Marriage of Charles H. and Rachel A. Jones

With a surname like Jones, someone new to genealogy could have more than his or her share of difficulty sorting through the available information.  Fortunately for all of us, I am not the first "Jones" to be interested in our family's history.  Were it not for the records provided by Lillian Mears, granddaughter of Alexander and Elizabeth, and additional records kept by my Aunts, Edith and Margaret Ann, my task would have been much more difficult.

In 1978, Lillian wrote a letter to Edith summarizing what she knew about the family.  She included information about the marriage of Charles and Rachel and the baptismal information for their three children.  Here are scanned copies of parts of her letter:

Mr. Charles Henry Jones and Rachel Wainright were married at the Emmanuel Episcopal Church by the Rev. H. O. Waller 1-25-1882.  


Children:
Mary Edith born 10-29-1882 Sunday P.M. in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Baptized in spring of 1884 by Rev. 
Waller.  


Charles Fredrick Jones born October 15, 1884 Thursday A.M. in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Baptized March 1885 by Rev. James Foster.  Died August 19, 1968 buried at Walnut Hills Cemetery (Victory Parkway).

Leo Wainright Jones born February 28, 1887
Baptized 5-6-1888 by Rev. Leo Bendit.




We are so lucky that Lillian kept these records because the original marriage record was lost in the Court House fire of 1884. There was only one published announcement of their marriage published in the Cincinnati Freie Press on January 26, 1882, p. 4.  This announcement was also noted in Volume 2 of the Restored Hamilton Co. Marriages, 1870-1884.  This book was compiled by Jeff Herbert and is published by Heritage Press.  Note that the announcement was in the German newspaper of the time.

Since so much of the family history of this generation seemed to revolve around Emanuel Episcopal Church, I just had to see what I could find out.  The next post will discuss my discoveries.

Occupations of Charles Henry Jones

Charles Henry Jones

City Directories can be compared to phone books without phone numbers. We are fortunate in Cincinnati because the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County has digitized and put online all of the available directories from 1819 - 1934. You can find them at this link. More recent volumes are on the shelves of the Genealogy and Local History Department.

In most cases, the occupation of the listee is included as well as the address.  Scanning several volumes, the earliest listing I could find for Charles H. had him living at 1534 E. Front St. in 1873.  He is listed as being a "sawyer" probably working at one of the lumber yards so common in the area.

Clarification:  On January 30, 2012, I went to the Recorders Office to research the Gladstone property.  I now have a copy of the deed and know that Charles and Rachel purchased the Gladstone house on June 16, 1882.  In later descriptions of the property, it specifies that "Gladstone" was formerly known as "Fulton."  I believe that Collins Ave., which also had more than one name, may have once been Woodburn.  This fits with the information above that lists the family on the north side of Fulton, east of Woodburn in 1882.  I now know that this was the family home from 1882 - 1910 when the house was sold following Charles' death..


From the above listings, it appears that Charles started out as a sawyer working in a lumber yard.  Over the next year, it seems as if his skills increased allowing hims to work as a machinist, carriage maker and car repairer.  Charles was 24 years old before he has his own listing in the City Directory.  A comparison of the listings for his widowed mother, Elizabeth, shows some overlap. I believe that Elizabeth moved in with her son at the house on the river bank near St. Rose Church because Charles listed the address as his residence five years before Elizabeth did.

1887 was a significant year.  Charles and his wife, Rachel, and his mother, Elizabeth, are all listed in the same residence with his sister Elizabeth and her husband John L. Amiss.  Both Rachel and her sister-in-law, Elizabeth, gave birth to children that year.  It was probably time to look for a home of their own.

It wasn't until 1890 that Charles and Rachel moved into their two-family at 632 Gladstone (later changed to 2316 Gladstone). By this time, Charles and Rachel were parents to three children and appear to have settled in for the long haul in their home with a fantastic view of the Ohio River. (I since researched the property records and know that they purchased the house on June 16, 1882.  What's even more surprising is that they were not the first owners).

Unfortunately, the house was torn down shortly before I became interested in researching the family.  My brother, Tim, sister-in-law Dusty and I tried to investigate where the house was located.  The surrounding houses were also built in 1890.  We took pictures of the area where we believe this two-family had been located.  I will update this post if I am able to located a picture of the house.

Update:  Picture below is the exact location of 2316 Gladstone.  I've since researched this house history and my brother, Tim and I, took a tape measure and measured the stated distance from Collins Ave.  This confirmed our belief that we had identified the correct location.  More to come on this in a later post.

Back of Property in Probable Location

Dusty and Tim

Overgrown Front Steps