Conway Jones

In the beginning of January, I wrote about the settling of the estate in 1857 for my 5th great-grandfather, Thomas Jones. I have not spent much time covering his other children, as I am still researching these lines. This post is on one of Thomas' sons, Conway Jones. My assumption is that Conway was the fifth child of Thomas Jones and Nancy Tucker.

Conway Jones was born in 1812 in Jefferson County, Tennessee.

Conway appears as a witness in Gibbons v. Thornhill in 1839. One year later, he married Ruth Biggs on 10 November 1840 in Jefferson County, Tennessee. John Gass (later Thomas Jones' executor) was the justice of the peace who performed the marriage for the young couple.

He appears again in the accounting of notes due to the estate of John Fain. Conway (spelled Conaway on the record) borrowed $20 on 20 December 1843. His brothers Joshua and William Jones also borrowed money from John Fain (source: FamilySearch.org, https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-195-2130333-1-42?cc=1909088&wc=10930473). 

By October 1850, Conway and Ruth had moved their young family to Hamilton County, Tennessee (near Chattanooga). His occupation was listed as distiller.

In June 1860, Conway, Ruth and family were living in Snow Hill, Hamilton County, Tennessee.

Sometime prior to 1870, the family left Hamilton County for Driggs, Logan County, Arkansas.

According to Driggs, The People, The Memories, published in 1997 (pgs 48-49), Conway Jones died in Logan County, Arkansas about 1870. This history says that "he was the oldest known ancestor in this family, was buried in Liberty Cemetery about 1870." It also says that he came from Harrison, Tennessee by wagon. Harrison is located up the river from Chattanooga.

"At some point of the journey they loaded the wagon onto a barge and they traveled up the Mississippi River to the Arkansas River.  His wife (Ruth Biggs) died and was buried on the river bank at Pine Bluff, AR.  The family landed at Roseville where they found a two-story hotel to spend the night in.  The next day Conway rode one of the mules to Driggs to get the place ready for the family."
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I need to look in Harrison and Hamilton Counties for records on Conway Jones, and also in Logan County, Arkansas.

Conway was not the only Jones son who went to Arkansas. His older brother William Jones had arrived in Marion County, Arkansas sometime before 1850. I'll pick up William's story next.