Growing Up In Small Town America Part 9

 SANTA ROSA ROUNDUP

Because of E. Paul Waggoner's love of the western ranch life and his desire to preserve the history and color of the early West, he built the Santa Rosa Roundup on 160 acres, just south of Vernon in 1946, holding the first roundup rodeo that year. The historic facility still uses the same wooden chutes to release bulls and bucking broncs. Kicking off the historic rodeo is the massive mile long downtown parade consisting of floats, bands, riding clubs, local celebrities and misc. entries. This was huge in my life.  School was turned out early for the parade and people from all over that part of the country would participate in this grand parade. My pappy rode his quarter horse, Ginger, in the Santa Rosa parade, and later when Bryan was old enough, he would ride alongside Pappy on a horse called Paint.        

                                         

Bryan’s square-dancing group also participated in the parade, performing in front of the courthouse.

Bryan is just beyond the girl in the blue dress coming around the circle.

Bryan's back is to the camera, holding hands with the girl in the navy dress.

The Santa Rosa Roundup was a huge Rodeo, drawing from some of the nation’s best as participants and performers. Daddy sometimes had a hand in getting the entertainment lined up. I have a picture of Daddy with Festus, and when I went off to college, I brought home friends one year to see Tanya Tucker perform. Daddy always purchased a box, front and center. Mimi and Pappy would come, and we would all go to the rodeo together. Daddy was in charge of the rodeo programs, printing them from his print shop that was connected to the Newspaper office. Each night after the rodeo ended, Daddy would bring home bags of change from the sales of the program. It was a thrill to help him separate all the coins, so that he could account for the profits from the sales of the program.

                              

Carolita Quillin with her parents, Ava and J.C.Jones                    Nancy and Paula Quillin 

                            Bryan selling the programs.

As with any large inheritance, it’s that third generation that cannot hold it together. In the late 1990s, the adult Waggoner kids couldn’t agree on what to do with the estate. In January 2004, a story in Texas Monthly covered "The Showdown at the Waggoner Ranch." The story concerns the saga of Texas’s second largest ranch and its shambles of an inheritance left by W.T Waggoner to his descendants. It’s a history of a sliver of Texas’s elite, how they made their money and how they, often scandalously, spent their time. The Waggoner Ranch was eventually sold to Stan Kroenke from Montana, husband of Ann Walton, heir to Walmart. Thank goodness they have kept the Ranch as a working ranch. It was during this time period that Bryan’s daughter married a working Waggoner Ranch cowboy. 

Growing Up In Small Town America Part 8

 WAGGONER RANCH

The Waggoner Ranch - Western Horseman

Growing up in the shadow of the Waggoner Ranch had a huge impact. The Ranch is just south of Vernon, established in 1852 by Dan Waggoner and his son, W.T. They began with 230 longhorn cattle and some horses. In 1873, W.T. conducted a cattle drive up the Western Trail to Kansas and returned with $55,000 seed money to begin an empire. From 1889 to 1903, they acquired land in Wichita, Wilbarger, Foard, Knox, Baylor and Archer Counties, spanning more than a million acres covering 798 sq miles. They had an impact on all of that area. The W.T. Waggoner Estate was formed and they struck oil in 1902. It is the largest ranch under one fence in the U.S., the size of a small nation, second largest ranch after the King Ranch. The Waggoner family was known worldwide and were a rich and famous family. W.T.’s daughter Electra built a mansion called Zacaweista.

When I was 5 years old, my lollypop teacher (that was a kindergarten before it was mandated) was Mozelle McCarty. Her husband Hershel was the assistant purchasing agent for the Ranch. Mother and Daddy were friends with them, and I remember taking Sunday drives on the expansive ranch. Dean Raines, the dad of my high school boyfriend, worked as the head carpenter at Zacaweista.

W. T. Waggoner raised Quarter Horses and his son, E Paul Waggoner, purchased a brown quarter horse stallion Poco Bueno that became famous in his own rite as the grand champion stallion in the 1940s at 5 different shows. When he died, he was buried in a standing position in a grave across from the ranch entrance. E. Paul was recognized as outstanding breeder of quarter horses in America.

