Person:Ruth Roberts (23)

TIGHLMAN JONES' "thoughts went back to December of 1861. . . [He] had lived with his father, younger brother, and little sister ever since his mother had died two years before. His father, Joel, worked hard at providing a good home for his motherless children, cooking and gardening in addition to earning the family living from farming and his special skill of wagon-making [JOEL was a blacksmith]. . . . Good education had been encouraged in the JONES household. The mother had been one of the few women in southeastern Illinois who had attended college(*) and, in spite of the dawn-to-dark work required to maintain a Western farm household, she had made a special effort to see that there was sufficient reading material available to supplement the children's formal education during the busy months when they could not attend school." --Glenn W. Sunderland, Five Days to Glory (South Brunswick, NJ: A.S. Barnes, 1970), 12-13. (*) Ruth and Joel married Dec. 15, 1842, when Ruth was about age 17, so her schooling had in all probability taken place before then, and "college" in this context would be roughly equivalent to 6th grade today.

TIGHLMAN "liked Arkansas. His mother had come from there. In fact, he got to see her old home while marching through on his way to Sulphur Rock . . . a short distance east of Batesville and near the White River." --Five Days to Glory, 39.

1862 May 6, Camp at Sulphur Rock, Independence Co., AR. "we have Seen the place where Mom comes from." --excerpt from letter written by TIGHLMAN JONES to his father, JOEL; from typed transcription of original courtesy John Harper, February 2001; punctuation added (I question this statement and its transcription; referring to one's mother as "Mom" rather than "Ma" was uncommon at this time; Ruth was reportedly born in either Ohio or Indiana which would mean that her family went south to Arkansas, then back north to Illinois -- uncommon, but not unheard of.)

(see marriage of a Mary Ann ROBERTS and EM JONES, Jan. 22, 1846, Jasper Co., IL, Book 1, p.104)

Ruth is buried in DeBord Cemetery, Grandville Twp., Jasper Co., IL.

1. ↑ H.W. Beckwith. History of Fountain County. (Chicago: H.H. Hill and N. Iddings, 1881)
   352.
2. ↑ Glenn W. Sunderland. Five Days to Glory. (South Brunswick, NJ: A.S. Barnes, 1970)
   12.
3. ↑ Jasper Co., IL, cemetery transcriptions (http:/www.iltrails.org/Jasper/cemeteries.html)
   Harper [Family] Cemetery, Grandville Twp.

   JONES, RUTH (nee ROBERTS) - b. 1819 ?; d. 1957 (1857?) (src #28- June Kessinger djk@@acronet.net) Wife of JOEL L. JONES

4. ↑ HARPER Family Cemetery, Jasper Co., IL
   from a survey completed May 30, 1969, by Warren Breedlove; 7 markers found.

   Row 3 includes RUTH ROBERTS JONES ~ 1819 - 1857