Another Basketball Champion

Following the path of older sister Nettie, Clarence Snoddy was a key guard for Enid High School in the 1921 & 1922 seasons. The 1921 team won the Phillips Basketball Invitation Tournament trophy, competing against 32 other Oklahoma high school teams, and winning five games in four days to claim the title.

1921 Enid HS yearbook.

1921 Enid HS yearbook.

The 1922 season was a bit tougher for the men from Enid High School. They went 4-9. Clarence earned a letter and was again an important member of the team. He was often noted for his hard work and "smashing guard" play.

1922 Enid HS yearbook.

1922 Enid HS yearbook.

Coach Bierbower

 

Ancestry. 1915 Enid HS Yearbook.

The key driver for the 1915 Enid High School Girls Basketball team was their popular coach, Altha Leah Bierbower. Coach Bierbower was born in Illinois in 1892, but moved to Oklahoma with her parents, Aaron and Laura Bierbower.

Altha later married fellow history teacher John H. Bass, who appears next to her in the 1915 Enid H.S. Yearbook. They were married on 24 August 1917. He became a lawyer for the US Federal Trade Commission.

Basketball is in the Family

 

Source: Ancestry. 1915 Enid HS Girls Basketball, OK.

At the same time my great-grandfather Edgar Lawrence Jones was helping his high school basketball team into position for an Indiana State Championship in 1915, his first cousin Nettie Snoddy was a star guard for the Enid High School Girls Basketball team in Oklahoma. Nettie is pictured above in the center of the photo from the 1915 Enid High School yearbook. As a huge fan of basketball, this was an amazingly cool find to see in the family history. Nettie was a daughter of Nancy Cornelia Jones Snoddy, sister of Thomas Robert Jones, Edgar's father.

Enid HS, 1915.

Enid HS Yearbook, 1915.

The description of Nettie is great to read. "Steady as a rock" and a veteran from the 1914 Girls Basketball team (which is not mentioned in the 1914 Enid HS Yearbook), Nettie was clearly a smart player who worked well with her teammates. She certainly had an influence on her younger brother Clarence, who starred for Enid High five years later in the 1921 & 1922 seasons. I'll have more on this basketball connection to the family in the next posts.

Nancy Cornelia

 

Nancy Cornelia Jones Snoddy.

The last of the children of Joseph and Mary Catherine Green Jones was Nancy Cornelia Jones. She was born on 24 November 1864 in Jefferson County, Tennessee. Like her siblings, she joined the family in their move to Boone County, Indiana before 1880, but returned with her parents to Tennessee. She met and married Robert Oliver Snoddy in Blount County, Tennessee on 1 October 1884.

FamilySearch, Tennessee Marriages.

Robert and Nancy had the following children:

- Maude E. Snoddy, 1886-1971

- Agnes Marie Snoddy, 1893-1954

- Nettie Myrtle Snoddy, 1897-1985

- Jessie Mae Snoddy, 1899-1973

- Roy Oliver Snoddy, 1901-1955

- Clarence Eugene Snoddy, 1904-1953

Source: S. Laird on Ancestry. Snoddy family.

The Snoddy family moved west to Oklahoma, joining the Jones and Barker families in the Oklahoma Territory. Robert filed a land patent in Garfield County, Oklahoma, near land purchased by Marion C. Jones.

In later years, Nancy operated a rooming house while her husband worked as a railroad car inspector. The family can be seen in the 1920 US Census in Enid, Oklahoma.

Ancestry. 1920 US Census, Enid, Oklahoma.

Nancy died on 7 December 1930 in Enid, Oklahoma.

The Enid Events, 11 Dec 1930.

Marion Columbus

Picking up from yesterday's post, I now turn to the fourth of five children of my 3rd-great-grandfather Joseph Jones. Marion Columbus Jones was born on 29 April 1862 in Jefferson County, Tennessee. He appears in the 1870 US Census in Jefferson County, and then moved to Boone County, Indiana before appearing in the 1880. Marion moved back to Tennessee with his parents, older sister Mollie and younger sister Nancy. He married Eva Watkins on 30 November 1884 in Blount County, Tennessee.

