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David M. Jones

The fact that he carried the Jones surname compels us to believe that the progenitors of David Marshall Jones (1831-1892)—paternal grandfather of Ralph Boswell Jones—emigrated from Wales (His obituary, however, states that he came from Scottish parentage.) Confirmation of the lineage of David M. Jones remains for future study. As of this writing, we know that David Jones and his parents were born in Virginia, [1] so the family’s establishment in this country likely predates 1800 and perhaps predates the American Revolution.

By August 1850 the Federal census shows that David M. Jones was living in Tuscarawas County in eastern Ohio. There he lived in the town of Uhrichsville in Mill Township. As a young single man he resided near several other young men, including an 21-year-old peddler from Germany, a 35-year-old stage driver from Massachusetts, and a 23-year-old physician from Ohio. David gave his occupation as “saddler,” and to the 1850 census enumerator he reported his age as 20 (though later censuses and other records indicate that he was probably only 18 years old). [2]  A year later, in March 1851, David married a young girl from Ohio named Martha J. Brown, [3] and ten years later David’s family had grown to five. By June 1860, David’s oldest son, Edward L. Jones, was 8 years old; his daughter, Cecilia, was 5; his son, Montford, was 3. [4]

In the early 1860s the Civil War loomed, and in the surge of patriotic fervor that swept Ohio 30-year-old David Jones left his family and enlisted for a three year term with the Ohio Volunteers. He entered the Union Army at Camp Meigs, near Canal Dover in Tuscarawas County, on September 20, 1861. [5] David served as an officer with the 51^st Infantry Regiment, and his regiment participated in many battles and skirmishes throughout the war, including Sherman’s march through Georgia. By the time he mustered out on May 22, 1865, he had been promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant. [6]

Shortly after being discharged from the Army, David moved his family across the state to Henry County, Ohio. There the Black Swamp was being drained, and land was relatively cheap. From July 1865 to February 1868 he took out short-term mortgages to buy farm acreage in Flatrock Township near the town of Napoleon. Soon after the mortgages were paid off, he sold his farm, using the proceeds to purchase a smaller property close to town. [7]

By 1870 David’s family had grown to ten, including eight children, aged six months to 18 years (five boys and three girls). [8] When the next census was taken in 1880, David was 48 years old and his family included two additional children, Mary E. and Lulu Jones. [9] The couple’s youngest boy, Walter J. Jones was born three years after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. He would one day move to Indiana and marry a Boswell girl. [10]

In addition to raising a large family, David M. Jones held a place of honor in his community. He was an officer in the local chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic and in 1876 was elected marshall of the town of Napoleon. [11] Apparently, he also had friends in the federal government: the 1880 Federal census lists his occupation as “Deputy U.S. Marshall”.

On February 28, 1892 at the age of 60 years, David M. Jones died of pneumonia in Napoleon and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery. [12]

Charles P. Boswell

Charles Parnham Boswell (1795 -1882), maternal great grandfather of Ralph B. Jones, never attended school. [13] Intelligence and initiative, however, he certainly possessed. Born in Virginia, he migrated to Pike County, Ohio (where he married Adah Chenoweth); thence to Vermillion County, Illinois; and finally in 1849 to Benton County, Indiana.[14] There he became a prosperous farmer and rancher, and the town of Boswell was named in his honor. [15] In 1852 and 1858, Parnham Boswell [16] functioned as one of three trustees for Parish Grove Township which, at that time, covered the entire western half of Benton County. [17] In fact one history describes Parnham Boswell as a “cattle baron,” one of several land speculators who purchased thousands of acres in Tippecanoe, Benton and Newton Counties. [18] In addition, Parnham employed many farm hands, and hired “drovers” who herded his fattened cattle to Chicago. [19]                    

