A Tribute to Lillian

When I first became interested in the history of the Joneses and my German and Irish lines, I had a couple of things going for me. First of all, my mother gave me a folder of family information she had collected over the years. A lot of her notes were the result of conversations she had had with Margaret Ann Scardina, my Dad's sister. (A few years back, Patty and I compared notes and found out that she had the same record -- her mother must have shared the information with mine). In the folder was a copy of a letter from Lillian Mears to Edith Breving.

As I was new to all of this, I called Rosemary Kramer and asked her to explain what she knew about the letter. Much to my surprise Rosemary told me all about Lillian, who was our grandfather's first cousin. She told me she lived in Harrison and was about 95 years old.

I called Lillian and despite macular degeneration and being somewhat frail, she invited Patty Volz and me to lunch at the home she shared with her daughter in Harrison, Ohio. She could practically quote all of the details in the letter, which had been written in 1978.

With a name like Jones, you need all of the clues you can get, and Lillian had a lot of them. Lillian was a retired school teacher who had graduated from Miami University. She had great stories about the lengths her parents went to to fund her education -- now I wish I had written them down. A lot of the things in her letter have now been documented. There were a few inaccuracies, but they were largely based on the recollections of her mother whose father (Alexander) died when she was only two years old.

As I write this history as I know it, I will often include quotes from her letter. Thank goodness that Edith Jones Breving asked Lillian to write down what she knew and my mother was given a copy. When Patty and I visited her she also gave us a photocopy of the Jones Family in 1916. Despite it's poor quality, it's one of my favorite items.

This picture was taken at Lillian's home in Harrison in 1916. The adults from left to right were:

John Lewis Amiss (husband of Elizabeth Jones Amiss)

Elizabeth Jones Amiss (daughter of Alexander and Elizabeth)

Leo Jones

Melissa Jones (wife of Leo)

Tom Jones

Norine Jones (wife of Charles Fred - our grandfather)

Ella Jones (wife of Tom)

Margaret Jones (wife of Harley)

Fred Jones (our grandfather)

Harley Jones

The children from left to right were:

Lillian Amiss Mears - daughter of John and Elizabeth

Edith Jones Breving - my aunt

Charles Jones - my uncle

Irma Jones - daughter of Margaret and Harley Jones

At least I had the good sense to have Lillian identify the people in the picture.

Lillian died just short of the age of 100 after suffering a fall in her home. She, too, is buried at New Haven Cemetery near Harrison.

More pictures from the luncheon:

Lillian, Patty Volz and Laura (Lillian's daughter)

Back Row:

Laura, Rosemary, Sue, Jeanne,

Front Row:

Patty, Lillian, Nan

Bottom Row: Kathy and Sue's son Spencer

Alexander and Elizabeth

So what is it we know about this pair? Elizabeth married Alexander when she was only 17 years old. According to Lillian Mears' letter, Elizabeth was born in Pennsylvania and was "Pennsylvania Dutch". This is supported by several census documents that confirm she was born in Pennsylvania. According to those same documents, both of her parents were born in Germany.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the two married July 6, 1840. Their ages are not consistent in census documents. However, Elizabeth's grave marker says that she was born in 1823. Their first-born son, William, was born in 1841. The 1860 Census says that William was born in Kentucky. We also know from the 1860 Census that Elizabeth could not read or write.

In Cincinnati, five other children were born to this union.

• Martha was born February 3, 1848 and died December 6, 1938. She married (William) Henry Helmig in 1870.



• Charles Henry, my g-grandfather was born on January 23, 1850 and died September 8, 1909. He had four children with Rachel Adela Wainright. Following her death, he married Alwilda Collins. There will be much more about this family in a later post.



• Johnny Jones was born about 1852. I have no information about him.



• Tom (Thomas) Jones was born about 1857 and married Ella. He died February 22, 1929 in Cincinnati.



• Elizabeth Jones was born August 30, 1860. She married John Amiss on October 13, 1886 and died in Harrison, Ohio in 1952.

For years I tried to find out where Alexander was buried. One day I was visiting the Walnut Hills Cemetery office where many of the above family members were buried. Serendipitously I found out that Alex had originally been buried in the Radical Cemetery in Mt. Auburn. This was a couple of blocks away from the historic Vernon Manor Hotel. The cemetery was closed in 1891 and the majority of the bodies were moved to Spring Grove Cemetery. According to the Hamilton County Burial Records, Vol. 16 for the Walnut Hills Cemetery (1843-1993), Alex was reburied in a plot owned by Henry Helmig, husband of Martha.

Alex's wife, Elizabeth, eventually moved in with her daughter, Elizabeth and her husband, John Amiss. They lived in Harrison, Ohio near the Indiana border. When the elder Elizabeth died, she was buried in a family plot at the New Haven Cemetery near Harrison.

My favorite story about Alex and Elizabeth also comes from Lillian's letter.

When Elizabeth Kinley was 16 or 17 years old, she always wore a sunbonnet. She was blond, and I suppose sunburned easily. Alex Jones said, "I think I'd like to go with that Miss Kinley, but I never get a chance to see her face under the bonnet." Evidently he finally got a peek at her and liked what he saw. He was very dark, according to his picture. With his beard, he looked like Lincoln.