francis for many years but without success. I want to thank a cousin of twins Paul and Pauline Shipp, great grandchildren of Francis and Roxanna Jones, for providing the information as well as copies of the Civil War documents. You will be able to find her research at URL: http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/26470634/
With the advent of new genealogy websites and the indexing of U.S. Census reports, we are now able to narrow the focus of our search with surprisingly good results. In speaking with several of the grandchildren of Francis Jones (my grandmother, Mable Phillips Herron, Edith Jones Strowig, Vera Philllips Hicks, Frank Shipp and others) I was not able to learn much of his youth and early manhood. Not much information was given on the U.S. Census prior to 1850. I was not able to find any of the family on earlier census reports. One clue to a part of Richard Jones history comes from his giving both of his sons patriot names.
Richard Jones, a Virginian, named his two sons after southern War Heroes. Francis Marion was from South Carolina and was given the folk name: The Swamp Fox. He is credited with being the first Revolutionary War officer to use guerrilla war tactics. He always had small groups of men who would lay in wait and ambush British forces. His legend was extremely well known. He had died in 1795. The fame of our country's first president, George Washington, himself a native of Virginia, needs no further explanation.
It would also be reasonable to assume that since Richard Jones named his sons for military heroes, he may have been in the military himself. The computer website Ancestry.com has a fairly complete set of U. S. military records and they are easily searched. There are several Richard Jones that have served in the military, each of whom was born in about 1790 and a half dozen or more born in Virginia. I believe that I have found our Richard Jones among them but more research is needed.
Both of Richard and Love's sons, Francis Marion and George Washington, enlisted in the U. S. Army during the Civil War. They both joined Michigan Sharpshooter regiments that later became a part of the Illinois Infantry. Francis and George were both at Corinth, Mississippi at the end of their enlistments. Francis was ill with dysentery and George was ill with typhoid fever. George did not survive the illness and died at Corinth, Mississippi on August 10, 1862. Love Jones had lived with George, who was not married, at Columbia, Van Buren County, Michigan before his enlistment. She applied for and received a dependent's pension until her death on September 11, 1870. The records indicate that her last pension payment should be sent in care of her daughter, Nancy Minick, but no address is provided.
Roxanna Mary Mariah (Eaton) Jones (1837-1925)
Francis was born in 1828, he was 22 years old and still living with his parents when the U.S. Census was taken in 1850. My Grandmother and her cousins that I've mentioned before all said that he had tried to go into business with his father and become a shoe cobbler, but that didn't work out. I don't remember ever hearing a reason but his father died during the early 1850s. From the information we have, it would appear that they both moved to Michigan and took their mother with them. We know that Francis left Clark County (the Cincinnati area) and moved to Van Buren County, Michigan where he became a school teacher. He married one of his students, Roxanna Mary Mariah Eaton on February 2, 1854 at the home of her parents Eri and Rachel (Davies) Eaton.
The Eaton Family was one of the earliest to arrive in Geneva Township, Van Buren County, Michigan. They moved there from Marshall Township, Oneida County, New York where they had lived since about 1800. I have traced the family back to Sir Francis Eaton, who was born in Bristol, England and who sailed with his wife aboard the Mayflower in 1621. His son, Francis II, was born in the Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, on June 1, 1627---one of the very early children born in the new American Colony.
Rachel Davies, the wife of Eri Eaton, is also a Mayflower Descendant. She is the daughter of Jacob Davis, II who was born in Simsbury, Hartford County, Connecticut on October 3, 1762. He was married to Catherine Admiston on September 8, 1785 at Schnectady, New York.
Jacob Davis was a veteran of the American Revolutionary War, where he served in Capt. Zebulon Butler's Connecticut Line and at Valley Forge with General George Washington. He was discharged on June 8, 1783. He was granted 160 acres of Military Land near Albany, New York. He died on May 5, 1841 at Johnstown, New York. His wife Catherine, was granted a widow's military pension of $8 per month in 1848 and that was increased to $12 in 1855. At that time, she was living with John P. Martin, a son-in-law, at Johnstown, New York.
