Person:Mary Smith (1266)

First president, Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

Harris County, Texas, 1860 census:^[3]

Jones, M. [f] 41 yrs Farming (real estate = $75,000) b. "Lines Co., Kans."[?!]

      S. S. [f] 15 yrs b. Texas

      S. E. [m] 19 yrs Farming b. Texas

      C. E. [m] 16 yrs b. Texas

      C. A. [m] 10 yrs b. Texas

Woodruff, J. C. [f] 18 yrs b. Texas

Harris County, Texas, 1880 census:^[4]

Jones, Mary 60 yrs "H.K." b. Arkansas (parents, b. Virginia)

      Saml. E. 39 yrs Son Dentist b. Texas (parents, b. Massachusetts/Arkansas)

      C. Anson 30 yrs Son County Judge b. Texas (parents, b. Massachusetts/Arkansas)

      Elliott 8 yrs Gr/son b. Texas (parents, b. Texas/Arkansas)

Hoblin[?], Amy [BLACK] 20 yrs Servant Cook b. Georgia (parents, b. [illegible]/Georgia)

Harris County, Texas, 1900 census:^[5]

Jones, Mary 80 yrs (b. Jul 1819) (wid.; 4 children, 2 living) b. Arkansas (parents, b. Virginia/Tennessee)

      Samuel E. 59 yrs (b. Feb 1841) (wid.) b. Texas (parents, b. Massachusetts/Arkansas) Dentist

      Elliott R. 27 yrs (b. Apr 1873) (single) b. Texas (parents, b. Texas/Arkansas) Book Keeper

Williams, Annie [BLACK] 26 yrs (b. Aug 1873) (div.; 2 children, 2 living) b. Texas (parens, b. Texas) Servant

      Alberta [BLACK] 2 yrs (b. May 1898) b. Texas (parens, b. Texas)

      Leon [BLACK] 10 yrs (b. May 1890) b. Texas (parens, b. Texas)

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Find A Grave.

   Mary Smith Jones

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Handbook of Texas Online.

   Jones, Mary Smith

3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 Harris, Texas, United States. 1860 U.S. Census Population Schedule
   p. 354, dwelling/family 41/39.
4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 Harris, Texas, United States. 1880 U.S. Census Population Schedule
   ED 75, p. 103A, dwelling/family 177/449.
5. ↑ ^5.0 5.1 Harris, Texas, United States. 1900 U.S. Census Population Schedule: Twelfth Census of the United States, NARA Microfilm Publication T623. (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration)
   ED 80, p. 6A, dwelling/family 97/99 (1818 Prairie Ave).
6.   Houston Daily Post (Houston, Texas)
   p. 1, 1 Jan 1907.

   Mrs. Mary Anson Jones Is Dead.
   
   Widow of Last President of Republic of Texas Passes Away.
   
   A Life Full of History.
   
   Members of the Family Are Present at the End--Tribute by Mrs. Looscan--The Funeral Will Be Today.
   
   Mrs. Anson Jones, widow of the last president of the Republic of Texas, died yesterday afternoon at 12:40 o'clock at the residence of her daughter, Mrs.R. G. Ashe, 208 Hamilton street, at the age of 88 years. Seventy-two of these years had been spent in Texas, and because of this long and notable residence here and because of her close connection with the people and events that wrought Texas history into one of the most dramatic pages in the story of American development, Mrs. Jones was recognized as the most distinguished historical character in the State. Her death marks the passing of one of Texas' greatest women and breaks another tie that bound the present with those shadowy days of the past when Texas was a struggling province of the Mexican government.
   
   The funeral will be held this afternoon at 3 o'clock from the residence on Hamilton street, and interment will be made in Glenwood cemetery. The body will be laid to rest in the old family lot, beside the graves of her husband, her son, C. Anson Jones, and her granddaughter, Miss Willis G. Ashe.
   
