Schuyler Jones

Schuyler Colfax (Chuck) Jones was my uncle and often related stories to me that happened during his lifetime.

He was born January 5, 1869 in Henry County and was one of nine children in the family of William Wesley and Catherine (Kinney) Jones, who were my grandparents. When Chuck was 3 years of age, my grandfather sold his farm and moved his family to Kansas, the state so beautifully painted to him. When they arrived in Kansas by wagon, a plague of grasshoppers had moved in and destroyed all the crops, even the grass. He brought his family straight back to Ohio, Henry County, and Damascus Township, to stay and settled on a farm near the one he previously owned.

Here Uncle Chuck grew up. He was proud of his Indian ancestry which was on his mother's side. He carried Indian features and he had a lot of medicinal values from herbs carried down from his mother's people. He related to me how he had cured hiccoughs by putting scraped raw potatoes on the naval and he stopped severe nose bleeds, but he would never reveal his secret for that. Due to blindness my grandfather was unable to work. Uncle Chuck worked hard at any available work and with his brother (my father) Zail Jones, he helped support the family.

One occasion he told me about his 21st birthday. Excited about casting his first vote, he started to walk to McClure a distance of 5 miles. On passing the old Thrapp home then occupied by a Mrs. Dielman, he saw a large crowd of people gathered there. Of course he stopped, and learned that Mrs. Dielman had fallen into the cistern and drowned. There was no one small enough to get through the opening. Uncle Chuck was thin so he was lowered into the cistern with a rope. He lifted the body so it could be reached and pulled out. Then he was pulled out. After going home for dry clothes he continued his walk to town. He never missed an election as long as he was able to go to the polls.

[Photo, p. 278] Schuyler Jones

He with my father worked in a saw mill at Grelton in 20 degrees of weather. Times were different then and their dinner was frozen and had to be thawed out by a wood fire. Uncle ditched for Almond Tuttle for $1.50 per day. He worked on a farm for 50 cents a day, later raised to 75 cents and then to $1.00. He also operated a steam powered threshing machine for many years. Then he got a job with the State, grading roads. He helped turn the first dirt into the old canal that is now Route 24. He kept with the State until he retired in 1941.

His hobby was to work with things electrical. He turned a good many things into electric lamps and restored broken lamps to their original style.

Throughout his life he was an avid hunter. Nothing suited him better than to sit quietly in a secluded spot and wait for a squirrel to show up. He always got him. He liked to hunt wood chucks and pheasants and he and my father were night coon hunters. They also found many bee trees.

Due to failing health he had to give up hunting but he got his limit the last time he hunted squirrels. He entered the Henry County home in 1966 where he died March 18, 1967, at the age of 98. The picture shows him on his 98th birthday.

Submitted by Chloe Jones