Martin Frank Jones - His Blog Part 5

 His Blog - His Words

GRANDDAD’S LIFE PART 5     Posted on November 3, 2012 by Martin Jones

The Great Depression came along and times became very hard for everyone. I can’t remember if it started before or after the janitor’s job at the school. But I remember that my granddaddy had to apply and get on the WPA. This was a work project that the federal government paid workers to do public work. I think they got $21.00 per month. They worked doing things like building schools, bridges, roads and highways. And even building out houses. The out houses were state of the art things with a pit dug under a concrete floor, with a nice seat with a lid and a vent pipe out through the roof. Along about this time daddy moved in a little 2 room house onto the back of our lot for my grandparents to live in. They continued to live there until around 1950, when granddaddy died. When he died, daddy moved the little house up closer to his house, and grandmother lived there until daddy retired and moved to Crowell. Even then he moved this little house to Crowell and put it on a lot close to his house. Grandmother lived there with my mother mostly taking care of her for several years, until my sister Faye and Bill moved to Canadian, Texas to be a game warden. They had a house next door to mother and daddy. Then Grandmother moved into their house and lived there until she was moved into a nursing home in Abilene, where her daughter Lucy lived. She died there around 1984. I think that she was about 90 years old.

Martin Frank Jones - His Blog Part 4

 His Blog - His Words 

GRANDDADS LIFE PART 4      Posted on October 8, 2012 by Martin Jones

Grandmother was a really demanding person. Granddaddy pampered her and did most of the housework. I always considered her to be a hypochondriac. She seemed to always have something the matter with her. It is a good thing that she had granddaddy because no other man would have put up with her. She however had a lot of friends among the women of the community. She always managed to have one in particular who lived in a nice brick house on a farm at the edge of town. Her name was Maggie Hammonds, and she was real good to grandmother. They regularly went pea picking at various farms. My sisters called her a trapester. (Someone who is always running around taking care of others business).

My sisters did not get along too well with Grandmother. But they always tried to get by her house when she had made tea cakes. She was the tea cake making queen. I remember there was a strict limit of one per kid. She seemed to have her favorites. One reason for this I think was that the other grandkids did not have as much as we always had. But I think that I was one of her favorites, and she was extra nice to me. If I needed a little petting, she was the one.

Daddy had built a little barn and corral (lot) on the back of the lot, and granddaddy continued keeping a milk cow there. I came to know my granddaddy and was real fond of him. He was not an outgoing man, but he loved his family and he loved me. I do not ever recall him having a car. I don’t think he ever even drove one. He must have either walked or used horses and a wagon for transportation. But that was before I knew much about him.

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.

Martin Frank Jones - His Blog Part 2

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GRANDDAD’S ROOTS PART2   Posted on September 12, 2012 by Martin Jones

My great grandfather’s name was Martin E.B. Jones. He was the son of a Martin Jones who was born in 1816, who also was the son of a Martin Jones born sometime in the Late 1700’s. My great grandfather’s mother was Keziah Busby. She was born 1812. My great grandfather was born in 1845. His father died young in his 30’s. I also know that Keziah Jones borrowed money after her husband died. They lived somewhere around Tennessee, Georgia, or Alabama. I do know that he married a woman named Manerva Busby in Tennessee in 1867. I also know that after he married Manerva that they went to Oklahoma to be missionaries to the Indians.

Martin E.B. Jones and his wife Manerva started and raised a fairly large family. My Grandfather, Martin Harmon Jones was born in 1874. There were two more sons. John E. Jones and Burwell Walter Jones. There were also four daughters: Mary Keziah, Martha Catherine, Nancy Jane, and Martha Elizabeth. I think that it is interesting to note that one of their daughters was named after her grandmother, Keziah. I do not know much about my great grandfather, Martin E.B. I was told by my father that my grandfather was born in the area around Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. My dad told me that he someday hoped to carry his father back to where he was born and grew up. That opportunity never developed. I have a feeling that all of the children of Martin E.B. were born in the area mentioned above. This is information that I wish I had gotten from my grandfather when I had the chance. Things of that nature have a tendency not to be important to young ones. One thing that I do know is that my great grandfather came to the area of southern Oklahoma to be a missionary to the Indians there. My dad told me that his wife Minerva was half Indian. Her dad was white.