   Mrs. Jones had been in feeble health for some time. Last summer she was taken ill, and at first fears were entertained that her enfeebled body would not be able to withstand. But she did recover from the disease, and for a time has apparently enjoyed good health, though she was feeble. When the summons came yesterday the immediate family and relatives were gathered at her bedside, it being manifest in advance that the end was drawing near. On the dying day of the old year she passed away, carrying out of this human realm a remarkable life and the memory of a full and rich experience -- an experience that few in this life come to know and enjoy. The memory of her life, so full of courage and faithfulness and devotion, a life made rich by every charm that is known to the noblest womanhood, will be treasured as a blessed benediction in the hearts of kindred and friends and all that goodly multitude in Texas who knew, even though in past only, of her splendid, full-rounded and truely-lived years of life's allotted [missing words].
   
   Since [missing words] the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Mrs. Jones has been president.
   
   The Surviving Relatives.
   
   There survive two children, Mrs. R. G. Ashe and Dr. Samuel E. Jones of Houston. Another son, Cromwell Anson Jones, was for some years judge of the Harris county court and his death in 1888 was a sore grief to the mother. She who had expected his companionship in a tranquil old age, in her words best expressed her grief: "In the midst of his usefulness and in the bloom of his young manhood he was called from labor below to labor above in that better life. Oh, the blackness of that pall of sorrow! I held him in my heart of hearts as one apart from all other beings -- so thoughtful, so gentle had he ever been in bestowing filial care upon his aged mother."
   
   Three sisters also survive, Mrs. Eliza Nation of El Paso, Mrs. Miranda Ardion [i.e., Ardoin] of Haymond, Texas, and Mrs. Julia W. Kern of Kansas City. Mrs. Kern will arrive in time for the funeral.
   
   The grandchildren surviving are Hon. Charles E. Ashe, judge of the Eleventh judicial district of this county, and Mrs. Clayton S. Scott of San Antonio, both children of Mrs. R. G. Ashe, and Mr. Elliott Jones, son of Dr. Samuel E. Jones/ One great-grandchild survives, Charles Alexander Ashe, baby son of Judge Charles E. Ashe.
   
   Those who have been selected to serve as active pallbearers at the funeral this afternoon are descendants of pioneer Texans who lived in the settlement of Houston and vicinity in the days of the republic, and are the following: Ingham S. Roberts, Frank Williams, Judge S. H. Brashear, Judge John G. Tod, Milton G. Howe, Richard Franklin, Judge A. E. Amerman and Sidney Huston.
   
   The honorary pallbearers are the following: A. C. Gray, J. J. McKeever, S. F. Ashe, Judge W. P. Hamblen, H. B. Rice, Charles H. Milby, Judge J. K. P. Gillespie, William D. Cleveland, Sr., Captain T. U. Lubbock, Judge N. G. Kittrell, John S. Stewart and Captain Pat Christian.
   
   Connected Old with New.
   
   Mrs. Anson Jones was in more than one respect significant to this generation of Texas life. She connected the old with the new, the pioneer days with the days of Twentieth century progress., the republic with the State, and her passing removes another of that ragged edge left to connect the present with the heroic past.
   
   She came to Texas with her parents in the year 1833, being then 14 years of age herself. The journey was made from Arkansas in covered wagons, employing weeks of travel and daring the dangers of the forests in which Indians lurked and where scarce a path was beaten in the way for the guidance of the hopeful immigrants.
   
   Into Texas she came at the age of 14 years, and from that day to the hour of her death, more than seventy-four year in all, she was a devoted Texan -- devoted to its interests and zealous of its glory and honor. She left the domain of the United States to become a colonist in Texas under Mexican rule; she lived here as a citizen of the republic of Texas; as a citizen of the State of Texas after its admission into the Unionl; as a citizen of the seceded Texas as one of the Confederate States; and at last spent her last and best years as a citizen of the reunited State and glorious commonwealth.
   
