Family Stories: Daught Jones Pulled Her Siblings to NYC

Dock and Willie Jones raised their family in Wartrace Tennessee, which is a suburb of Murfreesboro (a funny idea if you know the area). Dock was born into slavery in 1853, and became a carpenter who literally helped build the town of Wartrace. Most notably, he raised money for and built the town's first school so the young black children (including his own) could be educated. 

Like many negro parents in the South in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Dock and Willie wanted their children to get out of the South (read The Warmth of Other Suns for rich stories about The Great Migration). As Dock used to say, "Always turn your feet North. Your future is not in the South, but in the North." 

Their first child was Leola, who was known as Daught because she was the eldest daughter. Daught met her husband Lorenzo at Knoxville College, and they moved to New York City in the early 1900's after a brief time in Asbury Park, NJ.

Daught and Laura's souvenirs from Asbury Park, NJ

Daught became the magnet who drew her brothers and sisters to NYC. First came her sister Laura Jones, who was Booker T. Washington's personal secretary.

Laura Jones

Four of Daught's brothers: Willy, Ed, L.D. "Tete", and Baxter "Back" eventually moved to NYC, and most of them worked for the railroad. Ed fought in WWI with the 369th Infantry Regiment "Harlem Hellfighters", which was awarded the Croix de Guerre after fighting with the French (the US Army wouldn't allow the unit to fight), and Back won numerous medals and commendations for his skill and bravery fighting for the US in Italy in WWII.

When my grandmother, the youngest Jones sister Georgie, moved to NYC (after a brief, unhappy stint in DC), Daught arranged for her to meet George Pedro, and the rest (as they say) is history.

Of the Jones children who lived to adulthood, only Tom Lynn didn't move to New York. He married the love of his life Sadie Denis, and they lived their entire adult lives in her hometown of Culpeper, VA in homes Tom Lynn built.

Willie and Dock Jones with Daught, Laura, Willy, Tom Lynn, and Georgie (ca. 1906)

What strikes me most about the Jones family is the journey that united seven siblings born from 1881 to 1907. Daught became the sister-matriarch who helped many of her siblings realize their father's dream.

Daught with her nephew Donald around 1960