Ollie Drucilla Jones (1893-1980)

Ollie Drucilla Jones

(Mellette, Oklahoma circa 1911)

Ollie Drucilla Jones was born in Batesville, Arkansas on January 5, 1893 and was the fourth child born unto John Curtis Jones and Sarah Parthena Felts. By her own account, she wasn't close to her parents John Curtis and Sarah. In later years she would recollect that "she did not have good communication with her mother and father. Especially her father." Her reasoning for this was that when it came to her father "it seemed boys were more important than girls."

After her family relocated to the town of Mellette, Oklahoma she met William Kennedy whose family had also recently relocated to the area from Pontotoc, Mississippi. William and Ollie would eventually marry on January 29, 1911 in Eufala, Oklahoma. In later years, Ollie would state that she only told one of her sisters about her pending marriage to William, providing further evidence of her strained relationship with her parents.

William Kennedy & Ollie Drucilla Jones on their wedding day.

(Eufala, OK ~ January 29, 1911)

After getting married, William and Ollie remained in McIntosh County for a number of years raising cotton. During this time the couple had seven children: Norma Kennedy (1912), James Curtis Kennedy (1914), Dodd Kennedy (1916), Ira William Kennedy (1919), a set of twins named Elmer and Velma who died at birth (1921), and Dolfus "Don" Kennedy (1922). In 1923 the couple would decide to relocate to California.  The family was accompanied by Ollie's half-cousin, Tinsy, and her husband. After getting as far as Texas, the car broke down. Tinsy and her husband returned to Oklahoma and the Kennedys remained in Dodge, Texas for about a year. It was during this time that Ollie gave birth to her eighth child James Robert "Junior" Kennedy in the late summer of 1924. The family eventually returned to Eufala, Oklahoma and spent several months living in an extra home on the farm owned by one of William's brothers. In 1925 or 1926 the family moved north to Okmulgee County and settled in the Natura Township on a farm known as Old Hayden's Place. While living at Old Hayden's Place, William and Ollie had three more children: Billie "Charles" Kennedy (1926), Leroy Kennedy (1928), and Jack Kennedy (1931). Four months after the birth of Jack, William was shot in the abdomen south of Bixby, OK by a local farmer named J. L. Sanders during an evening of heavy drinking and playing dice. The incident made the front page of the Tulsa Tribune newspaper and Sanders was later charged with murder after William succumbed to his wound and died on December 10, 1931.

Following William's death, the family remained at Old Hayden's Place for a couple of years and then relocated to just outside Kiefer, OK. After only a couple more years the family moved again to Beggs, OK. It was here in Beggs, that Ollie got remarried to a man named Thomas McCall. The marriage only lasted a year. In November of 1936, Ollie gathered all her children and packed all their belongings into a 1932 Ford V-8 with a trailer and headed out to California. After making the long trip at the lightning-fast pace of 30 mph, the Kennedys arrived in Southern California. They first took work helping two older ladies who lived in a huge house. The family took up residence in a small house in the middle of an orange grove. Ollie's son Don recalls that during this time "each family member probably ate five pounds of oranges a night." They worked for seventy-five cents an hour, an unheard of sum for the time, taking care of smudge pots for 10 to 12 hours a night. The family eventually headed north to Turlock, where times got hard due to lack of work. What little work that could be found primarily involved migrant work picking peaches, cotton, and grapes. By the 1940's work became more plentiful and Ollie took a job working for Armours in 1941. Eventually she was able to buy a house for the sum of $2750.00. Ollie would eventually remarry again, this time to a man named Lee Belcher on May 10, 1956. Ollie lived out her days in Turlock, CA, eventually passing away on August 14, 1980.

Ollie Jones Kennedy and daughter Norma

(Turlock, CA ~ 1943)

   

Stranger Than Fiction Part 2................A Tale Of True Love.

I figured while I was on the topic of John Logan Jones and his children, I'd tell y'all a tale that was told to me by Buddy Jones from Oklahoma City involving John Logan Jones' son John Curtis Jones and his half-brother Lewis Polk Jones. Buddy Jones is the grandson of Lewis Polk Jones. It's an amazing story about love, dedication, and how life was in rural America at the turn of the 20th century.

Between 1895 and 1900, John Logan's son John Curtis Jones left Arkansas for the newly opened Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma) to resettle. His half-brother Lewis Polk Jones soon followed suit and eventually the two families were residing next to each other. At the time, Lewis was married to a woman named Mollie L. Mechum (or Mitchum), and together the couple had three children: a child who died as an infant, a daughter named Perly in 1900, and another daughter named Rosa (Tinsey) in 1904. Not long after their daughter Tinsey was born, Mollie passed away.

At some point after Mollie's death, Lewis and his half-brother John Curtis' daughter Roxie took a shine to each other. Under the guise of heading to Texas to check his prospects down there, Lewis left his two daughters with his half-brother's family and left for Knox County, Texas. Once he arrived, he sent for Roxie, and the two were married without the consent of her father.