Hiram A. Boswell

Hiram Alonzo Boswell (1845 – 1924) was the twelfth of Parnham and Adah Boswell’s thirteen children. [20] By the age of 22, Hiram and his older brother, Arthur, were “cattle hookers” in Benton County, Indiana. [21] By age 35, Hiram had married Josephine (Josie) Gay with whom he had two children, Laura and Maude. [22] Hiram also obtained some formal education, attending seminary at Battleground, Indiana, and college in Michigan. [23] In fact, one source states that he graduated from the law department of Michigan University and maintained an interest in his alma mater throughout his life.[24] The 1900 census gives his occupation as lawyer, but later censuses record him as a farmer (1910) and  “stock feeder” (1920).[25] Whether or not he formally “entered the bar,” Hiram Boswell certainly learned how to settle brawls and tie knots: he was Justice of the Peace in the town of West Point for 45 years. [26]

Hiram Alonzo Boswell’s history remains shrouded however. Dorothy Dorner Jones wrote: “somehow, sometime, Hiram disappeared and didn’t turn up until late in life when he showed up at Laura’s [his daughter's home]. She kept him until he died.”[27] We know that Hiram divorced his first wife, Josephine Gay, sometime between 1880 and 1895, and married his second wife, Sarah (Sadie) Florey, in about 1898. [28] Apparently, however, neither Benton nor Tippecanoe counties recorded Hiram’s divorce or remarriage. Perhaps he left the area; perhaps the transactions weren’t officially recognized. It is clear that Hiram and his new wife lived at the family home in West Point until Sadie died on February 15, 1923. Hiram then resided with his daughter Laura in Lafayette until his own demise the following year. [29] 

Why the mystery about Hiram? Perhaps Laura Boswell was reluctant to broadcast information about her parents’ divorce and her father’s remarriage. Laura is recorded as the informant on Hiram Boswell’s death certificate, and probably also provided details for the local newspaper obituary.[30] Strangely, that obituary in the Lafayette Journal and Courier states that Hiram was “united in marriage to Miss Josephine Gay, who preceded him in death.” [31] No mention is made of Josephine’s divorce from Hiram or the fact that his second wife also preceded him in death. Just one year before, the same newspaper had reported the death of Sadie Boswell, “wife of Hiram Boswell, veteran justice of the peace at West Point.” [32] Perhaps Laura also kept the divorce and remarriage secret from family members. As a result, Laura’s daughter-in-law, Dorothy Dorner Jones, knew only that Hiram had disappeared “somehow, sometime”. In fact, Hiram and his second wife lived in West Point, only ten miles from his daughter’s home in Lafayette.[33]

Josephine Gay Boswell

Hiram Boswell’s first wife, Josephine (Josie) Gay (1846-1910), came from a family with a distinguished history: her great grandfather, Thomas Herbert, fought for the New Jersey militia in the Revolutionary War; her grandfather, Jacob Gay, fought in the War of 1812.[34] Her parents, Samuel Gay and Eliza Reed Gay, migrated with their families from Ohio to Tippecanoe County, Indiana, where they remained throughout their lives. [35] Josephine grew to adulthood in a family of five brothers and one sister, and at age 29 became Hiram Boswell’s wife. About a year later she gave birth to Laura Boswell; two years after that, to Maude Edith Boswell.[36]

About the rest of Josie Gay Boswell’s life we know little. She was “a devoted member of the Methodist church”; was divorced from her first and only husband; and by age 64 was presiding as “head of household” over the family of Walter J. Jones, her son-in-law (in 1910, Walter’s family was living with her in Wayne Township). [37] Her obituary states that she was “a woman of pure and noble character…quiet and unassuming, yet ever ready to do a kindness.” Apparently she had been in a delicate state of health for about a year and seriously ill for the six months preceding her death. It was also said that grief about her mother’s death greatly hastened Josie’s own demise. Eliza Reed Gay, Josie’s mother, died in March 1910; Josie, in May 1910. [38]  Josie Boswell was the first of the siblings to pass away. Her death certificate states that she died of Neurasthenia—a condition marked by fatigue, loss of energy and memory, and feelings of inadequacy. [39]

Because Walter J. Jones lived in the same town as these women (even in the same house at times), Walter’s son Ralph undoubtedly knew his grandmother and great-grandmother well. Their deaths, so close together, must have been traumatic. They passed away when Ralph was only thirteen years old.

