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Jones, Rodger Robert 9/4/1891 2/23/1983
Born:Pottsville,Tx.
Father: William Andrew Jackson JONES
Mother: Sarah Elizabeth VAN POOL
Source: Adams Funeral Home
Transcribed by Bettye Odom
The East Plains was sparsely populated when Rodger Robert (Rodge) Jones arrived with his parents on July 12, 1900. The eight year-old lad and his family traveled in three covered wagons.Mr. Jones had seen and been a part of the area's development 83 years.
Rodge Jones, West Texas pioneer deluxe was claimed by death at 9:03 a.m. last Wednesday in Methodist Hospital, Lubbock, following a lengthy illness. He was 91.
Memorial services were conducted at 2 p.m. Friday in the Crosbyton Church of Christ, Glen Gray, the minister officiated and was assisted by the Rev. J. Wade Griffin, associate pastor of First United Methodist Church of Lubbock.
Interment was made in Crosbyton Cemetery.
Serving as pallbearers were grandsons, Vance Smith of Buena Park, Calif.; Wayne Smith of Lubbock; Edd Blackwood, Jr. of Houston; Richard Blackwood of Corpus Christi; Terry Don Pierce of Lubbock and Mark McGaughy of McAdoo.
Adams Funeral Home directed arrangements.
Rodge Jones was born Sept. 4, 1891, in Pottsville, Hamilton County.
He observed that "I wore a dress until I was five years old. The first time I put breeches on the dog barked at me." His mother died "a few days before we were to move to Wake." The family resided in a dugout and he recalled that "one of my chores was to take waterdogs out of the dugout every morning."
Mr. Jones' father, William Andrew Jackson Jones, homesteaded four sections of land which is now the northeast corner of Crosby County, the S.C. Hickman, J.V. Leatherwood and John Wooten families "came to the Plains about the same time." There was no school or church. We were the only families on the East Plains."
Families received mail service from Emma to Dickens every other day. Then Rodge Jones' brother-in-law, John Smith - a Spanish-American war veteran who was wounded on Wake Island - secured the rights to build a post office, using lumber and land furnished by his father-in-law. In 1902, the community was named "Wake" after the island.
When the community decided to open a school, W.A.J. Jones "moved our maize crib about 100 years from our house and hired George Foster from Floydada to teach in it."
Rodge Jones, who owned a part of his father's original homestead, remembered "I was with my dad one day when I was 12 years old and a bunch of men had gathered at the courthouse. I remember how they gave him the 'horse laugh' when he said someday this land would sell for $40 an acre. Top land was selling for $12.50 per acre at the time."
Mr. Jones was married to Kleta Wooten in 1913 and she died in 1915. He married Bessie Gaddy in 1918 and four children were born to the couple. In 1942, he and Neoma Melton Stephenson were married.
Mr. Jones remembered that in the early days "we finally worked our school up to a four teacher school. Arbrea Fae and Weldon rode in a buggy to school their first few years with the J.J. Griffin children. This was until they were big enough to ride a horse 2 1/2 miles to Wake School.
Mr. Jones served as a trustee of the Wake school for 18 years. He was a member of the church of Christ and formerly held membership in Crosbyton Lions Club.
He was a retired farmer.
Survivors include his wife, Neoma; two sons, R. Weldon Jones of McAdoo and W.A. Jack Jones of Lubbock; two daughters, Arbrea Fae Smith of Lubbock and Marjorie Blackwood of Tucson, Ariz.; three stepsons, Donald Stephenson of Noel, Mo., Billy Joe Stephenson of Corpus Christi and Randall Stephenson of La Junta, Colo; one stepdaughter, Wyanza Pierce of Lubbock; a sister, Myrtle Stewart of Levelland; a half-sister, Nell Brabham of Atlanta; a stepbrother, Lucien Wheeler of Lubbock; nine grandchildren; and 20 great grandchildren.
©Crosby County Review, 1983
CROSBYTON (Special) — Services for Rodger R. Jones, 91, of Crosbyton will be at 2 p.m. Friday at Crosbyton Church of Christ with glen Gray, minister, officiating, assisted by J. Wade Griffin, associate pastor of First United Methodist Church of Lubbock.Burial will be in Crosbyton Cemetery under direction of Adams Funeral Home here.
Jones died at 9:03 a.m. Wednesday in Methodist Hospital in Lubbock after a lengthy illness.
He was a Hamilton County native, having moved to the Crosbyton area in 1900 in a covered wagon. He was a retired farmer. He was a former member of the Crosbyton Lions Club.
He was a member of the Church of Christ.
Survivors include his wife, Neoma; two sons, R. Weldon of McAdoo and W. A. Jack of Lubbock; two daughters, Arbrea Fae Smith of Lubbock and Marjorie Blackwood of Tucson, Ariz.; three stepsons, Donald Stephenson of Noel, Miss., Billie Joe Stephenson of Corpus Christi and Randall Stephenson of La Junta, Colo.; a stepdaughter, Wyanza Pierce of Lubbock; a sister, Myrtle Stewart of Levelland; a half sister, Nell Brabham of Atlanta; a stepbrother, Lucien Wheeler of Lubbock; nine grandchildren; and 20 great grandchildren.
©Lubbock Avalanche Journal, Feb. 24, 1983
Record provided by Crosby County Pioneer Memorial Museum
transcribed by Linda Fox Hughes
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