   It was fitting that Mrs. Jones' last years should be spent in Houston. In the early part of her life in this State her parents came to this section, and one of the first shanties ever built in the little settlement on the banks of the bayou she occupied. The first marriage license ever issued was for her marriage to a young Mississippian, who lived less than a year after the wedding. (Her marriage to Mr. Jones, afterward President Jones, was consummated later and took place in Austin.) But it was to Houston that she was especially devoted, having had here the associations that she will carry with her in memory into the other world -- and so it was in Houston that she cast the last years of her life and spent the pleasant days of old age well earned.
   
   Mrs. Jones heard the booming of the guns at the battle of San Jacinto and it was one of her chief delights to rehearse the story of that tragic day as it came to her [missing words] she was concealed in a thicket several miles from the San Jacinto field, being in fact on the banks of Dickinson bayou when the decisive contest took place and Texas won from Mexico her long-sought freedom. She says she could hear distinctly the reports of the cannon and the sharp rattle of the guns. And one of the interesting features was the flying Mexicans, who were passing every hour. And when they saw the little group of Texas refugees, the terrified sons, late of Santa Anna's army, fell upon their faces protesting, "Me no Alamo," "Me no Goliad."
   
   Her remarkable memory was the comment of all who knew her. She preserved, up to the very last month of her life, a wonderful remembrance of all those exciting events and incidents through which she had passed as a pioneer in the days when first foundations were laid, as the wife of a statesman and a president of the republic. She could recall events with singular clearness and exactness of detail, remembering to a remarkable degree comparatively unimportant details. Scarcely a month passed during her latter years in which she did not receive many letters and inquiries from persons seeking from her information to clear up their land titles or to establish other historic facts. And she rarely failed to give a definite answer to every inquiry.
   
   SKETCH BY MRS. LOOSCAN.
   
   The following sketch of Mrs. Jones' life was written by Mrs. Adele Looscan of Houston and has received the indorsement of Mrs. Jones. It was originally published in the Texas Magazine of March, 1907.
   
   On July 24, 1819m in Lawrence county, Arkansas Territory, Mary, the subject of this sketch, was born. She was the eldest of five children. Her father was John McCutcheon Smith, a native of Rockbridge county, Virginia, and her mother Sarah Pevehouse of West Tennessee. When Mary was 3 years old the family moved to Conway county, Arkansas, where they lived five years, and where the early impressions of childhood made by the beautiful scenery of that section were deeply engraved upon her memory. From the year 1827 until October 23, 1833, their home was near Little Rock, where such school advantages were enjoyed as the condition of the new country afforded. Here the father died, and at the date mentioned the widowed mother with her little family resolved to come to Texas, as there was a large emigration from Arkansas at that time. On the 18th of November they reached the Sabine river and found it swollen from recent heavy rains. A raft constructed of mulberry logs fastened together with wooden pins driven into auger holes was made by the emigrants who were there waiting to cross into "the promised land," and on this they all crossed (about twenty families), together with their household goods. The journey was attended with much delay and suffering, in consequence of excessive rains and cold weather, so that they did not reach their destination, Brazoria county, until near the first of January, 1834.
   
   In 1835 Mrs. Smith married John Woodruff of Brazoria county, a widower with six children. The family was further augmented by the birth of four children, all girls, the fruit of this marriage. Mary, being the eldest, naturally shared with her mother the care of the other children, and upon the mother's death in June, 1845, and the step-father's in March, 1847, the whole responsibility of caring for the little ones devolved upon her. She cherished tender recollections of her step-father, and always regarded the children by her mother's second marriage with the same tender affection bestowed upon those of her own father; she reared two of them, one lived with her five years, and one until married.
   
   Settled in Brazoria county where a large number of the colonists of Stephen F. Austin had made homes, there was little to disturb the routine of family life. The ordinary condition of the colonists was theirs; they encountered many hardships and suffered privations common to life in a new and unsettled country. They had few comforts -- no luxuries -- but life had its pleasures and each day brought its interests and duties. "A true pioneer does not think of care much for money or luxuries."
   
