As far as I Know, Only One Letter From Dad Has Survived and We Have Bernie To Thank For That-
Charles F. Jones Sr.
Taken About the Time of His Marriage to
Mary Agnes McGinnis, in 1923
Nancy has inherited many family pictures that her Mother so neatly organized during her final years. Among some of these photos were some Jones and McGinnis family pictures as well. During my last visit to Oklahoma I scanned all these older family photos and I am attempting to organize them with names and dates when the occasional motivation occurs.
Bernie also saved a letter written by Dad in 1961, probably because Bernie may have been asking him about family history. He sat down and did his best but he was also 79 years old at the time which might account for some of the discrepancies appearing in his account. His Father had passed on some 39 years earlier so he was far removed from reliable sources. That is but one possibility, but he very well may have never known some of the details he attempted to explain. Most likely he was just going on vague recall of many family conversations during his lifetime.
I would never have been able to discover any of the family history had not the internet provided such rich resources for one to find family data. Had the opportunity not opened up in this day and age I would have been even more confused or lacking in facts than Dad was in 1961 when he attempted to at least record some things he knew of.
But in order to record what he did write I am posting a transcription of the pages where he did write out his known facts. I will annotate his words with what has been found since.
From pages 4 through 7 of the letter. The italics are his words:
My Father was born in Georgia near Atlanta. My grand Father was born in Wales. I don’t know when he came to the states that or how old he was. He had a large Plantation near Macon, Geo and quite a few slaves.
First off, if common sources claiming many of our distant ancestors are correct, Dad’s Grandfather, Samuel Jones, was born in 1796, in Pendleton, South Carolina, in the Northwest corner of the state. This was very near the North Georgia area where he and one of his brothers and many of the Tate family eventually settled.
I think Dad had his Grandfathers confused in this first portion. It certainly is true that the name is of Welsh origin, at least common knowledge would assume so. But from what can be found in current sources the actual ancestors that originally left Wales cannot be identified.
The oldest known birth date in the Jones line is for Dad’s 3rd Great-Grandfather, Edward Jones, born about 1701 in Gloucester County Virginia. All of the Jones line with known dates were born in North America.
Before 1701 we only have names without birth dates or places. That does not really mean that Dad was incorrect. Other data may very well surface some day that might prove his recall to be correct. After all, just how valid is anything that is available. I only give a credence value to the data that I have personally accessed and that isn’t all that much. But when one compares what is found to other sources it begins to become rather obvious just what data can be trusted.
Regarding the large plantation and slaves his Grandfather owned near Macon, well his memory is somewhat distorted here. True, his Grandfather was a plantation owner, the exact size of is unknown, and he did have slaves, a total of six in the 1860, shortly before the outbreak of the war. The location of the property was in Catoosa County, Georgia, in the very northwest corner of the State, just 10 miles south of the center of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Macon is some 175 miles to the southeast, between Atlanta and Savannah, from the Snow Hill location of his holdings as indicated in the pre-war census.
Father had three Brothers and four sisters. He was the youngest of them all.
Family Tree sources available on the internet reveals that his father actually had nine siblings, four sisters and five brothers. Not all internet sources agree with this total at the moment.
His bros names was Sam, John and Bill. His sisters I only remember one of their names Rebecca. Her husbands name was Simmons. They lived in Dallas, Tex when the civil war broke out.
Samuel Jones, Harrison, Arkansas
A.H. Jones and Brother, Samuel Jones
Taken in Harrison, probably sometime in the late 1870’s
Samuel, John and Bill are verifiable now after really studying Dad’s letter. John was born in 1819, but some family trees also show a George being born in the family that same year. This is rather doubtful at the moment. At least Dad did verify John making it easier to eliminate one of the two 1819 births. Twins ? Perhaps, but that remains to be seen. Another brother, or uncle of Dad’s, Thomas Jefferson Jones, shows up as born in 1832. Nothing else is known of him but further research may yet find him in later years.