Marion and Eva had the following children:

- William T. Jones

- Clarence Floyd Jones

- Thomas Robert Jones (Another one! Marion's older brother was also Thomas Robert Jones, and Joseph's father was Robert Thomas Jones Sr. This name appears quite often in the family).

Eva died on 29 Dec 1892 in Blount County, Tennessee, at the age of 25. Marion packed up the family and followed several siblings to new opportunities in the Oklahoma Territory. They settled in Garfield County, Oklahoma, and Marion met & married Eva Bartlett there on 19 October 1895.

Ancestry. Oklahoma Marriages, 1895.

Marion and Eva had two children:

- Lloyd Marion Jones

- Helen Aileen Jones

The family appears in the 1900 US Census in Garfield County, living next door to the families of older sister Mattie Jones Barker, and younger sister Nancy Jones Snoddy. Marion filed a land patent in Enid, Oklahoma in June 1902 for the land in Garfield County.

BLM Land Patent, 9 June 1902.

Marion's second wife Eva Bartlett Jones died on 4 January 1907 in Garfield County.

Tonkawa News, 10 Jan 1907

After the death of his second wife, Marion and son Lloyd moved to Fresno, California, working on a fruit farm. They returned to Oklahoma, and later moved to neighboring Kansas.

By 1940, Marion was living in the household of his son Clarence in Hood County, Texas. Marion moved back to Oklahoma, where he died on 11 March 1943.

Revisiting Joseph's Children

Yesterday I shared a photo of my 3rd-great-grandfather, Joseph Jones. While I knew his general appearance from the description in his Civil War pension file, I hadn't run across a photo. I'll now take a step back and explain how I stumbled across the photo in the first place.

I knew Joseph had moved from Jefferson County, Tennessee to Boone County, Indiana with several of his siblings and children sometime before 1880, and then later returned to Blount County, Tennessee before June 1890. Some of those siblings and children opted to stay in Indiana. Several of them continued west, moving to Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Of the five children of Joseph and Mary Catherine Green Jones, I knew where four of them had settled. I had a gap on second daughter, Mary Jane Jones.

On a hunch I tried searching again on FamilySearch, hoping that perhaps Mary returned to Blount County, Tennessee with her father Joseph in the 1890s. Sure enough, I found her, listed as "Mrs. Ed Scott" in the Tennessee Death Records, with parents Joe Jones and Mary Green. This opened the door to an entry which had a photo for Ed Scott, and then photos for Mary Jane "Mollie" Jones, and her father Joseph.

Mary Jane "Mollie" Jones

Source: E. Sweetland. Mary Jane Jones.

According to Joseph's Civil War pension file, Mollie was born on 16 December 1858. Other documents show her date of birth as 16 December 1859. She appears in the 1860 US Census in Jefferson County, Tennessee. I'm inclined to think the 1858 year is correct, and the 1870 US Census entry also supports this. By 1880, she had moved with the family to Sugar Creek, Boone County, Indiana. Mollie returned to Tennessee with her parents in 1890, and after the death of her mother in September 1890, she married Ed Scott in Blount County on 25 February 1891.

The family appears in the 1900 US Census in Blount County, Tennessee. She also appears in the 1910 and 1920 US Census.

Ancestry. 1900 US Census. Blount County, Tennessee.

Ed and Mollie had the following children:

- Maude Scott

- Zola Mae Scott

- Johnny Scott

Mollie passed away on 16 December 1925 in Maryville, Tennessee.

Martha Elizabeth "Mattie" Jones

The first child of Joseph and Mary Catherine was Martha Elizabeth Jones, also known as Mattie. She was born on 13 November 1856 in Jefferson County, Tennessee. Martha moved with the family to Boone County, Indiana, where she met and married Joshua W. Barker on 22 March 1881.

Source: FamilySearch, Indiana Marriages.

Joshua and Mattie had at least the following children:

- Festus Elmer Barker

- Myrtle Barker

- Joseph Wilson Barker

- Iva Barker

- Horace McTeer Barker

The family moved from Boone County to Garfield County, Oklahoma, where they appear in the 1900 US Census, living next door to younger brother Marion C. Jones and his family, as well as younger sister Nancy Cornelia Jones and her family.

