Emanuel Protestant Episcopal Church

As discussed in the previous post, Charles Henry and Rachel Adela were married at Emanuel Protestant Episcopal Church.  Highlighted above is the two-family home on Gladstone where the family lived and the church on Eastern Ave.  It would have been a short walk down Collins Ave. to reach the church.

The Church first appears in the Cincinnati City Directories in 1876.  Several of the City Directory listings are included below:

 1876

 1878

 1880

 1882

The History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County published in 1894 by S.B. Nelson in 1894 listed the following Protestant Episcopal Churches in Cincinnati:

Not only did Charles and Rachel get married in this church, but all three of their children were baptized there.  I contacted the Episcopal Diocese to see if there were any records for the Joneses in this church.  Following a search, the archivist sent me this message:

We have one record book for the 1910-1920 period listing members, baptisms and confirmations. It included a note from an archivist in the 1940s that most of the parish records are lost.

The church was torn down not long after 1920.  This should be a surprise to no one, as its location on the banks of the Ohio River made it prone to yearly flooding.

Current location of LeBlond Park with Highland School and St. Rose Church in the background.
The church would have been in the approximate location of the soccer field.  The river is just off to the right.

My grandfather, Charles Fred Jones, was a life-long Episcopalian buried from the Christ Church Cathedral at the time of his death.

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.