I had many opportunities to visit with the grandchildren of Francis and Roxanna Jones. My Grandmother Clark and her sister Edith Belle Jones Strowig, told me this story many times. "Grandpa Jones had Roxanna Eaton as his pupil in school. She was 17 and he was 28 when they were married in 1854. In those days, there wasn't a lot of courtship time. There was a custom among some, which I think came from the Indians, that a man would come to his father-in-law's house leading a horse for his future wife to ride. If the father gave his permission, the man would just lift his future bride up on the back of the horse and lead her to the minister Justice of the Peace's house where they would be married. That's just what Grandpa Jones did. He brought a horse, asked Eri Eaton if he could marry Roxanna and he said yes. He put her on the horse and lead her to the Justice of the Peace's house and they were married. They never had a date before that but he had known her as his student."
Francis Jones was elected supervisor of school in Van Buren County, Michigan in 1854 and again in 1862. He was also granted a teaching license by Van Buren County. He was also elected Geneva Township Clerk in 1863 and 1864. None of his grandchildren seemed to know or remember if he had any kind of formal education but from documents he signed, his handwriting was very legible and proficient.
Francis volunteered for service in the Civil War. He enlisted in Company D, Fourteenth Michigan Volunteers, in September 1861. He served in several military campaigns until he became ill with chronic dysentery. He was given an medical discharge on October 2, 1862 at Corinth, Mississippi and returned to Michigan. With no antibiotics, dysentery is not easily cured in those days and Francis suffered from it the remainder of his life. He was given a disability pension which passed to his wife Roxanna after his death. This writer is in possession of all of the military and pension records of Francis M. Jones.
My great grandfather, Leander Emory Jones, was born on September 20, 1871 on a rented farm near Alma, Wabaunsee County, Kansas, the seventh children of Francis and Roxanna Jones. Their sixth children, Lucretia Jones, was also born there on August 30, 1869. Their fifth child, Carrie Jones, was born on June 16, 1866 in Van Buren County so they had to have moved between 1866 and 1869.Leander Emory "Lee" Jones, my great grandfather. He was also known as "Deacon."
It is known that sometime between their arrival in Kansas and Leander's birth, they returned to Van Buren County, Michigan but stayed only a short time returning to Kansas. It may have had something to do with settling of his bother George W. Jone's estate but that is not clear.
Lee and Roxanna settled first at Alma in Wabaunsee County where Grandfather Jones taught a country school and rented a small farm. Next they moved to a small farm south of Willard, Kansas. This can be confusing, because the farm was actually on the west side of the road and in Wabaunsee County, but Willard was on the east side of the road and in Shawnee County. The county line between Shawnee and Wabaunsee County was right in front of their house. Francis Jones taught at the Post Creek School, a stone school house west of Williard in Wabaunsee County during the school year and had a large vegetable garden and sold vegetables during the summer. He also worked for other people in their gardens.
Francis Jones was elected the chair of the Populist Party in Wabaunsee County in the election of 1900. This was a party mostly composed of rural people and farmers that objected to the monopolies held by railroads. He died on May 5, 1904 and was buried in the Green Cemetery, in what was formerly the village of Uniontown, in Shawnee County, Kansas. This little cemetery was used by both the Potawatomi Indians and by local residents and has about 150 burials. It is three miles northeast of the farm where Francis and Roxanna lived. Roxanna lived with her children after his death.
My grandfather, Leander, had two nicknames: Lee and Deacon. They were used interchangeably but no one remembers him being called Leander. He married Hannah Virginia "Vergie" Miller on April 12, 1892 in Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas. I never remember hearing how they met, but they lived quite a distance apart for those days.