   But before the close of the year 1835, a storm which had been long gathering burst upon the colonists. The invasion of their hoes by armed Mexican forces excited anxiety, but the success which attended all the early engagements between the troops of Texas and Mexico was reassuring, and until the fall of the Alamo there was little apprehension that the colonists east of the Brazos river would be disturbed. After this terribly disastrous siege, followed closely by the massacre of Fannin and his men at Goliad, panic spread throughout the country. One division of Santa Anna's army had advanced to within six miles of the home of Mr. Woodruff. Most of the colonists prepared to move their families to the other side of the Sabine river, and many of the men who were in the Texan army returned home to provide places of safety for their dear ones; then Mr. Woodruff's family, in company with others, set out on the march toward the Sabine. Having learned that Santa Anna's army had reached the crossing on the San Jacinto river, where they intended to cross, they left the road and sought temporary shelter in the timber on Clear creek, where they remained until after the battle of San Jacinto was fought and won.
   
   In their hasty departure from home they were able to take with them only the actual necessaries of life, and they were consider fortunate in having an ox team for transportation; on their wagon were loaded the bedding, or rather the bed covering, and ticks which could be used after filling with straw -- or whatever could be had for that purpose -- a few cooking utensils, the clothing of the family, and bacon, coffee, corn and a steel mill for grinding. All along the road were to be seen loaded vehicles of every kind followed by women and children, many of them on foot. Some hastily put a few provisions and clothing on sleds or slides, some wagons consisted of wheels cut out of solid tree trunks with rude axles. Often camps were seen which seemed to have been hastily abandoned -- as an instance, an open trunk that had been hastily rummaged for some essential article, or a looking glass fastened to the side of a tree, gave testimony of the recent possession and hasty departure of campers. The news of the Texan army having crossed the Brazos river warned them that unless they made all possible haste they were in danger of being left a prey to Mexican rapacity; so they fled as if for their lives.
   
   While encamped at Clear creek, eight miles from the battlefield the booming of the cannon could be distinctly heard by the encamped colonists., but their hearts never for an instant faltered as to the certainty of a successful issue. When the news of certain victory came, all returned to their desolate homes to find that everything left there had been carried away of destroyed; and again the early hardships which had begun to lessen with the rapid settlement of the country were renewed.
   
   In the fall of the year, 1836, the city of Houston was laid out, and in December of the same year Mr. Woodruff and family moved to the new settlement, but at that time there were no houses -- not even tents -- so they camped where Houston now is until a house could be built for them. The first houses were so few that it was a singular sight to look out in the morning and see so many people moving abroad; the wonder was where they had all accommodated themselves with shelter during the night.
   
   The first church service was held under the shade of a grove where benches, which had been sawed by a whip saw, were arranged for seats. Littleton Fowler and Mr. Hoes were among the early preachers. there was soon a town full of people and all went to work with a hearty good will to build suitable shelters for the numbers daily arriving and settling.
   
   Here in the spring of 1837 Mary Smith became acquainted with Hugh McCrory, who had come to Texas with General Felix Houston's volunteer command to aid in the struggle for liberty. In July a marriage license issued to them was the first in the book of records of Harrisburg, now Harris county, and they were married July 23, 1837; but within seven weeks the bridegroom was taken ill and died, leaving Mary a widow at the early age of 18. She continued to reside in Houston with her parents until the early part of June, 1839, when the seat of government was established at Austin, then they moved to the new capital.
   
   At this place far from any other settlements, the citizens were in constant danger from hostile Indians who almost every full moon would visit the settlement, killing or carrying off some citizens, or perhaps capturing one or two children. On account of the terrible cruelties to which they subjected prisoners capture was regarded as worse than immediate death at their hands.
   
   In the summer of 1838 an acquaintance began between Mrs. McCrory and Dr. Anson Jones in Houston, and in the fall of 1839 it was renewed at Austin, and May, 1840, they were married at Austin.
   
