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.