John Logan Jones (1831-1906)

John Logan Jones (1831-1906)

(photo courtesy of Buddy Jones)

Born on January 6, 1831 in Henry County, Tennessee, John Logan Jones was the seventh known child born unto Isaac Jones' son Burrel and my personal great great great grandfather. His name makes it's first appearance in county records on the 1850 Federal Census for McCracken County, Kentucky living in the home of his parents at age 18. Three years later, marriage bond records for the county show that on May 16, 1853 he married Margaret Jane Bizzell.

Marriage bond record for John Logan Jones & Margaret Jane Bizzell

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Margaret was the daughter of Thomas G. Bizzell and Nancy Caroline Sparks, having been born in Calloway County, Kentucky on either August 1, 1835 or August 4, 1838 as her tombstone suggests. The really interesting thing about Margaret is that records seem to indicate that she was actually a cousin of her husband John Logan Jones and the granddaughter of John's father's sister Jane who first married John Sparks prior to 1820 and then later John Jeffrey in 1834.

A little over a year after their marriage, the couple welcome their first child William Alexander Jones into the world on September 27, 1854, followed by a second son Houston Nathaniel Jones on March 3, 1857. By the time of the birth of the couple's third known child James Isom Jones on September 23, 1859, the couple had relocated to Independence County, Arkansas with John Logan's father Burrel. Further evidence of the move can be seen in a series of land patents granted to John Logan starting on December 10, 1859 when he is granted 40 acres located in the NE 1/4 of the SE 1/4 of Section 17 in Township 15 North of Range 6 West, followed by another 80 acres located in the SW 1/4 of the NW 1/4 of Section 9 and the NE 1/4 of the SE 1/4 of Section 8 in Township 15 North of Range 6 West granted on September 1, 1860. This land lay adjacent to his father's land purchase from the same time period and was located in what was then Barren Township and can now be found northwest of present day Cave City, Arkansas near where Conyers Road intersects Center Road.

1859 Arkansas Land Patent granted to John Logan Jones

1860 Arkansas Land Patent granted to John Logan Jones

Seven months after his last land purchase, the country would find itself in turmoil with the outbreak of civil war and records show that on November 19, 1861 John Logan and his brother-in-law Nathaniel P. Jones would both enlist with the 1st Arkansas Regiment of 30 Day Volunteers which was part of the Independence County Home Guard. John Logan enlisted with Company B and given the rank of sergeant. After thirty days the company was disbanded at Camp Borland near Pocahontas, Arkansas on December 18, 1861. Confederate enlistment records show that he may have re-enlisted with the 8th Arkansas Infantry, New Company K which was later re-assigned to the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, Western Dept. and sent to Corinth, Mississippi where 50,000 Confederate troops had amassed by order of General Albert Sydney Johnson. I use the words "may have re-enlisted" because enlistment documents show the individual as being named "John L. Jones" and there isn't any further record involving a request for pension by John Logan. This lack of a service pension record could easily be explained by the fact that this particular "John L. Jones" was listed as having deserted on July 28, 1862.

If this was in fact John Logan Jones serving with the 8th Arkansas Infantry, he would've certainly had a few reasons to desert at this point in time. On April 6th, the 8th Arkansas Regiment became part of the 3rd Brigade (under S. A. M. Wood), 3rd Corps (under General Hardee), Army of the Mississippi and marched in to meet the Yankees at Shiloh. The 8th Arkansas was involved in the first wave of fighting and suffered heavy casualties as the battle climaxed at what's become known as "The Hornet's Nest". After the Confederate defeat at Shiloh, they retreated back to Corinth and were later shipped to Mobile, Alabama, then Atlanta, eastern Georgia, and finally into eastern Tennessee. 