Vergie was the daughter of William Washington and Sarah Ann Wykert Miller, and she was born in Jackson County, Kansas on June 1, 1875. Her father rented farmland and also was a tenant farmer for Potawatomi allotment landholders on the Potawatomi Indian Reservation in Jackson County, Kansas. They lived about three miles east of Delia, Kansas. William Washington Miller's mother, Cintha Wilhite Miller, was born in 1824 and is thought to have been part Cherokee. Vergie and Leander Jones lived near Willard, Shawnee County, Kansas and Lee was a tenant farmer and did odd jobs.
The William and Sarah Wykert Miller Family 1909. L-R back row, Edward, William, Herman. L-R second row, William Washington, Sheridan and Sarah Ann Wykert Miller.
Lee and Vergie had three children: Mabel Rachel born September 6, 1893, Louis Vernal born November 4, 1895, and Edith Belle born September 23, 1896, all at Willard, Shawnee County, Kansas. Louis V. Jones caught pneumonia or whopping cough and died on February 18, 1899 and was buried in the Green Cemetery, located in the former village of Uniontown, Shawnee County, Kansas. This was a very early cemetery where there were Potawatomi burials that occurred following a small pox epidemic in the 1830s. There were also numerous other burials of local residents. A family of New Englanders named Green donated land for the burial ground and lived nearby in a stone house until the 1960s.
Francis Jones died at his home on May 5, 1904. He was buried beside his grandson Louis V. Jones and his daughter-in-law Hannah Virginia "Vergia" Miller Jones. His grave is marked by the appropriate Civil War tombstone and also a Grand Army of the Republic marker.
Vergia Jones died of pregnancy complications on December 7, 1901 at Willard, Shawnee County, Kansas. Her daughters, Mabel and Edith both recalled seeing their mother in her casket with the tiny infant cradled in her arms. They were, of course, very distraught. After the funeral, their father took them to the home of his parents, Francis and Roxanna Jones. Mabel and Edith told me this story: "We were so young and had just lost our Mama. We were crying and crying and we couldn't eat our supper. Grandpa Jones told us to quit crying and when we didn't, he whipped us with his belt. We were just 8 and 6. When we still wouldn't quit crying, he whipped us again and we both learned quickly that we had better not cry around him. Papa had gone somewhere and left us there and when he came home, we told him what had happened. He told us to mind Grandpa and Grandma Jones. That Sunday, our Grandpa and Grandma Miller came over from Delia to visit. We told them what had happened and Grandpa Miller just got our coats, put us in their wagon and took us home with them. Papa didn't say one word. Grandma and Grandpa Miller raised us until Papa married a second time in 1909. Then we went to live with Papa and our stepmother, Jeanetta Susanna Reinhardt Jones. Grandma and Grandpa Miller were the kindest people in the world and we went to school on the Indian Reservation. They lived in a log house and they were friends with all of the Indian people. Grandma Miller milked two cows and made butter to sell. She always put a little yellow food coloring in it and all of the Indian people would buy her butter because it looked richer. Edith and I had so many friends among the Indian children. We remained friends and visited each others homes long after we were married."
Roxanna Jones lived with various of her children for the remainder of her life. She died at the home of Leander and Suzanna Jones on March 24, 1925. It was her request that she be buried with her son Leander and his second wife, Suzanna Reinhardt Jones in the Old Stone Church Cemetery west of Maple Hill, Kansas. She said that Francis Jones had been very unkind to her in the last years of his life and she didn't wish to be buried with him. Her son granted her wish.
Lee Jones married a second time to Jeanetta Suzanna Jones on December 24, 1909 in Silver Lake, Kansas. They moved to Paxico, Wabaunsee County, Kansas where Lee and Suzanna operated the telephone exchange with the help of his daughters Mabel and Edith. My grandmother, Mabel Jones Clark, told me this: "My step mother was as good to me and to Edith as any real mother could be. I always loved Mama Jones as we called her."
I have many other pictures of these people that I will use with other stories. This one has gotten rather long. Thanks for reading and Happy Trails!
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