Elizabeth May Jones was born on 11. Feb. 1876 at Clintonville, Bourbon County, Kentucky. She was the daughter of
James Thomas Jones and
Margaret Emily Lloyd.
ELIZABETH (LIZZIE) MAY JONES (5) - James T. (4), Mary Swartzwelder (3), Cynthia Rebecca McCann(2), John(l), John(A); b. February 11, 1876 near Clintonville in Bourbon County, Kentucky; unmarried. The stature of some persons is inversely proportional to their physical size; a few pint-sizers are intrinsically jewels of giant energy and wonderful mentality. Such a description fits Lizzie May Jones, the conscientious and accurate record-keeper of the James Thomas Jones family. Loved and respected by all the family, she has inspired the authors (distant cousins) to leave no stone unturned that underneath might reveal a bit of information to improve the quality of this work; and she at age 80 has turned over many a stone for us.
Lizzie May's parents, when she was nine years old, moved the family from Kentucky to southwestern Missouri in April 1885, stopping for a few months at Lamar, Barton County. In November 1885, they moved a few miles north to stay over the winter at Nevada in Vernon County; and in March 1886 settled on a farm seven miles south of Nevada, which was the Jones homestead until 1910 when father Jones died on December 5th. Mother Jones purchased in Nevada a small domicile which was Lizzie May's home as brothers and sisters departed until her mother died on February 6, 1939. Elementary schooling for Lizzie May was of the rural variety - the little red-brick symbol of those who struggled for mastery of the three R's. Starting in Kentucky and continuing in the rural schools of Missouri, she advanced and attended Cooper College at Moundsville, Missouri.
Choosing teaching for a career, Lizzie May taught and went on to school as she could, stopping long enough to attend one term at Cottey - a junior college for women at Nevada, Missouri; and she received from Missouri State Teachers College at Springfield her much-deserved Life Certificate. In January 1912, an attack of typhoid fever forced a withdrawal from teaching, which was not resumed until the fall of 1917 when Lizzie May reentered the schools and pursued her cherished vocation uninterruptedly for thirty years, the last twenty-three of which were spent in refined teaching of fifth-grade pupils in Nevada schools; she retired in May 1947 at the close of the 1946-7 term. This long service, endearing her alike to pupils and faculty, was never a task. Teaching was a fascination that outranked all activities other than home and church. As a member of the Methodist Church, attending with great regularity, she also served as teacher in the Sunday School.
Long-suffering Lizzie May endured a minor displeasure, years on end, regarding her given names. For the facts, we feelingly quote from one of her several 1955 letters - "In regard to my name, my parents really first named me Mary Elizabeth, and then turned it around, shortening it to Lizzie May, and so recorded it; and they always called me that name, which I can tolerate all right - but I have a dislike for plain Lizzie. Preparatory to my retirement, in 1946, 1 wrote to Washington, D. C., to ascertain if the date of my birth were available. They answered that in 1880 the Census Bureau showed the name Mary E; but in the end, with the help of affidavits, I secur-d twr delayed birth cert"'ficates with Lizzie May thereon, one from Missouri and the other from Kentucky." So, for purposes of this writing, we chronologists are re-christening our little ladv Elizabeth May; but we shall continue, with her family and intimates, to love and admire Lizzie May.
Text: John Jones/Mary Swartzwelder.