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Genealogy: Finding Your Folks

The Enoch George Jones story

By JUDY FOWLER KILGORE
jkilgore@thecitizennews.com

Winding down the stories of families buried at Bethany church in Fayette County, we come to the most interesting story of Enoch George Jones who married first Martha Elizabeth Travis, and second, Mrs. Mary J. Ferris. The children of Enoch and Elizabeth married into several of the families we have discussed before in this series, although Enoch didn’t appear in the Bethany area until 1870-1880. His second marriage to Mrs. Ferris came to an abrupt halt shortly before the turn of the 20th century and we will discover why later in the story.

Enoch was born 4 April 1831 in Georgia (possibly Jasper County) and moved with his parents to Fayette County by 1850. He was the son of Seaborn Jones, born about 1797 in Georgia, and Elizabeth Flowers, born about 1806 in South Carolina.

Enoch’s wife, Elizabeth Travis, born 24 Dec. 1835, was the daughter of Harbard Travis and Martha Claiborne. This Travis family is presented beautifully in the book, “The Travis (Travers) Family and Its Allies, Darracott, Lewis, Livingston, Nicholson, McLaughlin, Pharr, Smith and Terrell,” copyright 1954 by Major. Gen. Robert J. Travis. The book may be found at the Fayette County Library in Fayetteville.

Enoch and Elizabeth were married in Fayette County 7 Sept. 1852 and first settled in Clayton County, Northern District, Jonesboro P.O., where they began their family. They next moved to Spalding County, Union District, Griffin P.O. by 1870, and finally to the Bethany area, Hopeful District, by 1880. Their children included:

(1) Columbus Franklin Jones (1853-1896), m. Palisteen Renfroe in 1873; (2) John Thomas Jones (1855-1897), buried at Bethany; (3) Ida Celestia Jones (1856-1945), m. Jesse George Posey, both buried at County Line Christian Church cemetery in south Fayette; (4) Lovic Jefferson Jones (1858-1928), m. Frances (Fannie) Elizabeth Lester, both buried at Bethany; (5) Benjamin Howard Jones (1860-1863); (6) Seaborn Bartow Jones (1862-1922), m. Gena Lee (LNU), both buried at Bethany; (7) Sarah Elizabeth (Sallie) Jones (1864-1943), m. Elbert C. Martin; (8) Martha Frances (Mattie) Jones (1867-1941), m. William Hugh Boyd Jr., both buried at Bethany; (9) William Arthur Jones (1869-1935), m. Eulett P. Wyatt, both buried at Bethany; (10) Enoch Walter Jones (1870-1946), a Methodist minister; (11) James Edgar Jones (b. 1874); (12) Mary Mintora (Minnie) Jones (1876-1963), m. Ed Simmons Harris, both buried at Bethany; (13) Felton Jones, Minnie’s twin (1876-1925), m. Cora Belle McElroy, buried at Bethany; and (14) Luther C. Jones (1880-1969), m. Mattie Sue Milam, daughter of Clarke Middleton Milam and Carrie Payne. All are buried at Bethany.

Tragedy hit the Jones family in 1883 when Elizabeth died and left several young ones at home. She was buried at Bethany and Enoch decided to go into politics, making a successful bid for a seat in the Georgia legislature in 1884 and 1885.

While he was serving his term, Enoch lived in Atlanta at the boarding house of Mrs. Mary Ferris, who was quite well off financially. Stories which came to light later (from Mary’s people) stated that Enoch proposed to Mary, offering to leave her everything in his will if she would loan him money to pay off the mortgage to his farm. Apparently she did, the couple was married and Mary took over as mother to the Jones children. The marriage, however, did not go smoothly and Mary left Enoch several times, claiming that he abused her.

The situation came to a shocking culmination when, one warm day in June of 1897, Mary unloaded a round of buckshot into Enoch, hitting him in the head. She claimed he was drinking, had beat and choked her and was just before bringing a chair down on her head, when she grabbed the shotgun and fired in self-defense. He claimed she was being disagreeable, had a temper, and alluded only to “slapping her lightly on the face.” Many of Enoch’s friends later denied that he drank.

Thinking she had killed her husband and fearing retaliation from his children, Mary borrowed a buggy from a neighbor and drove herself to Fairburn, giving herself up to the sheriff of Campbell County. She requested to be taken to the jail in Atlanta where she felt she would be safe. The news hit the Atlanta papers the next day and many articles were written about the incident.

As it turned out, Enoch was not as severely wounded as was first thought, made a full recovery and dropped the charges against Mary after the two signed a written agreement. Later, an article in the paper related the fact that Enoch was asking Mary for a divorce.

Three years later, in 1900, Enoch was living with his daughter and son-in-law, Ed and Minnie Harris. It is said that Mary lived with Enoch's son, Luther.

Enoch died 19 Dec. 1905 after a short bout with pneumonia and was buried at Bethany beside his first wife.

Much of this story was shared with me (including copies of the newspaper articles) by Deanne Barr, a descendant of Enoch’s son, Luther. Mary Harper also helped with some of the census information, and some of the research I did myself.

If you are connected to this family and would like to contact Deanne, her e-mail address is dhbarr@mindspring.com. She is very interested in discovering more roots of this Jones family, as well as the Digby, Hicks and Anderson families.

I welcome all letters and e-mails about genealogy and info on south metro Atlanta families. Send them to The Citizen, P.O. Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214; e-mail jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com. Any letters and/or e-mails I receive are subject to being used in the column.

Until next week, happy hunting!