The first part of this message will give a little bit of Jones family
genealogy and history. The rest of it will be an account of our trip to the
family reunion. If you enjoy my ramblings, read the entire message. If you
want only history and genealogy, feel free to stop at any time.
Uriah and Matilda Jane Nickell Jones were originally from Morgan County,
Kentucky, but later evidently lived near Mount Sterling. They left Kentucky
at sometime in the 1890's and went to the Chickasaw Nation in Indian
Territory with their entire family, both married and single children. I've
written an account of this previously.
One son, Isaac, married Sarah Belamy, November 22, 1888, probably at or near
Mount Sterling. Their children were Benjamin Harrison, Morton Van Buren,
Oliver, Louellen, Allie, Volney, Oscar, Effie, Joe, and Renee.
Sometime about 1910, much of Uriah and Jane's family moved to Montana near
the Crow Agency. Isaac's family was in on the move. In 1912, Benjamin
Harrison (he went by Harrison) and it is believed also Oscar and Oliver went
to Woodmountain in Saskatchewan, Canada. Most of the family joked and
evidently even made bets that Harrison would return home within a few weeks
and the other two would stay in Canada. Nothing could have been farther from
true. Harrison was the only one who stayed in Canada.
Family tradition says that Harrison homesteaded there. I've not checked any
land records, but his daughter in law Hazel says that is true. Harrison met
and married on March 12, 1916 Gladys Onnie Nordyke (Gladys was born in
Galena, Kansas) at Woodmountain, and from them comes a large family scattered
throughout British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario.
Harrison and Gladys's children were:
Oliver, b. Sep 5, 1916, md Lucy Doyle and Minnie Schull
James, b. Sep 9, 1918, md Hazel Chesney
Bessie, b. Oct 13, 1921, d. Oct 19, 1921
Francis Earl, b. Sep 7, 192, md Irene Thompson
Robert, b. Apr 6, 1924, md Verona McGibbon
Gladys Ruth, b. Apr 14, 1926, md George Black
John Basil, b. Jan 8, 1928, md Marion Shoemaker
Fredrick Harrison, b. Feb 18, 1932, md Dorothy Edinborough
Marjorie Bernice, b. Apr 10, 1920, md Howard Doyle
If anyone is researching this family, I do have more information and would be
happy to share.
OUR TRIP TO THE REUNION:
On Saturday morning, August 28, I drove to Tulsa, OK to pick up our son Mark
who was going with us. He had never been north of Oklahoma and was very
excited about getting his vacation at a time that he could go with us. I had
already hooked up the pickup to the camping trailer and was ready to go.
When Mark and I got here, we just loaded his things and took off.
We made it to Dodge City, Kansas that night after a day or worry over a bad
leak of transmission fluid. Finally, a liquid sealer seemed to take effect
as we had no more trouble with it. Some small leaks, but even that finally
stopped. WE checked quite often to make sure.
The next day, we were in the Badlands of South Dakota. We had been there
before, but Mark could hardly believe his eyes. It was very exciting for
him. We visited Mount Rushmore and Mark's comment was "I saw pictures and
read about it in school, but didn't think I'd ever see the real thing." We
parked that night in a campground in the Black Hills, next to the "in
progress" monument to Crazy Horse. They had progressed a lot since we were
there five years ago. Mark couldn't believe how huge it is. Lights were
shining on it at night, and we had a beautful view of it from our camper
trailer. We went to the visitor center and museum the following morning.
When we left Crazy Horse, we drove up into northeastern Wyoming to see
Devil's Tower - very interesting when looked at in connection with the Indian
legends about the mountain. From there, we drove to Belfry, Montana, a small
town in South Central Montana not far north of Cody, Wyoming. Some of the
Jones family had lived there for quite some time; namely the John DeSha
Jones family and the Squire Perkins Jones family. Some of Squire's family
still lives there and we had quite a visit with guitar picking and singing in
the evening. Oh, almost forgot. As it got dark that night on the way to
Belfry, my right side upper beam headlight burned out. I thought Okay, I'd
drive on low beams. Later on another part of the drive, the left low beam
burned out and I couldn't drive in the dark until I found new lights and Mark
put them in for me.
The day before we were to leave Belfry, my back wheels locked up on the
pickup. Finally got them unlocked by driving in reverse for a while.
Evidently my handbrake cable had rusted. I just didn't use it anymore the
rest of the trip. Sometimes kinda scary to not have it for parking in the
mountains.
From Belfry, we started our way on to Canada. We made it to Great
Falls,
Montana that evening and found a campground. Radio was announcing snow
closing some of the mountain passes there. Worriesome, but we paid no heed.
We intended to go to the Jones reunion. Next night, we made it to Canmoor in
southern Alberta. It was a beautiful campground, down between high mountains
with snow on top of them. That night it turned cold. 32 degrees fahrenheit
the next morning. Had to scrape ice off the windows and dig out our sweaters
that we had begrudgingly taken along thinking they would just be in the way.
Ha.
The Rocky Mountain Highway from south to north through Alberta is one of the
most beautiful and interesting highways in the world as far as I know, and
I've been on a lot of them on three continents. Mark was especially
impressed with the glaciers with big busses taking people up on the glaciers
for tours. I'm too much of a coward to try something like that, and besides,
we were running very short on time. This was already Saturday, and the
reunion stated on Friday. We had already been on the road for a week.
We pulled in to Edson (about 100 miles west of Edmonton) about 7 pm, called
Delores McDougall for directions to the setup. We had driven a total of
2,573 miles. We were just in time to go to the community center for a big
supper and dance. Great evening, but we were quite tired from the trip.
When one of the family from there (Hazel Jones, James Jones's widow) was
ready to leave early, we asked her for directions, but she drove her car and
guided us to the grounds then she went back to town to a hotel.
The reunion was great. Had a good time and a lot of good, interesting
visiting. We left there a little before noon on Monday, September 6 and took
the shortest route home. We drove through the rest of Alberta, all of
Saskatchewan, and to Winnipeg, Manitoba, then south through North and South
Dakota, Kansas, and Oklahoma, with a short few miles detour into Minnesota
just to say we had been there. I believe we were still someplace in Canada
when the waterpump started leaking really a lot. Bars leak didn't even slow
it down. We sure stopped a lot to add water from there on home. We got home
about 5 p.m. on Friday the 10th. Had to change over to the car and take Mark
back to Tulsa as he had to be at work by 8:30 that evening. He was already 4
days late with telephone okay from his boss. Got into a heavy rainstorm on
the way back home and got here after 1:30 a.m.
Even with all the vehicle problems, we had a great time and a great trip. It
was good to have time with Mark for a change, too. And if it hadn't been for
him watching and taking care of problems for me, the vacation would have
ended within 75 miles away from home. On this trip, at first I complained
about so much road construction and repairs. I finally changed my mind as so
much more of it needed repairs. Never in my life have I seen the roads
everywhere in such horrible shape. My spine is still almost like jello. If
I ever go on a trip much more than 100 miles away again, I think I will wear
a back brace.
Aside from my complaining, I hope you enjoy my report. I haven't even looked
at my pictures yet as I had more than 1000 e-mails waiting for me.
Bud Caudle