Joseph Thomas Jones

My Jones line descends from the sixth child of Robert Thomas Jones Sr. and Elizabeth Thornhill, Joseph Thomas Jones. He was born in Jefferson County on 16 April 1837. Joseph was part of a group of siblings who moved from the Jefferson and Hamblen County areas of Tennessee to Boone & Montgomery County, Indiana about 1879. Joseph's sister Caroline Jones and 2nd husband Anderson Walker, may have preceded Joseph in Indiana by a few years, paving the way for the second group of siblings to migrate there.

Joseph married Mary Catherine Green on 25 February 1856 in Jefferson County. Mary was the daughter of Thomas Green and Sarah Sally Hickey, and Mary was born in Jefferson County in 1839. A copy of their marriage record is below via the Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002 database.

Joseph and Mary had at least the following children:
1. Martha E. Jones, born November 1856, died in Kay County, Oklahoma in 1933
2. Mary Jane Jones, born in 1858
3. Thomas Robert Jones (my 2ndgreat-grandfather), born on 23 March 1860, died on 1 November 1937 in Darlington, Montgomery County, Indiana
4. Marion Columbus Jones, born April 1862, moved to Oklahoma, then Kansas
5. Nancy Cornelia Jones, born November 1864

In the 1860 US Census, Joseph Jones and family appear in Morristown, Jefferson County. He is a railroad hand, and cannot read or write. As a railroad hand, he most likely worked on the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad. The railroad was chartered in 1848 and completed in 1858. Joseph also appears in the 1861 Tax Records for Jefferson County.

By 1870, the family was located in Witts Foundry, Jefferson County. His occupation is listed as farmer, with real estate valued at $1,000 and personal property at $1,202.

In the 1880 US Census, the family appears in Sugar Creek Township, Boone County, Indiana. Siblings Martin Jones and Sarah Melissa Jones are listed as neighbors with their families. Older sister Margaret Caroline Jones was in nearby Montgomery County in the same census.

I'll have more on Joseph's siblings and their journeys to Boone County & beyond.

Here is an 1895 map of Boone County (source link):

 
Update 6 February 2012 - I am currently searching for confirmation via the Boone County, Indiana Library on the locations of their death. I previously posted a headstone photo from Oak Hill Cemetery in Boone County, but after calling the Cemetery, I confirm this is not my third-greatgrandparents. So I'm still looking.

Update 1 November 2012 - Based on his Civil War pension file from the National Archives in Washington, DC, I'll be replacing this entry with a thorough update to include new information. Joseph lived a long and interesting life.