Isaac Jones' seventh and youngest child was his son Joshua Douglas Jones who was born on December 9, 1810 in Surry County, NC. Later records seem to indicate that he actually went by the name Douglas. The earliest mention of Joshua in the historic record is his marriage to Sarah C. Bizzell in Maury County, TN on May 7, 1830. Interestingly enough, his marriage bond is cosigned by George Gillespie who was most likely the son of Thomas Gillespie of Rowan County, NC that was mentioned in an earlier post. Sarah was the daughter of Hardy Bizzell (1769-NC) and Margaret Denmark (1784-NC) who had relocated first to Williamson County and then Maury County from Duplin County, NC. Sarah was born on July 12, 1812 in Tennessee and it was her younger brother Thomas G. Bizzell who had married Joshua's niece and my great (x4) grandmother Nancy Caroline Sparks.
Together Joshua and Sarah would have 14 children: Elizabeth Jane (10 Mar 1831-TN), Cynthia Angelene (10 Dec 1832-TN), Margaret Ann (17 Apr 1834-KY), Sarah Caroline (29 Feb 1836-KY), Thomas Marion (22 May 1838-KY), Isaac Hardy (26 Feb 1840-KY), William Bizzell (15 May 1841-KY), John Douglas ( 8 Apr 1843-KY), Tabitha Wells (4 Jun 1845-KY), Andrew Kelly (13 Jul 1847-KY), Lydia Adaline (6 Apr 1849-KY), Nancy Clarenda (26 Aug 1851-KY), Franklin Irvan (20 Oct 1853-KY), and Arizona Sophronia (3 Jun 1857-KY). At least three of these children died before seeing the age of 10 and are buried in marked graves in the Jeffrey Cemetery.
By the early part of 1834, Joshua and Sarah had relocated to Calloway County, KY. The earliest mention of Joshua in the county records that I've been able to locate comes in the form of a deed of mortgage dated February 18, 1834. The deed involves Joshua putting up "three head of cattle, two steers and one heifer, one sow and pigs, one man's saddle, one side saddle, one feather bed, four chairs, one kettle, and one washing tub" as collateral against a $50 loan from his brother-in-law John Jeffrey. As with the rest of his brothers, Joshua first shows up in the county tax records in 1834 without being taxed on any land. By 1835 he is shown being taxed for 331 acres of his father's Tinsley Survey, although it wouldn't be until 1839 before any sort of official transfer of any of this land was documented by deed. This would be the deed I mentioned in an earlier post involving his father Isaac selling him 154 acres for $100 on July 24, 1839. Tax lists for the following years show him consistently owning 200 to 280 acres of land. County plat records indicate that in 1854 he owned part of the SE 1/4 of Section 15, Township 3, Range 5 East which would be a little ways to the east of the Jeffery Cemetery and adjacent to the land purchases made by his brothers back in 1835.
There is no question that there was something special about Joshua that set him apart from the rest of his brothers. Whether it be that he just had a higher level of education or was just simply a "go to" sort of guy, I find it interesting that it was Joshua who was selected to not only be the administrator of his father Isaac's estate but his brother-in-law Bowen Whitlock's as well. Calloway County estate documents reveal that he was also an appraiser for the estate of John Miller Sr. on January 6, 1844 and participated in numerous other estate sales. As I mentioned before in one of my earliest posts, Joshua was a Freemason and the only son to my knowledge to follow in his father's footsteps and become a minister of the Methodist Church.
Joshua's wife Sarah died on May 5, 1882 just a couple months shy of her 70th birthday and Joshua would follow 12 years later on January 3, 1894 at the age of 83. The couple are buried side by side together in the Jeffrey Cemetery along with many of their descendants.
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