Ancestry. 1900 US Census, Garfield County, Oklahoma.

Marion Jones, and his brother-in-law Robert O. Snoddy, filed land patents for their property in Garfield County. I'll have more on those two in a subsequent post.

By 1910, the Barker family had relocated to Kay County, Oklahoma. Joshua died in November 1910. Mattie remained in Kay County, where she died on 3 February 1933.

Thomas Robert Jones

I have previously covered my 2nd-great-grandfather Thomas Robert Jones on the blog, sharing his marriage record from Boone County, Indiana and a photo of his tombstone. Thomas and family remained in Indiana while his siblings ventured west or returned to Tennessee.

My next posts will cover Thomas' younger siblings, Marion Columbus Jones and Nancy Cornelia Jones.

Inherited Traits

 

Source: E. Sweetland. Joseph Jones.

While trying to fill in research gaps on my Jones line, I stumbled into a tree on Ancestry with a photo of my 3rd-great-grandfather Joseph Jones. There's a clear resemblance to Joseph's children, Thomas Robert Jones and Sarah Jones, whose photos can be found on my post from 18 August 2015. This photo is such a cool find and I'm very grateful to run across it.

There's definitely the same eyes with my Dad, in this photo from May 2015.

Keith D. Jones, May 2015.

For the next posts, I need to revisit the children of Joseph and Mary Catherine Green Jones.

Ten Years on the Blog

I'm a bit surprised, but on Saturday I passed the ten year milestone with this humble family history blog. 1966 posts and thousands of pages later, I am still adding to the family stories of those directly related to me or in some cases interestingly adjacent. Google says I've had 313,140 page views, which seems pretty crazy.

This has been an outlet for sharing bits of history, and sometimes photos of my travels. I had no idea of the direction this blog would take when I started this back on 22 January 2012, but I've enjoyed sharing the research, stories and photos along the way.

I have some new finds to bring to the blog in the near future, and hopefully will keep uncovering new stories and connections for many more years to come.

Returning from the Surf

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Santa Monica, 6 Jan 2022.

Winter in Sharpes

Finding references to Ella Garner Taylor's home in Sharpes, Florida led to another set of news clippings which provide some color to the time spent escaping the New Jersey winter. Several of these also mention Ella's "charming daughter" Luella, who would have been in her early-mid 40s, enjoying several months a year in Florida while her husband William was traveling to film motion pictures. 

Florida Today (Cocoa, FL), 17 Mar 1921

The summer picnic mentioned above would have been just before Luella and William departed New York for Europe.

Florida Today, 1 Mar 1923

Florida Today, 31 May 1923

Florida Today, 25 Oct 1923

The clipping above provides a bit more detail about the wealth enjoyed by Ella Taylor in her later years. She made the journey from New Jersey to Florida (near Cocoa, Florida and the modern day Kennedy Space Center) in a new Cadillac.

Florida Today, 17 Jan 1924

This article shows that Ella was visited by the family of her older brother Charles E. Garner (not Gaines as above). Mrs. W. P. Smith would have been May Garner Smith, Mrs. C. E. Garner would have been Katherine Garner. Ella's brother Charles had died in 1915.

Florida Today, 9 Oct 1924

Florida Today, 6 Nov 1924

Florida Today, 16 Apr 1925

Florida Today, 5 Nov 1925

Ella returned to Sharpes again in September 1926 and winter 1927. She traveled north to Keansburg in April 1928, presumably for the last time before her death in 1930. Luella and William visited friends in Sharpes over Thanksgiving 1934.

Florida Today, 22 Nov 1934

Ella

For completeness, I'm posting two obituaries for Ella Garner Taylor, mother of Luella Taylor Waddell. She died on 29 August 1930 in Keansburg, New Jersey, at the home of her daughter. The first obituary states that she was born in New York, but based on my other research I know she was born in Harrison County, Indiana.

Red Bank Daily Register, 3 Sep 1930

The obituary above also notes that Ella had considerable property in New York, and an estate and orange grove in Sharpes, Florida.