As I discussed in my earlier post about his father Burrel, things had gotten pretty bad for most of the people living back in Independence County between the burden of the Northern Army's occupation of the area and the roving bands of raiding Confederate bushwackers. Coupled with this was the fact that three months prior to this "John L. Jones" deserting, John Logan's wife had given birth to their fourth child, and my great great grandfather, John Curtis Jones on March 8, 1862 which also could have prompted his return home. Later birth records place John Logan in Independence County for the remainder of the war, such as the birth of his fifth child Luther Sherman Jones on December 28, 1864. Oddly enough, records indicate that John and Margaret's sixth child Andrew Johnson Jones was born on December 21, 1865 in Carroll County, Missouri. This may have been due to simply a holiday visit to relatives in the neighboring state, or possibly a temporary move to Missouri to flee the hardships brought on Independence County by the Civil War, or if John Logan had continued serving with the 8th Arkansas Regiment and deserted, maybe even hiding out from a perceived threat due to the desertion. Either way, the stay was short-lived because the family was back in Independence County by October 12, 1868 for the birth of John Logan and Margaret's only known daughter with the extraordinarily long name Alzada Elizabeth Drucilla Caroline Jones.

John Curtis Jones (son of John Logan Jones & Margaret Jane Bizzell)

photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.

Andrew Johnson Jones (son of John Logan Jones & Margaret Jane Bizzell)

photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.

Alzada Elizabeth Drucilla Caroline Jones 

(daughter of John Logan Jones & Margaret Jane Bizzell)

photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.

Less than two years after the birth of their daughter Alzada, tragedy would strike the family with the death of John Logan's wife Margaret on July 14, 1870 at the young age of 32. This death date comes from her tombstone located in Hamlett Cemetery near the family's home. John Logan would waste very little time remarrying, waiting only six weeks before being wed to his second wife Mary Ann Reeves on August 28, 1870. 

Mary Ann Reeves was a local widow who had lost her first husband, Elijah T. Reeves, when he died from disease in Helena, Arkansas only a month after having enlisted with the Union army in 1862. Prior to her marriage to Elijah T. Reeves her maiden name was Carter and she was the older sister of the James Carter who would later marry and become the second husband of John Logan Jones' niece Lucy Jones Gist. Along with Mary Ann's four daughters from her prior marriage, the 1870 Federal Census also shows her mother Keziah Carter living in  the home. The interesting thing about Keziah Carter is that her maiden name was originally Meeks and she was the granddaughter of Priddy Meeks and Elizabeth Denny who lived in the same area along Hunting Creek in Surry County, NC at the same time John Logan's father Burrel and grandfather Isaac did fifty years prior. Through his marriage to Mary Ann Reeves, John Logan would have three more children: Henry Grant Jones in 1872, Merenda (Marinda) Tennessee Jones in 1874, and Lewis Polk Jones in 1875.

Marinda T. Jones (daughter of John Logan Jones & Mary Ann Reeves)

photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.

Lewis Polk Jones (son of John Logan Jones & Mary Ann Reeves)

photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.

One is left to assume that at some point between 1880 and 1888 Mary Ann passed away because Sharp County marriage records show John Logan now marrying his third wife Alice G. Dixon on September 23, 1888. Sharp County marriage records, census records, and her tombstone seem to indicate that Alice G. Dixon was born Alice Genora Brasher in Tennessee on May 12, 1864. Oddly enough, with Alice only being twenty-four at the time of  her marriage to John Logan Jones she was already on her third marriage. The first marriage to Willaim H. Dotson in Sharp County, Arkansas on August 14, 1881 and the second to Merinda Dickson (Dixon) in Sharp County on August 4, 1882. Through his marriage to Alice G. Dixon, John Logan would have seven more children: Louisa C. Jones (1889), Marion Thomas Jones (1892-1894), Josephine C. Jones (1894-1969), George McKinley Jones (1897-1979), Mary Jane Jones (1901-1997), Asberry F. Jones (1904-1908), and Bertie Logan Jones (1907) who was conceived when John Logan was seventy-five!  Unfortunately John Logan wouldn't live to see the birth of his last child, dying on September 4, 1906 in Cave City, AR. John Logan Jones is buried in the Palestine Cemetery in Sharp County, AR next to his last wife Alice who died on May 30, 1935.

Alice G. Dixon (circa early 1900's)

photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.

Grave of John Logan Jones & Alice G. Dixon 

Palestine Cemetery ~ Sharp County, Arkansas

(photo courtesy of Buddy Jones)