I believe that Edgar J. Jones, sometimes referred to as E. James Jones is the Uncle Jim of my childhood who I sometimes heard about but never really came to know. I know that a 1928 letter reproduced in "Pathways" from George L. is addressed to: "My dear son James". Edgar James was my grandmother's brother, my grand uncle, or maybe more commonly great uncle.
Here is how far we have come from 1937. In his preface the author of "Pathways" notes that: "By using quantities of new carbon paper six copies of this book can be made. One will go to John, one to Sylvia, one to George. Will keep the original. Disposition of the other two has not been decided."
One copy to his brother, one copy to his sister, one copy to George. This George must certainly be the son of John Jones. John, the elder son of G. L. lost his wife when his son George S. was three months old. George L. and his wife raised the boy until he was 16.
So there were only six copies. I remember as a child that we had a version of "Pathways" that was a carbon copy. What exactly we had I do not know, but I do know that we had a copy. It may have been one of the original six copies or perhaps somewhere along the line someone used some more carbon paper and retyped the manuscript.
Somewhere along the line in the early 90s, probably during his "first" retirement, Jim retyped the manuscript again, this time into a modern word processor. I now have a clean copy although page numbers and page references do not always match up.
Within the next couple of months I am going to take the copy of "Pathways" that I now have and create a .pdf. "Pathways" will go digital and anyone and everyone who wants to read it will have the chance to do so.
I read it again tonight.
There is a chapter of "Pathways" entitled "Mother". Here is part:
"My contact with the Jackson's has been very limited. After a search of many years for a picture of mother I finally secured one from Mrs. Hill. I found out later I was supposed to return it. I have not done so."
Mrs. Hill? Jennie's brother Andrew Jackson had two children, the elder of whom married William Hill. Mrs. Hill would have been Jim's cousin. She had a picture of her father's sister, her aunt. Jim borrowed the picture. It was a picture of his MOTHER. It was a picture of Mrs. Hill's AUNT. He never got around to returning it.
Jim Jones was 17 months old the day his mother died. This is his description of the picture of his mother Jennie, the only picture of Jennie Jones he and any of the rest of us have ever had:
"I like to get out the picture during quiet moments and study the features. It is an oval painting, 6x8 inches, very lifelike. I do not know by whose hand it was executed, but on the back of the picture there is written the name, Dick. It is an enlargement of a tintype picture, such as Sylvia has. I should judge mother was somewhere in her thirties when this picture was taken."
"The picture shows long brown hair of fine texture, blue eyes, high and broad forehead, a straight nose and rather full lips which could smile sympathetically and understandingly. She wears a gray suit and white neckpiece, collar and tie all in one. On these features may be read refinement, intelligence, kindness, breadth of vision -- a personality anyone would be proud to claim as mother.
What do I know of her? It seems I have felt her presence -- often.
She left this world shortly after I entered it . . ."
2 comments:
Good writing. There's a lot in this -- one thought it triggered was that I wonder if Jim Jones (E. James Jones) was the James that Jim was named after. Given our parents naming paradigm, first name from Dad's family, middle from Mom's, it's possible. Also it is odd that I don't know.
I know that Sylvia Melissa was raised from infancy by her half sister Hattie, until some age when her father demanded she be returned. I don't know who raised her 17 month old brother, though Jim probably knew, and I may have heard or read it but not retained it.
It seems odd to me that Jim Jones would refer to his cousin as Mrs. Hill, but that's a minor note here. Never having a photo of his mother! The Jackson's must have had some, but he says he had little contact with them. She did die in 1883, so perhaps not many ever existed.
"It seems I have felt her presence -- often." Indeed the veil between the living and the departed is thin for some.
Thanks.
From Pathways:
The ravages of diptheria had left a sadly depleted home. John and I were the only children at home. Sylvia was with our half-sister Hattie Gage. I required so much attention, after mother died, that father could not take care of me. Recovering from diptheria by a very narrow margin, saved by the care of mother, there wasn't much left of me, and I was pretty troublesome.
I was sent to the home of Dan Harrington and wife, and they put up with my racket, helped me along on the road to health. Later, he asked the Harringtons to adopt me, but they had responsibilities and troubles enough, hence the return to the old family home and employment of a housekeeper. John must have done a good deal of foraging for himself.
Father's serious illness took place, I believe, at the home of the Harringtons, at any rate he tells of their splendid care and attention during that time.
There is too much of sadness and despair during that dark time.
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