The following articles were found in the Wilkes-Barre (PA) Record on the dates shown. If
anyone is interested in receiving a copy of these, please send me your mailing address.
(I've summarized some of the information.)
(Instead of submitting this to any specific Mailing List, I am submitting it to the
General list in the hopes that it will be seen by a more diverse group.)
Thursday, 21 May 1896, Page 5
"An unusually sad end, surrounded by unusually sad circumstances, is the death of
Owen D. Jones, an actor of this city, in Brooklyn...known all over the country as Edmund
Drury, an actor of tragic and strong melodramatic parts. He fell in the water near
Twenty-Third street about a week ago and his cries for help were heard by the captain and
crew of the tug boat Comanche. A rope was thrown to the man, but he disappeared before it
reached him. ...The unfortunate liquor habit, however, took hold of him and two years ago
this summer he returned to this city and was in this vicinity quite a while, He went to a
sanitarium and was apparently cured of the liquor habit. ... On Nov. 20, 1894, he married
Miss Josephine Richards of Plymouth and she assisted him in his local theatricals. She
also went on the stage with him in small parts when he left this city, but Mrs. Jones soon
returned. Jones did not return with her and his friends lost track of him none of them
knowing his whereabouts. ...Yesterday in the prothonotary's office was filed an
application of divorce in which Mrs. Jones asked their marital relations be annulled.
..."
Friday, 22 May 1896
"The news of the death of actor Owen D. Jones at Brooklyn is a severe shock to his
aged father, John O. Jones of North Welles street, who has been an invalid for the past
eighteen months. ...Owen D. Jones was born at Trefrew, North Wales, in 1861, and was 35
years of age. His mother died when he was a boy. ..." [Father died 8 Sep 1896.
Article being posted separately.]
Monday, 25 May 1896
"The Elmira Telegram said yesterday in a dispatch dated Wilkes-Barre: 'Speaking
with a prominent lawyer regarding the death of actor Owen D. Jones, he said that it was
all a hoax and that his wife is going right on with her divorce proceedings. It was said
that a body was found in the North River his wife doesn't doubt, but it was not that
of her husband. ..."
Nancy Cook
Pasadena, MD, USA