"Mr. Leander Emory Jones had the benefit of a good education. He attended the Post Creek School, which was located just west of Willard, Kansas. His father, Francis Marion Jones was a teacher there and had been superintendent of schools in Van Buren County, Michigan.
Lee Jones was known as a "character" and acquired the name "Deacon" because of his many antics. He loved playing practical jokes and was the victim of as many as he perpetrated. He owned and operated a custom threshing outfit with steam engine, separator, and all the equipment. He went all over the country side threshing---until one day---he was moving his rig across the Paxico bridge over Mill Creek. The bridge gave way under the weight and the engine, which had a full head of steam, fell into the creek and exploded. That ended his threshing career.
He then served as the Maple Hill Town Marshall for more than 20 years, and was also undersherrif of Wabaunsee County, Kansas. At his death, he was assistant Post Master of Maple Hill, and his wife, Susanna Jeanetta (Reinhardt) Jones, was Post Master for more than 17 years.
Mr. Jones was a Past Master of the Masonic Lodge at Maple Hill and was Past Patron of the Order of Eastern Star there. Mr. Jones took his Third Degree in Masonry at Silver Lake, Kansas and was among the charter members of Maple Hill Lodge.
He was a life-long member of the Newbury Philharmonic Band for many years. He played trombone. He also played fiddle and had a little band that played for many of the dances in the area. The Eastern Star Chorus sang three of his favorite hymns at the grave and the Masonic Lodge conducted burial rights. Many of his friends from Paxico, Alma, Willard, St. Marys, Dover, Eskridge and Topeka were present for the funeral. It was one of the largest, if not the largest funeral ever held at Maple Hill. The music by the band was impressive and the floral pieces many and beautiful.
It had been his request that the Newbury Philharmonic Band play for his funeral. The band was seated on a flatbed truck and proceeded the Updegraff horse-drawn hearse to the Stone Church Cemetery. He had requested "snappy" music and that is what they played. The Alma Signal Enterprise said that his funeral was one of the largest witnessed in Wabaunsee County.
Mr. Jones was a splendid man admired by a wide circle of friends and held in the highest esteem by a loving wife and admiring children. His passing is a distinct loss to the Maple Hill community and the vacant chair in the home will now be a reminder of a faithful husband and loving father having been called home to rest."
These two picture postcards were among those given me by my paternal grandmother, Mable Rachel (Jones) Clark. They are not of good quality unfortunately but were taken in western Kansas where Leander E. Jones was threshing wheat with his crews. Leander is the man with the hat in the middle of the picture. The photograph is taken on top the famous Chalk Monument Rocks near Oakley, Kansas.
This photo was also taken near Oakley, Kansas. Leander E. Jones is the second from the right end standing with his feet wide apart and wearing a hat. My maternal great uncle, Robert M. McCauley, is the fourth from the left end and also has a hat on. They are standing atop the threshing machine that was powered by a huge locomotive-type steam engine.
This photograph was taken in front of the home of Leander E. and Susanna Jeannetta (Reinhardt) Jones in Maple Hill, Wabaunsee County, Kansas. The date is 1935. Standing on Leander's left side is his daughter, Mabel Rachel (Jones) Clark. Standing on the right of Mrs. Jones is Edith Belle (Jones) Strowig. Mabel and Edith were daughters of Mr. Jone's first wife Hannah Virginia "Vergie" (Miller) Jones. This is the last picture they had taken together before Lee Jone's death.
My grandmother, Mabel R. (Jones) Clark provided me the following account of his death.
"Papa had come to the Central Office for lunch. One of his very good friends, Alfred Herron, had passed away and I had fixed he and Jim Pete their favorite lunch, navy beans with dumplings. Papa was going to serve as a pallbearer for Alfred Herron's funeral that afternoon.
He seemed to be in good health and sat down at the kitchen table with Jim and I. Irene (Leeper) Hoobler was watching the switchboard while we ate and I was planning to go with the men to his funeral. It was a beautiful spring day and I had the west kitchen window open. Papa was talking and enjoying his lunch. I asked him if he'd like another bowl of beans and he said he would. I picked up his bowl and went to the stove and his head just fell forward onto the table. The doctor said he was dead before his head hit the table."
My father, John Leader "Tim" Clark, said that Grandpa Jones was always trying to prevent Halloween tricks. It was the custom for many years that the older boys in Maple Hill would bring farm machinery into town and would tip outhouses off their foundations. Dad said that every year the hearse belonging to Russel T. Updegraff, Maple Hill undertaker, would be taken from the stable and put on top of Jess D. Weaver's Real Estate Office. The boys would put big planks from the ground to the flat roof of the building and push and pull the hearse up. One year Grandpa Jones was determined to prevent that from happening so he got into the hearse and awaited the boys coming for it. When they arrived, one of them just put a bolt through the latch on the back of the hearse and they took hearse, Grandpa Jones and all out of the stable and up onto the Weaver roof. Dad said no one had the nerve to take the pin out of the latch because they were all afraid of Grandpa Jones, so they pulled the planks down from the room and left him there until someone came and rescued him the next morning. Boys will be boys!!
I have more stories about my great grandfather but I will leave those for another time. Happy Trails!
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