The 6th Generation – The
Ohio Quakers Multiply and Prosper
Harvey & Rachel Hunt Jones … Harvey & Mary Thompson Richardson
Jones
The 6th Generation – The Ohio Quakers Multiply and Prosper
Harvey & Rachel Hunt Jones … Harvey & Mary Thompson Richardson Jones
Harvey Harrison Jones was born in the village of Laura, Union Township, Miami County OH in 1824, the third of seven children born to Jesse and Jane Cothern Jones. Three of his siblings died before the age of three, leaving brothers Alexander (1818-1900), William (1825-?), and Alvin (1835-1913). After his mother died in September 1836, his father married Naomi Tucker a year later in October 1837, and with her had two more children, Jane (1838-1861) and Mary (1840-1905).
Harvey was a prosperous farmer and a devout Quaker. He married twice and had nine children, six surviving into adulthood. When his first wife, Rachel Hunt Jones, died in 1869 Harvey was 45 and left with six children ranging in age from 19 to 3 years old. After a traditional year of mourning he married again in 1870, a widow with three half-grown children. Combining the two households was very much in keeping with Quaker traditions and with Harvey's own personal family background.
Harvey Jones 1824-1893 and Rachel Hunt Jones 1826-1869
The following is an excerpt from "The History of Miami County, Ohio" Chicago: W. H. Beers & Co., 1880 - Submitted to Genealogy Trails by Norita Shepherd Moss. http://genealogytrails.com/ohio/miami/bios.html
"HARVEY JONES
Newton Township: HARVEY JONES, farmer; Post Office Laura; one of the early
settlers; born in 1823 in Union Township; is a son of Jesse Jones, one of the
pioneers, who was born in Georgia April 15, 1794; he (Jesse) is the son of Samuel and
grandson of Francis Jones of North Carolina. Samuel raised eleven children, all
of whom became heads of families, Jesse being the only surviving member.
Harvey and Rachel Hunt Jones had nine children together and six survived to adulthood. Eunice, Susanna, Lambert, Albert, Rollin K., Mary, Lossen/Lawson, Ellsworth, and Jane. (Eunice, Susanna and Lossen died in childhood.)
I have been unable to find anything about Rachel's parents or background except the above excerpt from "The History of Miami County", the first Jones wife who has eluded my efforts. It makes me doubt that she came from a Quaker family, but perhaps from one of the earliest non-Quaker pioneer families.
Rachel's being described as a "consistent Christian" - a term sometimes used in Quaker Monthly Meeting notes when considering a person for membership - could have vouched for her piety, but would not necessarily have meant that she was a Quaker or that her family lived in strict accordance with traditional Quaker rules. The influx of non-Quaker farmers into the area and the establishment of a "Christian Church" in Laura (by now a village) largely - but not exclusively - populated by Friends, probably meant that there was more social and business interaction with non-Quakers and a loosening of some of the more constricting traditional rules and regulations of the Quaker faith.
Harvey Jones 1824-1893 and Mary Thompson Richardson 1830-1907
Excerpt from "The history of Miami County, Ohio" continues ...
His second wife, Mrs. Mary (Thompson) Richardson, was a native of Darke Co., and the widow of Josiah Richardson, who enlisted in the 69th, O.V.I., was fatally wounded near Georgia, taken to the hospital at Nashville, Tenn., where he died. Mr. and Mrs. Jones take a deep interest in the cause of religion, both being members of the Christian Church at Laura..."
When Harvey married Mary Thompson Richardson in 1870, he was 46 and she was 40. Mary had three children still at home. They had no children together.
They were together for the next 23 years. Harvey died in 1893 at the age of 68 and Mary lived until 1907. There is nothing in the narrative to indicate whether Mary was a Quaker by birth, but the fact that her first husband had served in the US Army would indicate that he had not been a practicing Quaker.
The Christian Church at Laura (Miami County OH) is designated as non-denominational, but at that time was supported and attended largely by members of the Society of Friends.
PERSONAL REMARK: From existing photos, Rollin, his son Roscoe and Roscoe's son Jesse Hayworth all appear remarkably similar - tall, athletically built with very straight posture, handsome even features and premature baldness. My father, Jesse, was sensitive about his baldness and wore a hat almost all the time, indoors and out. He was known for his large collection of hats, especially berets. In the final years of his life he wore a beret even to bed.
Life in Rural Ohio in the Mid Eighteen Hundreds
The extended Jones Quaker family, which had settled in this part of southwestern Ohio between 1800-1805, were within a decade spread over several counties and had established farmsteads, villages, townships, and counties.
They endured the same hardships of pioneer life as all other non-Quakers suffered during the time of the Great Trek west - backbreaking work, illness, disease, lack of sanitation and little or no medical assistance. However, the customs and traditions of the close knit Quaker "simple" way of life may have protected them from many of the perils of early pioneer life in Ohio, and may account for the remarkable expansion and success of the Quakers as a group in Ohio.
n 1850, in Miami County OH, the most common causes of death were: cholera, flux, scarlet fever, measles, whooping cough, lung fever, dysentery, diarrea, typhoid fever, and consumption. Cholera and flux were the most common.
Quaker communities were highly organized, and family alliances were carefully maintained. The Elders of the Monthly Meetings, both men and women, regulated education of the children, marriage (and remarriage) of all ages, recorded births, deaths and marriages, and regulated a strict moral dicipline over all their members.
Quaker life was built around land and farming, but every Quaker settlement would include also a blacksmith, a miller, a doctor or medical practitioner of sorts (either male or female) who was an expert on herbs and plants used to treat illnesses, and a network of midwives to assist at births. Knowledge was passed on from father to son and mother to daughter, along with a strong sense of obligation to serve the community.
The self isolation of the earliest Quaker settlers may also have protected them from many transient diseases, but as the communities prospered they became more open to what was happening in the non-Quaker world around them and became in more social contact with non-Quakers.
This was the home of Alvin Jones (1835-1913), youngest son of Jessie Jones (1794-1888), and his wife Mary Ann Walker Jones (1836-1917). After the death of his third wife, Betsy, in 1883, Jessie lived here until his death in 1888 at age 94. [The photo taken between 1900-1904 when Alvin was around 64 and Mary Ann around 60.]