Martin Frank Jones - His Blog Part 3

 His Blog - His Words

GRANDAD’S LIFE PART 3    Posted on October 3, 2012 by Martin Jones

FOURTH & FIFTH GENERATIONS OF MARTIN JONES

Martin Harmon Jones, my grandfather, fourth generation, was born April 12, 1874. I refer to him as the fourth generation with reservations. I have never found any evidence that there was a Martin Jones ahead of the one’s that I have named. He married Mattie Bell Bridges, born May 5, 1878. They lived for some time around the area of Denton, Texas which is just south of the Red River from Oklahoma. They had four boys and one girl. The boys were: William Albert, Joe Carroll, Hugh Springfield, and George Truitt. The girl’s name was Lucy Catherine It is interesting to note that my grandfather did not name any of his sons Martin. I know that this had not happened since the early 1800’s. I know that my father was born somewhere around Denton. So it is fair to assume that William Albert was also born there. I am not sure about Hugh, George, and Lucy. I do know that Lucy was not much older than me.

My grandfather always seemed old to me. I am sure that I seem old to my grandkids also. When we were kids 40 seemed old. I don’t ever remember my grandfather having teeth. He had the toughest gums I ever saw. My grandmother did have some store-bought teeth. I do remember one time later in granddaddy’s life, he got some what he called store bought teeth, but he hated them and never wore them. He was the hardest working man I ever knew. I have no idea how much schooling he had, but he had a little, because I know that he was not illiterate. He probably got what schooling he had back where he was born. His nick name was “Farmer Jones”. In his younger days, he was a sharecropper. Always working someone else’s land. Most of the farms were north of Thalia in what we called the sandy land. South of Thalia, a little ways east, and west all the way to Crowell, was what we called tight land. It was covered with mesquite. Most of it in the early 1900’s probably sold for around two dollars per acre. I say all this to illustrate the environment that my grandfather came into.

The Thalia community, when I came along, was really quite a bustling little town. I remember it that way. There were three thriving churches. There was a nice school. I remember that at one time there were three grocery stores. There were three gas stations. There was 2 barber shops. (no beauty shops in those days). There was a dry goods store, a large mechanics garage, a lumber yard, and two cotton gins, and more. When highway 70 became paved, Thalia really began to thrive.

But my grandfather never took advantage of the thriving economy. He kept sharecropping. He worked himself to death working for $1.00 a day grubbing out the mesquite trees on land that enterprising men were buying for $2.00 per acre. I know this because my dad talked about his frustration over why his father never took any chances and was content working like he did. My dad bought a two-room house in Thalia that our family lived in for several years. After we moved out, Granddaddy and Grandmother lived in it. This is about the period of time that I really begin to remember my grandparents. By this time Granddaddy got a job as janitor at the school. The school was about two hundred yards from his house. I remember helping him after school sweep and clean up the school. It was not a daily thing, but I liked to do it occasionally.