Another Story

Great grandfathers are usually not known by the folks of this generation.  Getting to know something of their lives may also become a task.   This picture is Edward Turner Jones, my great grandfather.  He was born 10th of August 1873 in Madison Co., KY.  This was just across the Kentucky River from my own Kentucky county called Clark, and I had a special interest in discovering his story.  His name was past down to me.

Edward it is.  Jerry Edward Jones my folks called me at that birth day some years back.  I thought at first the name Edward came from my Dad, Henry Edward Jones.  After some years of tree climbing it became evident that my father was named after his grandfather.  What a deal I thought.  Over a century before my birth certificate was completed, another of the same Y-chromosome carried the name Edward.  His baby of the family [a daughter Jeane Marie Jones born 1919] became my link in the chain to his generation.  She had many stories about her father.  He loved to sing, play the fiddle, and play cards.  He had difficulty with diabetes in his last years, loosing a leg to this disease.  But, the picture shown above was taken in his teens. [before 1893!]  He was married December 20, 1893 to Ellen Dorcas Henderson.  She was a direct descendant of that fellow named Richard Henderson who had something to do with the settlement of Kentucky at that placed called Boonesborough.  But that is another story.

E.T. phone home

E.T. (Edward Turner) and Ellen Dorcas Henderson were married 20 December 1893 at Ellen's home in Estill Co., KY. Estill County was also north of the Kentucky River and sections bordered on the Kentucky and Red Rivers. E.T. was the baby of 11 children born to his father and mother W.C. Jones and Elizabeth Isabel Adams. [It again amazes me how one generation is the baby of the family and the next generation seems to be the eldest.] The farm land that E.T. grew up on was the land that Mam maw told me about during one of our coffee drinking episodes. She knew it was located at the mouth of Red River, and that it was in Madison County. How we ended up in Madison County is yet to come, for our family had been in Clark County since 1817. The picture to the right shows E.T. and Ellen sitting with their youngest child. Pap paw must be in the oven because it looks as though Nona is about a year or so old. Pap paw is not far behind. Ellen looks serious and must have been carrying the world on her shoulders. Her Henderson side lost almost everything after the Transylvania Company went belly up, and I could see why they might be mad at the world. There is a saddle on the porch so I guess they still road horses when this picture was taken. E.T., if you are on horseback, please call home.