It is apparent that when Martin E.B. came to Oklahoma that his wife and all his children came with him. Piecing information together that I remember and have been told, I think they were all grown. Most of them settled in the north central part of Texas just across the Red River from Oklahoma. Evidently none of them were married when they came west. At least two sets of brothers and sisters from the Joneses and Bridgeses married. This resulted in a bunch of double cousins with Jones and Bridges last names. I know that Burwell Jones settled and married and raised his family in Oklahoma. He became County Judge for many years there. I wish I knew the county and city. Martin Harmon, my grandfather, and one or two of the sisters ended up in and around Vernon, Hardeman County, Texas. Martin Harmon settled at Thalia, Foard County, Texas, which is about thirty miles west of Vernon. I am not aware of where the others were. except one of the girls that married one of the Bridges ended up at Rotan, Texas.

The main thing that I know about my great grandfather is that he spent several years as missionary to the Indians. I think that the family was fairly close knit as most families were in that time of American History. They kept in contact with each other. Of course, my knowledge of them was in the latter years of their lives. When I began to know them, the automobile had come into wide use. Most of them were still within a radius of what I would estimate 200 miles. I did not learn much about what each family did for a living. But I remember thinking at the time they all seemed to be well off compared to my grandfather. I will discuss my grandfather in more detail later. I will also discuss more about my great grandfather after he was no longer working with the Indians, and lived probably in Vernon, and later around Thalia, with my grandfather. I wish I could remember which great grandparent died first. They are buried in the Crowell, Texas cemetery. Their death dates must be around 1928.
To be continued on the next blog.

Martin Frank Jones - His Blog

 His Words...His Blog

Family Memoirs by Martin Jones

HOPPING ON THE MEDIA TRAIN     Posted on August 26, 2012 by Martin Jones

Over nearly 87 years of living, I have had many ideas of how people and I should live. Personally, I have made many mistakes that I don’t like to think about. I wish foresight was as effective has hindsight. For over thirty years now I have had a computer and have saved many of my thoughts as documents on my computer. Some I sent to the editor, and had several things published. Many of course were rejected.

I have opened the blog at the urging of some of my grandchildren. They are really into Facebook so I will share most of my blogs on Facebook. Stay tuned.

Granddad’s Roots part 1   Posted on September 5, 2012 by Martin Jones

ANCESTRY
I know that my great, great grandfather Martin Jones was born in 1816. He died at a relative young age. I know that he was married to Keziah Busby, and I know that they had one son named Martin E.B. Jones. Somewhere along the line I learned that they were also raising another boy, adopted or otherwise, named Charles McCloud. I have no idea what relation the boy was to them. Evidently Martin E.B., my Great Grandfather considered him as his brother.

Getting to this point in trying to trace my roots required putting pieces of the puzzle together. Man how I wish that when my grandfather was alive I had gotten him to relate to me his roots and I had put them down. I did not get to know my great grandfather. As a very young child I remember one thing about him. My grandfather lived on a sandy land farm north of Thalia, Foard County, Texas. As far back as I can remember there was a whole nest full of Joneses living in and around Thalia. It seems that a bunch of them had gathered at the farm one day. A very traumatic experience causes me to remember it. I could not have been more than three or four years old. There was a huge rooster around and he attacked me. Looking back now I am glad that it happened. My great grandfather got that overgrown bird off me. Had it not been for this attack I would not have ever been able to say that I remember my great grandfather. It is the only thing I remember about him. I can even almost see him in my mind.

Martin Frank Jones - His Christianity

 This is the completion of what Martin Frank Jones wrote about his convictions:

I find it interesting and amazing to follow the way God used Abraham’s descendants through Isaac, Jacob (whose name was changed to Israel), Moses, David (king of the nation of Israel), all the way down to Jesus. Jesus was the son of God. God’s Spirit came to a virgin named Mary, and she conceived by God’s spirit and God’s son Jesus was born. Jesus proclaimed God’s plan and made the sacrifice to pay for the sins of all who come to trust and believe that Jesus is the son of God. The Gospel of Jesus Christ which to me is found in a nutshell Called John 3:16. We are told in more than one place in the Bible that Christ stood as a lamb slain before the earth was created. To me that tells us that all people of all time have been saved because they believed that somehow God would forgive their sins through their faith that God would provide a sacrifice for their sins.