Family History Written by son of Malinda Ewing Jones

 Dillard Ewing Jones Family history 1800-1922

 
The following is the family history written by John Newton Jones, son of Malinda Ann Ewing Jones and Robert Jones. It apparently was a type written version of the letter and typed by a grandson of Robert Jones. The name at the bottom is J.G.Gubage from Oklahoma City, OK.
 
These are the words of John Newton Jones, Texas Ranger at one time. One can never dismiss the words of a person who lived back in that time…but…this history was gleaned from and acquaintance of John Newton Jones, old man McDay who was 80 years old at the time. This is not my direct line but certainly gives credence to the daughter Malinda Ewing Jones and her husband, Robert Jones. They are the ones that settled our James Ewing, Jr.’s estate many years after his death. I will not edit the typos.
 

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"Well, according to request, I will write what I know of the early hisptory of the Jones Family. I came to Texas in the Fall of 1853 and stayed till the summer of 1857, and while in Texas, in Bastrop Cpounty, I got acquainted with an old man by the name of McDay that was the rise of 80 years old that claimed to be raised by my Grandfahter. He said he was bound to him when he was 8 years old and stayed with him till he was 21. He told me more than I ever heard about the Jones Family, and when I got back to Arkansas Grandmother was alive and she said he had given me a true history of the Family.
 
He said my Great-Grandfather was a Welshman and a military man under the English Governenment and was put over a portion of the Irish that was about to rebel and was so lenient with them there was charges preferred against him, and he deserted and came to America some time before the Revolutionary War. When the War came up my Great-grandfather (John Jones,1st) was living in Charleston, S.C., where my Grandfather (Andrew Jones) was born. Fearing that he would fall into the hands of the English, Great-grandfather went into the mountains of North Carolina and died there. When Daniel Boone moved his family to Kentucky, my Grandfather came with him, and my father (Robert Jones) was born there--somewhere in Kentucky.
 
Grandfather was in several Indain fights with Boone. He lived there a few years--till 1811--then moved to Alabama and settled where the town of Tuscaloosa is now, and cleared out a farm there. There were eight families of them. It was forty miles to the nearest white settlement. He fought the Indians all up and down the Black Warrior River and was Captain of the Militia. He then moved to West Tennessee then to Mississippi (1831), and died there before the Chickasaw Indians left there (1837).
 
Grandfahter and 12 children, 6 boys and 6 girls. The boys were Elijah, John A., Robert (my father), Willis, Abraham and Jolly. Uncle John once represented Tippah County, (Mississippi) in the Legislature. He died on the Saline River in Arkansas (near Benton) on a return trip from Mississippi to his home near Alpine, Arkansas. Uncle Willie represented Pike, Polk, and Montgomery counties in the Arkansas Stat Senate. (This seems to be an error as the Report of the Arkansas Secretary of State shows Willis Jones as a Representative from Pike County, but not as Senator- - -J.G.C) He died at Little Rock, Ark. while a Major in the 4th U.S. Cavalry Regiment.
 
I don't think my father (Robert Jones) ever held any office. He had very little education. He had ten children, 5 boys and 5 girls. The boys were Alfred, Willis C., John N. Joseph and Robert.
 
My grandmother on my father's side was a Box (Rebecca) and several years younger than Grandfather. McDay said he lived with Grandfather several years before he married, and that Grandmother was of a very aristocratic and wealthy family and the family was opposed to Grandfather.
 
My mother was a Ewing. They were English (probably Scotch-Irish)), settled first in Virginia, then went to Middle Tennessee. Her father was a first cousin to Finis Ewing, the founder of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Mother had four half-brothers-John, Reuben, James and William Ewing, and one own brother, Alfred Ewing. They fought through the war of 1812. Reuben once ran for Governor of Illinois, but was beaten. James died at the Alamo, in Texas, with Crockett. Uncle William Ewing died in Arkansas, near Curtis.
 
Alfre Ewing died near Elm, Arkansa. My Mother lived to be very old. She only lacked from 5th of March to the 10th of May of being 96 years old. (Born May 10, 1806). Died March 5, 11902. She was buried at Dallas, Polk County, Arkansas.
 
I will state here that brother Alfred was on of the most moral boys I ever saw in my life. His great aim was to do right and learn all he could. He got every book on history he could and idled no time away. A many a load of pine knots have I helped to carry up for him to study by while the rest of us were romping around fooling off our time. I have often wished I was a sgood a man as he and had the same control over my temper and had that forgiving spirit.
 
