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.