A letter to cousin Kathy, Part 1

\\Dear Cousin Kathy, What a time we had fall before last during Cullen Baker Days! Although it will be some time before I can devote much effort to genealogy, I’ll have a far easier task thanks to you and your mother, the CCGS, and the fact that all my roots, up to six generations on both sides, are right there in Cass County.

I haven’t forgotten your request for help with the Jones family tree. Unfortunately, the painstaking handwritten notes of my late Aunt Mae have somehow or other been misplaced. But our family Bible is sufficient to fill in some omissions from Cass County Cemeteries.

On page 148, the entry for my Grandmother “Truddie” is correct in that she is listed as the second wife of Henry Allen Jones. On his other side in Salem Cemetery, though, lies his first wife, my father’s mother, Ola Fitts. Starting with her, I’ll list all our requested additions, amplifications, and corrections to Cass County Cemeteries for both Dad’s and Mother’s sides in an attachment for the convenience of whoever does the data entry for the next edition. I’ll keep background details in the letter and simply refer to the attachment as I go.

Actually, at this point I’m editing what I’ve already written. I’ve learned a lot just through the discipline of checking and rechecking our records. Naturally, there are still plenty of gaps to fill. So now that I’ve socked the tar baby and wrestled with it this far, I’ll send copies of this whole package to family members here and there who might help both fill in those gaps and correct any errors I’ve made.

My Grandmother Ola Fitts Jones (born Jan. 18, 1979, died July 7, 1911) died when Dad was 4. Her parents, buried in Smyrna as listed under FITTS on page 94, were G.W. (George Washington) Fitts, 1847-1924, and Safronia J. (middle and maiden names I don’t know), 1853-1931. Also, and I know this is only an oversight, we need a listing for Henry Allen Jones, my grandfather, and your great uncle (born Dec. 12, 1876, died Aug. 16, 1953).

Considering I was only 9 when he died, I remember my Grandfather Jones fairly well. Although always in pain from a hernia he refused to have surgically corrected, he had a wonderful sense of humor and played a wicked game of dominoes. He should be remembered as a major contributor to the commercial history of Bloomburg: dry goods stores, a cotton gin, part interest in a cafe, telegraph/ telephone pole manufacturing and shipping, and cotton buying. I also remember “Aunt Ellie,” your grandmother, as a gracious charming lady •whose physical beauty was still readily apparent in her old age. Like Grandmother Truddie, Ellie had a wonderful smile, thanks in part, I guess, to the high level of natural fluoridation in the water. Dentists must have a rough time of it in those parts. Truddie, incidentally, brushed her pearly white teeth with a dab of snuff on a peach twig.

We have a number of cemetery record omissions and corrections on Mother’s side, starting with her parents. James Ell Finley (born Nov. 12, 1980, died Feb. 9, 1970) was named for his mother, Ellen Phillips Finley, who died when he was a baby and is buried near Greenville. Nancy M. “Nanie” Hanes Finley (born Jan. 16, 1884, died Oct. 1, 1976), was named for her grandmother, Nancy M. Wommack Booth Fuller. Having eloped when he was 19 and she was 16, Ell and Nanie celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in Lubbock only weeks before he died. Their eldest son, Howard (T.H.) Finley, made a big splash on the top half of the Mount Pleasant society page last month when, at age 90, he married a nursing home co-resident, age 70, after my Aunt Virginia died back in January. At any rate, see my entries for Grandfather Ell Finley’s mother, Ellen Phillips, and father, James Redding Finley. As noted earlier, Ell was 14 days old when his mother died. James Redding Finley (a colorful character indeed!) then moved to the Red Hill area of Cass County and married Paralee Hardy Penny (misspelled as Parleee in Cemeteries), whose entry under FINLEY on page 94 is corrected in the attachment.

Mother has “Penney” written in the family Bible, but there are no entries for “Penney” in Cass County Cemeteries, only Penny, one of which must be Paralee’s first husband. Also, I have no idea who her Hardy parents were. She had two children, Green and Ida, by her first marriage and three sons, four daughters by her second with my great grandfather, James Redding Finley, all but one of whom (the late John Finley of Bryan’s Mill) moved to West Texas. They’re all dead now except Anna B., but they have numerous descendants, so I should be able to fill in the blanks and clear up the spelling question.

Now let’s look at the correct entry for James Redding Finley himself on page 94. Presently listed in Cemeteries is John R., CSA, with no dates. I do remember searching around in the back right corner of Oak Ridge and being a bit confused about which CSA headstone marked my great grandfather’s resting place. Also, I note that Mother’s original family Bible entry has James Redding Finley serving under General Banks at Galveston but is corrected (?) in the margin. We do have pictures somewhere, which should help me clarify the matter, but until we straighten this out, best not jump to the conclusion that “John R. Finley, CSA” is a misidentification of James R. instead of a fellow Finley defender of State’s Rights.

I know nothing about “John R. Finley, CSA,” but I’m absolutely certain of the identity of my Great Grandfather James Redding Finley, who would, logically, be buried next to Paralee. He was a foot-washin1 Primitive Baptist with long beard and floppy wide-brimmed hat and a love for fine horse flesh — fine wild horse flesh.

He rode the T&P to Colorado City, bought wild mustangs, then sold them to East Texas fanners to risk: their own necks breaking. He was a cantankerous patriarch to the extreme who brooked no backtalk from the womenfolk (an endearing “East Texas Dander” family trait that still rears its head now and then in some of his descendants).

Paralee, fortunately, was apparently the patient/ even-tempered, pearl-without-price, submissive-wife type that is certainly an endangered species if not entirely extinct. Shortly after 16-year-old Nancy Hanes married J.R.’s son Ell (Nancy came from a fine affluent home where model housekeeping was the norm), she hazarded a remark about all the saddles, bridles, and harnesses strewn about her father-in-law’s front porch, whereupon J.R. stamped the ground, slapped his thigh with his hat, and ordered her into the house where she “belonged.”

That’s all I have time for right now, but I will have more in my next letter.

With best wishes, your cousin, JAMES W. JONES