   Dr. Jones was a native of Massachusetts, and he came to Texas in 1833 and began the practice of medicine at Brazoria. From December, 1835, when he took part in a public meeting at Brazoria, being chairman of a committee which drew up and offered resolutions advocating a declaration of independence of Mexico, till the day of his death, January 9, 1858, he was prominently connected with the public affairs of Texas. He was representative from Brazoria county in the congress assembled at Houston in 1838, and at about the same time was appointed minister to the United States, and was absent at Washington in this capacity for about eleven months. During his absence and without his knowledge he was nominated and elected senator from Brazoria county to the Texas congress for a term of two years to fill out the unexpired term of Hon. William H. Wharton, who had been accidentally killed after serving only a portion of his term. This brought Dr. Jones to the new seat of government at Austin, where he and his wife continued to live after the expiration of his term of office, when they moved to Columbia, twelve miles from Brazoria, in the edge of the Oyster creek timber, Brazoria county, his former home, where he resumed the practice of medicine. From the time of her marriage Mrs. Jones' life became closely identified with the leading events of the country, particularly with every measure in which her husband too part, and he was continually holding important positions under the government of the Republic of Texas. He was a soldier as well as surgeon at the battle of San Jacinto. From the first organization of the government he was almost continually in its service until the final act of annexation to the United States. Annexation was a pet scheme of his long before the question became sufficiently popular to become a public measure of government policy. As secretary of state under General Houston, Dr. Jones fostered the measure, and finally, under his administration as president of the republic, the change of government took place. On the 19th day of February, 1846, President Jones in an impressive and touching address announced the change in these words, "The Republic of Texas is no more!" At the same moment the Texas flag was lowered to give place to the Stars and Stripes. This scene occurred at the old log state house at Austin.
   
   The seat of government had been moved from Austin to Washington [i.e., Washington-on-the-Brazos] in the fall of 1842, and on January 29, 1848, Dr. Jones and his family moved there, or rather, to a farm four miles from Washington on the road to Chappel Hill and Independence. This farm was called Barrington, Dr. Jones having named his home in honor of Great Barrington Township, Massachusetts, where he was born. At Barrington their youngest child was born, the others near the same place; and her Mrs. Jones dispensed a liberal hospitality, here she was long known for her charities. Many a poor family migrated to Texas with all their worldly goods hauled by a sorry team and found themselves in need of medicine, clothes and food, which were supplied from her well furnished stories. In those days and in that locality everything was bought in wholesale quantities, and trunks of dry goods, as well as barrels of all kinds of groceries, were at hand to be administered if need be, to the wants of the destitute; and every medicine to give from a simple laboratory such remedies as would relieve the ordinary diseases of the country. Mrs. Jones was truly a "lady bountiful," and bestowed favors with a generous hand and sympathetic heart.
   
   In January, 1858, Dr. Jones died, and on January 29 of the same year, just fifteen years after moving to the farm in Washington county, his widow and her four children moved to Galveston, where they lived nearly one year. In December, 1858, they moved to a farm in Harris county situated on Goose creek, about ten miles from Lynchburg. From here the eldest children were sent to school in Galveston until the beginning of the civil war in 1861, when a school was established at a short distance by Mr. and Mrs. Kemp, who were in turn succeeded by Mr. Preston, who had a flourishing school there for some years.
   
   In this quiet country home Mrs. Jones managed her little farm with a skill born of practical knowledge which made it a model in the neighborhood. She was an early riser and a keen observer, and everything about house, garden, dairy and farm showed the result of her untiring industry and observant scrutiny, for neatness and regularity pervaded every department. Her children's studies also claimed a large share of her attention, and by her clear judgment, her careful training in distinct enunciation, and exactitude of pronunciation in their school days, she not only aided their teachers, but gave them that necessary training too often neglected by careless mothers, and which no after education can supply. In the truest sense of the word she was a mother who appreciated the responsibilities resting upon her as the guardian of the moral no less than of the physical and mental well being of her children, and her moral precepts carried with them the additional weight of example. It was from this country home that Mrs. Jones' elder sons, Samuel and Charles, went forth at the beginning of the civil war to join the Confederate army as members of company C, Dr. Ashbel Smith, captain, Second Texas regiment of infantry, Colonel Moore commanding. Charles never returned! Mortally wounded at the battle of Shiloh, April 7, 1862, the date of his death and place of burial were never known. the hope was long indulged that, as a prisoner his wounds might heal, and he be returned to his sorrowing mother, but time dispelled all such vain hopes. He was a youth of brilliant parts and great promise, and his untimely death filled to overflowing his mother's cup of sorrow already full. Like many another brave Southern woman at that time, her life was sorrowful yet dutiful, and through her tears she saw the path that the living must tread beset with briers and thorns though it might be.
   