The second obituary states that Ella was one of the first beach property owners in Granville Park, New Jersey.

Keyport Enterprise, 4 Sep 1930

News of Ella's passing made it into the newspaper in Cocoa Beach, Florida, where she lived for many years during the winter in Sharpes, Florida.

Florida Today, 18 Sep 1930.

In 1932, Luella conveyed the property owned by her mother to the Borough of Keansburg, and it became incorporated into Keansburg Beach Park.

Luella's Grandmother

Stepping backward into the family of Luella Taylor Waddell, I return to her grandmother, Mary A. Garner, who was living in the Taylor household in Orange, New Jersey in 1900. Mary was born on 16 March 1830 in Corydon, Harrison County, Indiana. She was the daughter of John Bence and Elizabeth Miller, and her middle initial A stood for Adeline.

Ancestry. 1850 US Census, Harrison County, Indiana.

Mary Adeline wed river merchant Powhattan M. Garner on 3 October 1850 in Harrison County, Indiana. He regularly traveled on river boats along the Ohio River, between Indiana, Illinois and St. Louis. Powhatten was struck by cholera while in St. Louis, and died there on 10 August 1866. Following the death of her husband, Mary supported herself and her four children as a seamstress in Corydon, Harrison County, Indiana.

Ancestry. 1870 US Census, Corydon, Indiana.

Powhatten and Mary had the following children:

- William M. Garner, 1851-1897

- Charles E. Garner, 1853-1915

- Ella Garner Taylor, 1857-1930

- Cora Garner, 1858-1891

By 1880, Mary had relocated the family to New York. The family appears in the 1880 US Census at 19 East 12th Street in Manhattan. I don't know yet what prompted her move from Indiana to New York, if she was following other family or work opportunities.

Ancestry. 1880 US Census, Manhattan, NY.

Mary appears in several entries of the US City Directory for New York City between 1882-1894. Her children prospered in New York. Daughter Ella married Thomas J. Taylor in 1880. 

Mary died on 17 March 1907 in New York, and is buried next to her husband in New Albany, Indiana.

End of the Story for Luella

After following Luella Taylor Waddell and her husband William through the records, I'll bring her story to a close with her obituary from 1964.

Red Bank (NJ) Daily Register, 8 Jul 1964

Luella left behind $155,000 in securities to the Board of Trustees of the Old Tennent Presbyterian Church. Income from the securities was to be used for the Luella T. Waddell trust "for the relief and assistance of the aged, the poor, the sick, the crippled or afflicted." In the clipping below, Anna McCluer is listed as her aunt. I believe she was a sister of her father, Thomas J. Taylor.

Asbury Park Press, 23 July 1964.

Appearing Twice in the Same Census

William and Luella Waddell appear twice in the 1940 Census. They first appear on 8 April 1940 in West Palm Beach, Florida.

FamilySearch. 1940 US Census, West Palm Beach, FL.

In the second entry, they appear on 25 April 1940 in Keansburg, New Jersey.

William died on 20 May 1954 at their home in Keansburg.

Long Branch (NJ) Daily Record, 21 May 1954.

A longer obituary the following week references William's work with Thomas Edison and Lee DeForest on motion pictures. It also indicates that William and Luella lived in Mexico during the winter months in the late 1940s/early 1950s.

Red Bank (NJ) Daily Register, 27 May 1954.

William's Passport

After showing Luella Taylor Waddell's passport application from 1921, I turn now to the passport applications for her husband William. The application also includes a photo of William.

Ancestry, US Passport Applications.

William applied for another passport in 1925. This application shows that he and Luella went to the following countries between March and September 1921: France, Italy, Romania, Turkey, Greece, Germany, England, Austria and Czechoslovakia. The second application shows that he had moved on from his role at the American Red Cross, and was making motion pictures for DeForest Phonofilm Inc. The 1925 trip would take him to France and Italy.

Source: Ancestry. William E. Waddell.

In 1933, William returned from another voyage, this time arriving into New York from Latakia, Syria on 21 March 1933.

William and Luella traveled together to Havana, Cuba in 1938, returning on the SS Cuba into Key West on 25 February 1938.