I will give a brief sketch of my up ans downs-- and down a heap oftener than up. I ran away from home, came to Texas in 1851, when I was only 16 years old, stayed one year, then went home-Point Cedar, Ark., then came back to Texas, stayed three years. Went into Ranger Service. Went on to the frontier and was in company with the wildest men in the Nation. When mustered out I traveled with Gen. Sam Houston when he ran for Governor of Texas in 1857. While in the United States Senate he had voted against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. He said this was the best vote he ever cast in his life, for the repeal of it made war inevitable between the states at no distant day, and he would go on and tell us what would be the final issue of the war. The South would be subjugated and the Negroes would be free. I heard him make seven speeches, and as I regaed him as the smartest man I ever had seen, when Secession came up I did evrything I could against it. I tell this to show why I opposed the war.
 
I have been married three times. I first married Miss Jane Box. We had two children. One died in infancy. The girl lived to be grown and married a man by the name of Swanner. They have four boys living, all born in Texas. Two are farming, one in the cattle business in Arizona. Two are unmarried.
 
I next Married Mrs. Mary Dedwiley. No children by her. She only lived seven months--got a fall from a horse that caused her death. She was buried in St. John's Cemetery in Little Rock, Arkansas.
 
I next married Miss Ann Campnell in Pike County, Arkansas. We had seven children living to be grwon. The oldest is Joseph Wilson Jones, born in Pike County, Arkansas, Dec. 23, 1866. The next a girl born in Pike Copunty, Ark.m Jan. 15, 1868. Malinda was born Oct. 30, 1870 in Texas. Jolly was born in July 1874. Josie was born in Texas, Sept. 9, 1876. Angeline was born in Texas, August 19, 1879. Wilson never married. He lives near Goliad, Texas. Owns a farm. Elida Ledufan married R. M. Parrish. They have nine children, six boys and three girls all grown but one. Oldest boy, 30 years old, is a farmer, owns a good farm. Next, a girl, married a man by the name of Garrett. They own a farm. A girl named Atoka lives in Florida. Chester and Omer are farmers, owns good farms. Otto, Joe and Creed are school boys. The youngest is a girl named Berlin, 12 yrears old. All were born in Texas.
 
Mainda married J.C. Garrett. They have five childre, two boys and three girls. James, 30, and WAl;ter, 28 are farmers in New Mexico. Annie, 33, married a man named Stephens. Maimie married a man named Martem, a farmer. Lila is teaching school, owns land in New Mexico. Jolly has three girls and a boy, Henry Jones. He lives in Calahan County, opwns a farm. The three girls live here -(Cone, Tex._ Angeline had two boys and one girl. James Alonzo Campbell, 25 served with the Military two years. One year in France. He now owns a farm near Carlsbad New Meico. He married Mittie Smith last June. Samuel Augustus Campbell is a bookkeeper in Duncan, Olka. Madccan is attending the Christian University at Enid, Okla.
 
This leaves me in tolerable health. I m expecting to go to Goliad in October. So with best regards, I wil close.
 
(Signed) J. N. Jones
  
P.S.
 
At the proper place I forgot to tell about my Grandfather's (Andrew Jones) brothers. He had two brothers, John & Jolly. John never married. (This is probably the John Jones who died near Smithland, KY. in 1811 (J.G.G.) Jolly went with Grandfather to Alabama and stayed there. He represented his country in the Legislature. He held some office all his life. As for my brothers and sisters, they areknown to you people there better than to me. I wrote a sketch of my life and my war record but have never had it published.
 
With my best compiments to all ,
 I will close,
 
J. N. Jones
 
Comment: It had been supposed that the original John Jones died in KY in 1811. From this letter it would appear this was the son of the first John Jones. Daniel Boon's family came to KY. in 1775 and again in 1780/ Jones probably came on the first trip. J. G. G.
 
NOTE: apparently this was a type written version of the letter and was typed by
 
J. G. Gubage 508 E. Park Place Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (grandson of Robert Jones)

Dillard & Ewing Family Diagram

 There are so many connections between these two families. I began to diagram these connections. I am not positive about all of the Dillards listed above Ladovsey....but research done from others seems to make this very plausible. 

I am also finding the WRIGHT family name mingled in...here and there -- as well as the SPROUL SPROWL FAMILY.