   Her youngest son, Cromwell Anson, studious from his earliest childhood, determined to qualify himself for the practice of law, and , in 1871, went to Houston for that purpose; her only daughter, Sallie, having married R. G. Ashe, made her home at San Jacinto. Samuel also having married, Mrs. Jones left her lonely home and moved to San Jacinto at a short distance from the battleground. In 1875 she, together with her daughter's family, moved to Willis, where they lived until December 16, 1879, when, after an absence of forty years, Houston again became Mrs. Jones' home. Her son, Cromwell Anson, the young lawyer, had speedily acquired great popularity, and had been for some years judge of the county court of Harris county. He was respected for his virtues, admired for his talents, and endowed with gifts which would have guaranteed him a prominent place in the affairs of the State, and everything seemed to promise a tranquil and happy old age to his mother, whose delight was in his congenial society; but on January 19, 1888, death removed him from the family circle where he was the idol. To use his mother's own words, "In the midst of his usefulness and in the bloom of his young manhood he was called from labor below to labor above in that better life. Oh, the blackness of that pall of sorrow! I held him in my heart of hearts as one apart from all other beings -- so thoughtful, so gentle had he ever been in bestowing filial care upon his aged mother."
   
   Few women have incurred greater hardships in early life and not many have drained the cup of sorrow with greater fortitude than Mrs. Jones. Truly her sorrows have been great, but the bitterness of grief has not tainted the sweetness of her life. Having lived from childhood to old age in Texas, the sacred sentiment of patriotism is deeply rooted in her heart, and second only to her love for her own family may be ranked her pride in Texas and her love for its institutions. As president of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas she occupies a position which none other could fill with equal fitness; and while feebleness prevents her active participation in many of the affairs of the society, she inspires and advises.
   
   Two children remain to comfort her declining years, Dr. S. E. Jones, the eldest son, who is a successful practitioner of dentistry and who, with his son Elliott, resides with her, and her daughter, Mrs. R. G. Ashe, whose interesting family lives in the same city. President Anson Jones her husband, Cromwell Anson her son, and Willie G. Ashe a beloved granddaughter, rest in Glenwood cemetery at Houston.
   
   In all the varied experiences of Mrs. Jones' life she has shown remarkable strength of character. She was a companion to her husband in every sense of the word -- he made her acquainted with all the details of his business which her quick mind grasped and comprehended, so that, when his sudden death left her the sole guardian of their family of four children she found herself possessed of business qualifications of incalculable value in the management of their estate. At once the responsibilities of guardian, parent and teacher rested upon her alone, and she fulfilled the duties of each office with a precision and exactitude which excited the admiration of her friends, and always with the welfare and happiness of her children the one object in view. Mrs. Jones became a member of the Protestant Episcopal church upon its first organization in Texas, having been confirmed by Bishop Freeman, and she has reared her family in that church.
   
   Mrs. Jones' character is shown in her strongly marked features, which are clear cut, her steady gray eyes which express sincerity and decision, and in the firmness of the tones of her voice, as well as in the distinctness of her enunciation -- all these indicate that, with her, there is no wavering to this side or that when truth or right is concerned. Her memory is good -- exact even -- in minute particulars, and it runs over the events of her life in Texas with the same accuracy as regards the occurrences of yesterday.
   
   ---Mrs. M. Looscan
   
   ----------
   
   The members of San Jacinto chapter, Daughters of the Republic of Texas, are requested to attend the funeral of Mrs. Anson Jones this afternoon and to be at the residence of Mrs. R. G. Ashe at 3 o'clock promptly.
   
   ---Mrs. J. J. McKeever, President