John Calvin Jones Family Photo Album

Today I had the most wonderful surprise waiting for me in my Facebook messages. A cousin, Diane, sent me snapshots of pictures belonging to her grandfather, "Bill" Jones, the youngest son of my 2nd great grandfather, John Calvin Jones. I love that she has these treasures and that she has shared them with me! Not all the photographs are labeled. If anyone knows who the unmarked photos are of, please speak up! 

Mamie Jones (1883-1943)

Lula Mae "Lou" Jones (1882-1914)

Remember Me to Mrs. Hughes.

Yesterday I received a wonderful gift in the mail; a CD with pictures of several letters belonging to my Jones line. Most all of them are dated 1915 - 1917. I hope to slowly transcribe them and add them here to the my blog. I will start with this one, written Sept 1916, by Miss Lydia Pearl Brown. She was at one time employed by my 2nd great grandparents Mr. and Mrs. John Calvin Jones, to teach their children. She eventually married their son Thomas Franklin Jones 04 April 1918.

Frank Jones

4 Sawyer Avenue,
Denton, Texas 

My dear Mrs Jones,
I really don't remember whether I have answered your letter or not. If not, I am now. I am so glad to be settled once more. I never was so tired just going from one place to another in all of my life. Sister has her a real nice little home here and has it well furnished. She has everything except what is being shipped from home. We think they will come in tomorrow. We are only two blocks from the college and can look out and see the two main buildings. The college is on a high hill and can be seen from most any part of the Town.  

Denton is one of the busiest towns I was ever in for its size. Of course these two schools here is what gives them the trade. The business part of town is not very large but they have about 7,000 inhabitants.

I certainly wish it was so you could send Fannie Leigh and Emma here to school. Of course they are not far enough advanced yet, but when they do I consider this college here the finest we have in the South. Well, it is the only one of its kind in the South. If I happen to know bad luck. I think I will put in four years of hard study here. I have my course mapped out for that any way whether I succeed or not.

I'm expecting to get me a few pupils to bear my expenses. I have the promise of one and think I will have no trouble getting three or four more. That is as many as I can handle well and go to school too, as I am going to have a pretty heavy course anyway. 

Hope you enjoyed your trip up to Mr Jim's. Frank wrote me that you had gone up there for a few days.
How are you liking your new home by now? I know you enjoy it though for you feel as if it were yours and not someone else's and the time and work put out on it is not wasted. 

Now let me hear from you sometime. Pardon this terrible paper, but this is every bit we have in the house. It is the worst I have ever saw.  

With love to you and the children. Remember me to Mrs. Hughes . - Pearl

If you would like to view the actual letter you can do so by clicking the following links.

1. Page one
2. Page two
3. Page three
4. Page four
5. Page five

Whomever had the letters after Mrs. Jones (Leona Bass) had a bit of confusion with the closing and thought maybe this letter was from Mrs. Hughes, who was John Calvin's mother. You can see their note scribbled on the back of the envelope.

I have written about Mrs Mattie Hughes here and here and here. 

Lona and Pearle at Bomarton, TX

Pearle mentions former pupils and future sister-in-law's Fannie Leigh and Emma. Here they are on the Coffman Ranch

I believe the college Miss Pearle is referring to in her letter is Texas Normal College, now referred to as UNT.

UNT's Digital Library

Corsicana Semi-Weekly Light Corsicana, Texas
Tuesday, April 4, 1916

Until next time,
Becky

Mattie Teel - Another Look

There are a handful of ancestors that leave me with more questions than answers. My 3rd great grandmother, Mattie Teel, is one of them. I have written about her here, and here.

Mac and Mattie Hughes

I mentioned in my previous post that I believe Mattie was living in Cordell, Washita, Oklahoma in 1910. In a desperate attempt to find more information I began searching for more newspaper articles about Mattie from The Gateway To Oklahoma History in the Cordell area.

I found this snippet from January 1904

Mattie's son John Calvin Jones was known to be living in Mobeetie, Texas, about 20 miles from Miami during this time. I don't think its a long shot to assume either the newspaper got the name wrong, or J C was indeed living in Miami, or Miami was a larger better known community than Mobeetie, so an approximate location was given.

I also found an interesting article dated June of that same year where it is said that MC Jones sent his wife away to Texas and struck up an affair with a married woman. His age of "sixty or more" is the same age my "Mac Hughes" should be.

The Cordell Weekly Beacon. (Cordell, Okla.), Vol. 7, No. 47, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 16, 1904

Upon the news of her husband's affair I found these two articles where charges for divorce were filed:

The State Republican. (Cordell, Okla.), Vol. 1, No. 51, Ed. 1 Friday, February 1, 1907

The Herald-Sentinel. (Cordell, Okla.), Vol. 15, No. 28, Ed. 1 Saturday, February 2, 1907

The case files for their divorce are missing but you can find documentation for the missing file here: It gives their names as M H and M C Hughes. Another piece of the puzzle. A middle initial for Mattie.

In 1907 Mattie and M C Hughes would have been in their late 60's early 70's, which makes sense when the above article says "the rest of their allotted time".

And then on 14 May 1908, in Washita County, OK there is a marriage license for M. C. Hughes and Mrs. Mattie Hughes (she would've still had her previous married name). I believe they divorced and then remarried. 

If you can't read the above  Marriage Record it can be found by clicking the link that takes you to Family Search.

Mattie died in 1919 and is buried in Truscot, Knox County, TX where her son and his family are buried. I am not sure if this M C Hughes is the same Anguish McAlester Hughes that was married to Permelia A. "Amelia" Parson but I believe it to be as their son Joe M Hughes can be found living in Roger Mills County, OK in 1900 the same time as my Mattie would have been in the next county over with "Mac" In 1920 M C Hughes is found living with his first wife Permelia in Navarro County, TX. He was not living with her in 1900 or 1910. During their separation, Permelia remarried to a Mr. Tickle.  Her obituary is below:

One last interesting article found while I was doing my research comes from July 1904 less than a month after Mac was accused sharing the affections of another man's wife in the hotel he owned. The Cordell Weekly Beacon. (Cordell, Okla.), Vol. 7, No. 52, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 21, 1904, newspaper

 

I do think I am on the right trail here. I do however wish I could find Mattie and her son, John Calvin in at least one census together. She was most likely pregnant during the 1860 census and she never shows up again until 1910 and he doesn't appear until 1900. I'll keep searching. If anyone happens across this and knows where I could find Mattie's will and or probate/estate records, I would appreciate you pointing me in that direction.
Until next time,
Becky 

After posting this, I kept on searching for more information. I think I may have found one more piece to her puzzle.

Tax records place M.C. Hughes in Clay county during the 1880's. Birth records for a few of his children place J. C. Jones and his new family in Clay county in the 1880's. And there is a marriage record index for Martha Conkey and M. C. Hughes 19 Aug 1883 in Clay County. I believe this indicates that my Mattie Teel/Jones/Hughes was also married to someone with the last name of CONKEY. The only problem is I can't find a single record for anyone with the last name of Conkey in that area during that time. I'd really like to get a look at the actual record to see if there is any other information or if maybe the name Conkey was transcribed wrong.

Clay County, TX is right next to Cooke County, TX where J.C. and Leona Bass were married in 1881

Not only have I struggled to find census records for the Jones, Hughes, Conkey families during 1870 or 1880, I also cannot find census records for Leona Bass' family during those years either. Something tells me the census takers struggled in this area of TX and I.T.