Walter Jay Jones

As noted above, Walter Jay Jones (1868 – 1919) came from a large family in Ohio. [40] As a young man he moved from northwestern Ohio, possibly Toledo, to Tippecanoe County, Indiana. [41] There, at the age of 27, he married Laura Boswell at Glen Hall, near West Point, on October 23, 1895. [42] Laura was nine years younger than Walter. The couple lived in West Point long enough to see the birth of their first son, Ralph Boswell Jones, in 1897. [43] Within three years of Ralph’s birth, the family moved to Marion in Grant County, Indiana, where they rented a residence at 1004 South Branson Street. [44] It was in Marion that Ralph’s brother, Charles W. Jones, was born on March 24, 1903. [45] The family didn’t stay long in Marion. By 1910 Walter and his family had returned to West Point, where they lived with Laura’s mother. [46] A few years later they moved again. In September 1913 Walter’s son, Ralph, started his junior year at Jefferson High School in Lafayette. [47] By 1914 the rest of the family had moved into town and purchased a home at 901 North 10^th Street. [48]

Walter Jones provided for his family by working with railroads and furnaces. Various records describe him as a railroad agent, car service agent (perhaps working for the railroads in Grant County, Indiana), and furnace agent. [49] His daughter-in-law, Dorothy Dorner Jones, said that “he installed furnaces. He was a furnace man.” [50] In fact, Walter’s probate records show that his widow, Laura, sold a diverse quantity of furnace materials to raise cash after Walter’s death. She sold two Farquar furnaces, four clay linings, four 45 degree angles, five 90 degree elbows, six joints of pipe, two register heads, 40 grate cogs, and a fourteen-by-sixteen piece of face-pressed steel—the raw materials of Walter’s trade. [51]

What kind of person was Walter J. Jones? “Active and popular in business circles,” he  “possessed a wide circle of friends in the city and throughout the county,” according to his obituary. He was a joiner, belonging to the Knights of Pythias, a local Methodist church, and other fraternal organizations. [52] In addition, Dorothy Dorner Jones remembered that he was “a quiet easy-going man. Laura Jones… ‘wore the pants’ in that family [and] Walter was a sort of ‘balance wheel’ for her.” [53]

For Walter J. Jones death came suddenly. Just before midnight on April 15, 1919, Walter succumbed to double lobar pneumonia at the family residence. [54] He was 51 years old and had been sick for only a week. [55] The shock of his death must have devastated and sobered family and friends. Walter’s son, Ralph, was serving with the army in Europe when he heard the news. Walter’s other son, 16-year-old Charles, was living at home and attending Jefferson High School. [56] Unfortunately, Laura, his widow, was left with little property. In fact, the family’s debts totaled $1,053 and their available cash, after selling off Walter’s furnace materials, amounted to only $498. [57]

Laura Boswell Jones

Like her mother, Laura Boswell Jones (1877 – 1936) left few records. She and her younger sister, Maude Edith Boswell, were born in Benton County, Indiana. [58] By 1895 18-year-old Laura had moved to West Point in Tippecanoe County and married Walter Jones. We know that Laura raised two boys, was “pretty … though quite heavy” and, apparently, “wore the pants” in Walter’s family. [59] She was also “a big woman, rather heavy, but very happy and friendly,” according to one grandson. [60] After her husband’s death, Laura never recovered financially. One granddaughter remembers that Laura “had very little to live on”. [61] 

She died 17 years after her husband’s demise, and even after the sale of her home, cash realized from Laura’s estate totaled only $1,945. She owed $2,975. As a result, her sons, Ralph and Charles, covered the difference—and inherited nothing. [62]

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