To explain more fully what I believe about the future of the church we will look again at what Jesus himself said about it. When the time drew near for Jesus to be crucified and the soldiers came to arrest he asked his disciples what the people were saying about Him. They replied that people thought that he was one of the Old Testament prophets who had come back. He then asked the disciples who they thought he was. Peter replied and said that he was the Christ the Son of the living God. Jesus indicated that God Himself had revealed that to Peter, and the other disciples. I think that Jesus as the Christ declared that it was upon the fact that He was the Son of the Living God that he would build his church, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against the church. This means that it is important for the world to understand that the devil nor any other force will be able to destroy the church. I have already established that Christ’s Church is made up of believers in him as savior. There are some people who believe that the believers who are Christians are infidels and deserve to be exterminated. We see evidence of this in many places of the world. But I have news for them. The church will still be around when Jesus returns, every knee will bow and confess him as King. I do not understand what the last days will be like, but I believe that if we are believers in Jesus, we will be on the winning side. We are told that Jesus will take the church as his bride to reign with Him for eternity.

Life after death

Posted on August 10, 2012 by Martin Jones

I believe there is life after this life. I base my belief upon the fact that I believe in a living God.

The life that we will experience after this life will be spiritual, much as God is spiritual. It will be an eternal (never ending) life in Heaven with believers in God, or in hell with those who do not believe in God, that the word of God describes as an unending death that is described as a lake of fire.

There is no way for me to understand what either of these lives will be like. But I place my faith in a living God that forgives my sin that deserves an eternal death in hell, and gives me Grace and Mercy because I believe that God is God and is able to deliver me from the terrible death that I deserve.

I believe all this is possible because God the Father sent his Son into this world to pay the penalty for my sin through my faith in Him.

Martin Jones

Honoring Martin Frank Jones - His Christianity Continued

I am breaking up his long post. This is a continuation from yesterday.

Christianity Here to Stay – Martin Jones

Posted on August 10, 2012 by Martin Jones

It is impossible for me to understand just what happened during the three days Christ’s body lay in the grave, but I have put my faith and trust Christ’s ability to defeat natural death, eternal death, the devil, hell, and arise in victory so that I may have the same victory of eternal life in Heaven. Another thing that is beyond my understanding is the fact that Christ paid even for the sins of those who do not accept him as their savior. For me to pay for my sins on my own, would require me to spend an eternity in hell, and Christ suffered and paid for that penalty for not only me but for everyone who has ever lived. I do not understand it but I believe it and have placed my faith in Christ as the Son of God and believe that all things are possible for Him.

The New Testament tells us that God has always had a plan for mankind even before ha created the earth. Christ stood as a lamb slain before the foundation of the earth. We learn in Genesis that God created man in his own image. That means that we have a soul, which means that we are like God in that our spirit will never die. He allowed Adam to choose his own destiny. Adam could choose to serve God and not sin or listen to the devil and disobey God and be cast from the Garden of Eden. God’s penalty for sinning has always been an eternity in hell. But again Gods plan for man has always been for man to have forgiveness for his sin by believing in Jesus. Again we see this in God’s plan in a nut shell, so to speak, which is “FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHALL NOT PERISH BUT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. I believe that there comes a time in an individual's life called the age of accountability when he must decide to either accept Jesus as his savior or not.

When Adam sinned, it is clear to me that the bible teaches that he became dead in his sins. It also meant that the human side of Adam must die. We know this is true because we all at some time will die physically. And to overcome the spiritual death we must be born again. By some mysterious way God causes that to happen when we accept Jesus as our savior.

We know from the bible that sometime after God created man that mankind had become so involved in sin that God even wished that he had not even created man. This happened in the time of Noah. I have no idea of how long it was form Adam to Noah. But God decided to save a remnant and he instructed Noah to build an ark in which Noah and his family were saved from the flood that God sent upon the world and destroyed all except those on the ark. A remnant was saved and God again started over to save Himself a Kingdom. I have no idea how many were saved before God started over again with Abraham. I understand more about God’s plan after Abraham because of stories in the Old Testament. God promised Abraham descendants comparable of the grains of sand. That’s a lot. We are still in that era of time.

Abraham and his wife Sara were promised a son. In their old age they still did not have a son, so they decided to help God along and they arranged for Abraham to have a son by Sara’s maid Hagar. That son was named Ishmael. God rejected that son and Sara conceived at an old age and had a son named Isaac.