“The Alexander Jones Family”
by Joe Cain
Alex Jones was born January 22, 1850.
His father was Johnny Jones and his mother was Cindy Upton before she married
Johnny. Lucinda (or Cindy as she was
called) was born in Overton County, Tennessee on January 17, 1816 and died
November 21, 1855. Her father was
Stephen Upton born November 18, 1788, and died June 9, 1866. Her mother Catherine (Taylor) Upton was born
January 28, 1788 and died January 28, 1846.
Johnny and Cindy had seven children they were:
Nancy Jane – married Wilson West.
Issac – married Becky Mahan
Alexander Jones -
John Decatur - married Margaret
Bohannon
James K. Polk – married Martha
Bohannon
Jackson – killed in Civil War.
Alexander
tried to enlist in the Confederate forces as a drummer boy when he was 12 years
old. They would not allow him to do so.
Marion – died of typhoid fever
during the Civil War.
After
Cindy died in 1855, Johnny Jones married Abby Livesay.
They had 10 children, they were:
Andrew – married Adaline Whiteaker
– then Mary Jane Neal.
Wilson – married Emma Hunter
Edward
Alford – married Janie Herman
Bluford – married Polly Stamps
Samantha – married Will Barnes
Mary – married Calvin Barnes
Julia – married Richard Copeland
Syrilda – married Jim Stamps
Margaret – Josiah Bowman
Johnny died July 12, 1876.
Alexander first married Lucy Ann
Glasgow in Tennessee on January 7, 1875.
She was born July 20, 1856. Their
first child was Mary Lucinda (our Aunt Cindy) born December 25, 1875. Their second child was Johnny born July 23,
1877 and died when he was four years old in 1881. Alex’s wife Lucy Ann, died December 9,
1877. On July 13, 1879 Alex married Lucy
Ann’s younger sister Margaret Emily Glasgow who was born August 7, 1861. Alex and Margaret had 10 children:
Bertha – born July 19, 1880
Beulah – born November 28, 1881,
when Beulah was a baby Alex and Margaret moved from Obion County, to Wise
County, Texas near Chico. Alex’s younger
brother Wilson also moved to Chico. They
made the trip by covered wagon crossing the Mississippi on a ferry boat.
All of their other children were
born near Chico, Texas.
Rosa – born January 25, 1883 and
died October 7, 1885
Grover Cleveland Jones – born
April 18, 1886
Lizzie Jones – born October 15,
1887
Alford Jones – born March 22, 1889
Zona Jones – born November 10,
1890, died March 19, 1894.
Chares Wilson (Buddy) Jones – born
August 16, 1892
Delia Jones – born February 28,
1895
Berta Jones – born February 2,
1897
They were not able to buy and land
in the Chico, Texas area. They were
having to rent, and land was poor, so they were having a hard time getting by.
The story of free land in Western
Oklahoma reached them and early in 1898 Alex, his son-in-law Lafayette Street,
and some other men came to the Beckham County area scouting for land. They were successful in locating homesteads
near what later became the town of Carter.
They went back to Texas, the trip taking about 6 weeks by wagon. In November 1898, Alex, Lafayette and some of
the their neighbors loaded their families in covered wagons and started for
Oklahoma. The weather was very cold and
the children sleeping on pallets under the wagons would wake up with frost all
over their beds. They reached their
destinations about December 28, 1898.
Alex built a half dugout (just one
large room dug into the ground with dirt floor). Here they lived for several years until he
could build a house.
My father A.O. Cain married Beulah
Jones (Alex’s daughter) in 1901. My
other grandfather Wesley Can helped Alex build his house. While they were building the house, Bertha
(only 4 or 5 years old) swallowed a nail.
After that grandpa Cain always called her his nail eater.
Going back to 1895 in Texas all
executions were by public hanging. In
that year a black man was hung at Decatur, Texas for killing a deputy
sheriff. Alex took his entire family to
see this event. The condemned man asked
that a few “church songs” be sang before he was hung. Volunteers were called for and Alex being a
good singer got some other men he knew and they sang several songs for the
man. Then the trap was sprung. This sight man an awful impression on my
mother, Beulah who was 14 years old at this time.
Life in the dugout was rough but
they did stay warm. The worst problem
they had was fleas. Fleas were
particularly in the dirt floor of the half dugout. Margaret would keep kerosene soaked rags tied
around the table legs to keep fleas off of the table. At night there would be a race among all the
small children to make their pallets on the table so they could sleep
undisturbed by the fleas. Elizabeth
(Aunt Lizzie) rolled off the table one night.
John Decatur Jones came to
Oklahoma shortly after Alex and Margaret did.
John had been busy making moonshine whiskey in Tennessee and the revenuers
caught up with him. He had to leave
Tennessee pretty fast to get away from them.