The available online records for Samuel Jones to date reveal that two sons were named Willis, obviously in honor of Willis M. Jones, Dad’s Great Grandfather. One son named Willis was born in 1822 and the other a William Willis Jones was born in 1837. Some data suggests that the latter died during the Civil War. No records of him past the time of the Civil War have been found.
Any record of the first born Willis reflects his name only as Willis in two U.S. census records, both in Texas, in 1860 and 1870. This Willis based on age as revealed in the census would have been the son born in 1822. No middle name for this individual has surfaced to now. Just who the Bill that Dad refers to is not clear but perhaps Dad’s memory had faded and he had confused the two sons named Willis. Some records of the descendants of the Willis in Texas are beginning to surface on the internet.
Dad’s four aunts were Martha, Margaret, Elizabeth and Rebecca. Rebecca is somewhat verified by other internet data including later census entries as Rebecca Simmons living with her husband Amos Simmons in Parker, Texas in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
Dad did not mention his Aunt Elizabeth by name only that one sister went to Arkansas with others. This aunt of Dad’s lost her husband to disease in a Confederate Army camp early in the war. She and her two young children came to live with her Father, Samuel Jones, at that time and lived with him through the war and up until he died. His son Alfred Hines, my grandfather, also came to live with his sister and Father in Gordon County, Georgia after the war ended. Elizabeth has descendants tracking her family on the internet today. Kristin Ingram Johnson, someplace in Oregon, is from this line. Her data was the first discovered some ten years ago and it has been invaluable and I use her as my most reliable source.
Nothing regarding his Aunts Martha and Margaret has surfaced so far. Perhaps Dad’s recall of how many Aunts and Uncles he had is actually correct.
This particular census page finds Dad’s Father living with his brother Willis in Smith 
County, in East Texas, in June of 1860, some eleven months prior to his enlisting in Confederate Army in Georgia. Smith County is in the vicinity of Tyler, Texas to the East of Dallas. Dad states his father was going to college when the war started which is somewhat verified by the notation of student in his entry.
However he implies in his letter that his Father was living with his sister at the war’s beginning which really cannot be verified. More likely he was still with his brother some 100 miles to the south east of his sister’s home in Parker, Texas.
Dad was out there with them going to collage when war came. He went back and joined the army. He was not quite 18 years old when he went in.
Not to be too detailed here, but actually his Father had just turned 18 years old some 23 days before he enlisted on May 15, 1861. That is if the dates of his birth and enlistment are correct. The enlistment date very well may be inaccurate or purposely changed to disguise his possible actual enlistment as sometime before his 18th birthday. We will never know for certain and it is a mute point after all.
He stayed in until the war ended. His Father lost every thing the had. He had lots of gold that was taken away from. Of course the slaves were freed. Dads Mother died some time before the war began. Dad was in many Battles through Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia. When Sherman came through and the siege of Atlanta his army destroyed every thing in sight. The Battle at Atlanta lasted four or five months. The north won the Battle and went through to Savannah. The war didn’t last long after that.
I don’t know how long Grand Father lived after the war ended. Dad and uncle Sam his bro and one sister left Georgia and came to Ark. There were several families came together and settled near each other. We have many relations in the south. Dad had one sister that married a man by the name of Tate. They had a large family. He was a state Senator. Very well to do. My Mothers folks were named Moulder. They moved to Ark from Tenn. They were of German descent. They settled not far from where Father did. Dad was married twice. His first wife died when your uncle Sam was a Baby. Two sisters older than Sam Mary & Ester were their names.
It would take to long to tell the history of both families. That is Father and mothers and our family. I started this letter last Sunday and today is Wed…………………………..
Love to all,
Dad’s Grandfather Samuel lived until 1870 when he died in Gordon, County Georgia. Living with him until his death was Dad’s father Alfred H. and his Aunt Elizabeth Jones Steele. It seems that when Samuel died it provided the motivation for the remaining family to move on to Arkansas. Samuel is found in the 1870 census with very little property. It isn’t clear to me at this point if he had landholdings or if he was renting in 1870.
Elizabeth had apparently inherited property in the area of Conway, Arkansas through her husband Jefferson Steele where she settled with her children and farmed successfully until her death. She never re-married.
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