A Dusty Old Trunk

 I did not see the trunk. Martin Frank Jones's children cleared his belongings when he moved to assisted living. They gave me the remnants of items left from the old trunk. These pictures are taken from the website listed below.

            

When Grandpa Dies, His Grandson Finds A Forgotten Family Heirloom Hidden In The Garage

A Dusty Old Trunk

Belonged to MEB Jones 

Many of us have found ourselves in the position of clearing out the old family homestead where we discovered a dusty old trunk buried deep in the recesses of the home.  If only the trunk could speak, we could learn so much history of its being. We eagerly open it to find the treasures within and then the guessing game begins as we search for clues to family history.  Most of the time these trunks have fallen into the hands of the nearest relatives and continue to be passed down to someone who “cares” for it. Along the way, things are discarded or given away. Such is the case of MEB’s old dusty trunk.

I had been told for years by my uncle Martin Frank Jones that he had in his possession an old trunk belonging to MEB Jones. Martin Frank had received it from Martin Harmon Jones, probably found in JC Jones’ (son of Martin Harmon) belongings when JC passed away.
 
Martin Frank had always told me that he had this trunk but it was buried deep in the back of his shed. He said that it held old papers, including a few very old slips of paper belonging to Martin Jones (b 1816) and Keziah which would date back to 1842. These slips of paper would be the reason that Martin Frank believed there was even another Martin Jones beyond our Martin Jones 1816. (However, I don’t find any clues from those papers that suggest this.) When Martin Frank was eventually placed in assisted living, his children cleared his home and cleaned out that old shed in his backyard. They were quick to turn over the remaining items to me. 
 
I have no idea what the actual trunk looked like (they did not take a picture), but I can only imagine that it would be a flat top trunk because during the Victorian age somewhere around 1870, people began to travel by carriage, wagon, ships or trains. The most common of those trunks during that age would be the flat top trunk. MEB and Minerva used this trunk to move their family westward from Alabama to Texas in 1884. 
 
Things deteriorate over the years, much of which is discarded, but I received what survived in this old trunk. It is a very few items that I feel honored to have in my possession. In the next few posts in this blog, I will share these items with you.