Alfred Barnes, Samantha and Mary’s brother-in-law also left Tennessee
with a posse shooting at him. Someone
asked him in later years how he managed to escape. He replied, “I ran on the Bias” meaning
zig-zagging. Alex’s first daughter
Lucinda (who died June 5, 1974) married Lafayette Street in Chico Texas on
October 25, 1895. Their first daughter
Lucy was born in Texas January 21, 1897.
The other children were all married in Oklahoma. Lucinda and Lafayette had another daughter
Clara (Porter) and three sons Claud (deceased), Averill and Earl after they
moved to the Carter, Oklahoma area. All
of the children lived in the Carter area except Alford. He and his wife Mittie moved back to Electra,
Texas where he worked in the oil fields after farming a few years.
Bertha (died in 1948) married Sam Simpson. They farmed south east of Carter. Sam’s brother Oscar Simpson started the first
school in the area. Bertha and Sam had
three daughters and three sons. Two of
the girls Lucille and Ruby are deceased.
Sammy Lee, the other daughter and Cecil, Melvin and Billy are all
living.
Beulah (died in 1968) married A.O.
Cain in 1901. Their first children were
twins Clarence and Clinton both deceased.
They had a daughter Leona Fowler of Irving, Texas and two sons Joe and
Alton who both live in the Carter area.
Grover Cleveland (Cleve) (died
1950) married Effie Gaswick (died 1979).
They had one son G.C. Jr. who died in 1985. Lizzie Jones married J.D. Carter who died in
1972. Aunt Lizzie celebrates her 99th
birthday October 15, 1986. She is still
keeping house and enjoying life to the fullest.
She had three children, Elmer (deceased), Betty Joe and Milton.
Alford married Mittie Cornelius, their children were
Keetah, Buve, Donchin and Joy all deceased and living are Oleta, Jack, Bill and
another daughter Bobby.
Charles Wilson (Buddy) (died 1979)
married to Cordelia Rogers (deceased) had a son C.W. Jr. who died when he was
three years old. They have two daughters
Cuba Lee and Charlene. Delia Jones (died
1984) married to Bill Carter (died 1955) had a son Oren that died while a baby
and a son in Wichita Falls, Texas, Alvie known as Tutor. Berta Jones the youngest married Ralph Van
Buren, a marine in World War I. Their
oldest son is Jodie Lee of Harrah, Oklahoma.
One son Harley died when about 6 or 7 years old. Their daughter Joyce (Wayne) lives in Elk
City, Oklahoma. Berta makes her home in
Carter.
After Alex and Margaret moved into
the half dugout on their homestead, they had to live there several years before
they were able to build a house. During
this time the whole family had smallpox.
A neighbor, Homer Bunton found out they were all sick. He would come by the cellar getting close
enough to make himself heard. He would
ask what they needed (groceries, etc) and then go to the store over at Poarch
(which was five miles east and one mile south of the present town of Carter)
and get what they needed and take it to them.
Luckily they all recovered with no bad after effects.
In 1912 Alex and Margaret, their
daughter Berta and son Alford and Alford’s wife Mittie moved to near Camp
Verde, Arizona where Alex bought the “Bullpen”.
The Bullpen was an 18 acre fruit orchard. They raised apricots, peaches, pears, plums
and apples which they sold commercially.
Alex had bought the orchard from his brother Issac’s two sons Elmer and
Arthur. After operating the orchard for
three years he sold it back to the same two men and moved back to
Oklahoma. After Margaret died on
February 21, 1921, Alex made his home with Elizabeth (Aunt Lizzie) and J.D.
Carter. He made frequent trips back down
into Texas to visit relatives and to buy honey.
He bought honey down in South Texas and shipped it back to
Oklahoma. He would then peddle it all
over the country. I can still remember
him coming to our house when I was a small boy with the back of his buggy filled
with gallons of honey. He died March 9,
1936
After Margaret died, Buddy and
Cleve both had houses where they lived on Alex’s land which they farmed for
several years until the farm was sold to Lee White.
The descendants of Alex’s father
Johnny still have a Johnny Jones family reunion the second Sunday of August in
the Community Center in Allgood, Tennessee.
Alexander and Margaret, his
brother John, their daughter Lucinda, Bertha, Beulah and Delia together with
their husbands and Cleve and his wife and Lizzie’s husband J.D. Carter are all
buried in Poarch Cemetery 14 miles south of Elk City, Oklahoma. Buddy and his wife are buried in Carter
Cemetery.
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| Four generations pictured here: Alexander Jones sits with his daughter Cindy behind him; next to Cindy is her daughter Lucy Elderine; in front of Lucy and next to Alexander is Lucy's daughter, Mary Jo. Mary Jo was born in 1924, so my estimate is that the photo was taken in 1925 or 1926. |