Lewis Polk Jones, Roxie Jones, and her father John Curtis Jones in the background.

(circa 1908 Oklahoma)

photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.

Roxie Jones

photo courtesy of Buddy Jones

After their marriage Lewis and Roxie seemed to move around quite a bit, returning to Oklahoma for a short time, then Arkansas, and finally returning to Texas and settling in the town of Vernon. During this time the couple had four children: Cleo Franklin Jones in 1908, Orvel Lee Jones in 1910, Jesse James Jones in 1912, and Opal Jones in 1916. Not long after the birth of their daughter Opal, the family decided to leave Vernon and relocate to the town of Commerce. It was during this time that Roxie drank some bad water, contracted typhoid fever, and died. On the day of her funeral, the family left their infant daughter Opal under the care of a couple named G. W. Polk and Myrtle McCullen who decided to kidnap her. Lewis put up a $1000.00 reward for her return which was matched by the state of Texas. Also at this time, Lewis somehow managed to get deputized and set off for California where one of the suspects' brother lived. This was all done by "riding the rails" which took a substantial amount of time. Upon arriving at the suspects' brother's home in California he found a letter that placed them in Arkansas, and so he set off in that direction. When Lewis arrived in Arkansas, the couple caught wind of it and abandoned Opal in a hotel they were staying at and were never caught. Opal would eventually live to see the ripe old age of 94, passing away in Texas in 2010.

G. W. Polk and Myrtle McCullen

(the couple who kidnapped Baby Opal)

photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.

John Curtis Jones (1862-1930)

John Curtis Jones (Oklahoma circa 1900)

photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.

John Curtis Jones was the fourth known child born unto John Logan Jones and Margaret Jane Bizzell in Independence County, Arkansas on March 8, 1862. After the death of his mother in 1870, John Curtis and his youngest sister Alzada Elizabeth Drucilla Caroline went to live with their aunt Alzada Bizzell Martin who also lived in the county. At age 22, he would marry Sarah Parthena Felts in Sharp County, Arkansas on April 27, 1884. Sarah was born in Barren Township in Independence County, Arkansas on March 8, 1867 and was the daughter of Robert E. Felts and Susan Carter, both from Tennessee.

Sarah Parthena Felts (wife of John Curtis Jones)

The couple had their first child Edgar Otto Jones on April 8, 1885 in Independence County, Arkansas. This birth would be followed by five more children being born in Arkansas: Roxie Ellen Jones (1888), Maude Lee Jones (1891), Ollie Drucilla Jones (1893), Jeff Thomas Jones (1894), and Rendie Parthena Jones (1895).

Edgar Otto Jones and family

photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.

Roxie Ellen Jones and brother Jeff Thomas Jones

photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.

Ollie Drucilla Jones

photo courtesy of Buddy Jones

Maude Lee Jones

photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.

Rendie Parthena Jones

photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.

With the opening of fresh land for sale in the Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma), John Curtis and his family left Arkansas and resettled on the Cherokee Nation near the town of Warner (present day Muskogee County) at some point between 1895 and 1900. By 1908, the family had relocated to the settlement known as Mellette in neighboring McIntosh County. During this period of time, John Curtis and Sarah had three more children: Arch Franklin Jones (1900), Bertha Ann Jones (1904), and Claude J. Jones (1908).

Arch Franklin Jones and wife Arfil.

photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.

Bertha Ann Jones (circa 1915)

photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.

Claude J. Jones (circa 1915)

photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.

It was during their time spent in Mellette, Oklahoma that they met the family of John P. Kennedy who had also recently moved to the area from Pontotoc, Mississippi. Through the two families' relationship, three marriages would be produced: Ollie Drucilla Jones to William Kennedy in 1911, Maude Lee Jones to John Pyle Kennedy in 1912, and Rendie Parthena Jones to Eber Kennedy in 1915. Eventually John Curtis and his family would relocate once again to the town of Mounds in Creek County, Oklahoma. It is here where John Curtis Jones would pass away at the age of 67 on January 19, 1930. His body would be laid to rest in the Duck Creek Cemetery located in Mounds, Oklahoma. His wife Sarah would pass away six years later on August 17, 1936 and be laid to rest next to her husband.

Grave of John Curtis Jones

photo courtesy of Jayson Shellady.

Grave of Sarah Parthena (Felts) Jones

photo courtesy of Jayson Shellady. 

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)

  

       

After a rather lengthy absence.....I'm back!!!

Wow! Can't believe it's been six years since I've posted on this blog. What can I say, but, life keeps you busy. In my absence it appears that Google bought the image hosting site that I had all the documents linked from...hence those not working anymore. But not to worry. My first order of business will be to get all that working again, but it's gonna take a little time considering there are close to 500 images I need to relink. Once I get that done, I'll get back on posting new entries from where I left off!


UPDATE (9/11/2018)....all the links to view the source documents at the bottom of each post have been repaired.