Letter to Ora Smith from Francis Postelle January 31, 1960

Dear Cousin Ora

Your grandmothers bible came several days ago along with the two photographs.  Your kindness in sending them is highly appreciated and it has been helpful as well as very interesting to get to examine each of them.  Now about the bible, I find that there are 7 different persons handwriting which are in it.  One of the 7, I'd guess was that of James E Cook, another Elana Frances Cook, another her step-mother Mary E. Knowles, and one probably your father and another likely was your aunt (my mothers mother).

Oh yes, another thing which I believe I found is that the initial for my grandmother was as follows Mary E A Jones instead of Mary D A Jones.  Under a magnifying glass the E shows up pretty clear.  Another interesting find for me was that the middle name of Richard H Cook was Hiram like his grandfather and like he appeared in the 1860 census.

Now I am convinced that the dates on the photos are as follow:  The first date on each one is when Perry Studio was founded and the second date is when the photograph was made.  I did find the Williams family right next to the William B Knowles family in Kaufman County, Texas in 1880.  They had two boys and twin girls at that time.  So in 1891 the same six are in the photo.  Here is the census information for the year 1880.  Kaufman County, Texas Beat No. One  #363
Williams, Christian E      38 M  Farmer   Born  MO   Dad born  VA   Mom Born KY
Williams, Mary F           39 F   Wife                Tenn                   VA                     NC
Williams, William B       12 M  Son                  MO                    MO                    Tenn
Williams, George C       11 M  Son                  MO                    MO                     Tenn
Williams, Martha R          6 F   Daughter          MO                    MO                     Tenn
Williams, Terese E           6 F   Daughter          MO                    MO                     Tenn
Swindell, James R          20 M  Nephew           MO                    Tenn                    Tenn

Looks like the William B Knowles family and the Christian E Williams family came to Kaufman County Texas at the same time.  Also looks like a good chance that Christian E Williams and Mrs, Sarah J. Knowles (wife of William B Knowles) were brother and sister and we know that William B Knowles and Mrs Marry F Williams (wife of Christian E) were brother and sister.  So their children were double cousins if I guess right.

Because the only way we have of knowing the names of these people is in the 1880 census we can not tell the names of the three younger Knowles children in the photo of that family.

And we still do not know what happened to Richard Hiram Cook.  Since he was at least 20 years old (i living) when his half brother (your father) and other relatives came to Texas.  It is entirely possible that he would have been married and remained somewhere in Missouri.  But I just happened to remember that he was only 12 years old (if living) at the time of the 1870 census and he was not with his mother (at that time her name was Olds) when that census was taken.  So it seems that the best guess is that he died between 1860 and 1870.

So it seems that we are not much closer to uncovering anything about your grandfather Jones.  At the moment I an without another untried clue.  But we wont give up and something may yet develop.

I will be mailing the bible and pictures back to you in the next day or so.  We will be forever grateful to you for letting us see them.  The enclosure with this letter is to reimburse your for your expense in mailing them to us.

I almost forgot to mention that we found the pension record her in the national archives for James Monroe Knowles, brother of Elana Frances Knowles.  He served in the Union Army in 1863, 64 and 65.  (His brother Micajah Knowles served in the Rebel Army)  He continued to live at Patton, Bollinger County, Missouri where we found the Hiram Knowles family in 1860.  James M married there and had seven children.  They were Ovanda M born 1872, Lenora D 1870, John V 1876, Alvaretta 1878, Reuben W 1882, Henry M 1887, and Elsea Ann 1895.  He was born in 1842 and died Feb 20, 1902.  Actually he was a half brother of your grandmother.  He was a full brother of William B Knowles and was a year younger that his sister Mary F Knowles.  Williams is mentioned as being in the photo discussed above.  He died at Patton, Bollinger County Missouri.

Thanks very much for your kindnesses and do let us hear from you further.
Best regards from your cousin,
Francis Postelle