GUN JONES
McKinney newspaper
74 YEAR OLD NATIVE BORN COLLIN NEGRO
RESPECTED BY ALL; SLAVE OF O. HEDGCOXE
"Gun" Jones, a 74-year-old
Allen negro, was in McKinney one day recently circulating a subscription paper
for needed finances by the colored Baptist church to which he belongs. "Gun"
Jones is perhaps the widest known and most highly respected colored citizen of
our entire county. He was born a slave in Collin county on June 9, 1852, on the
farm of Oliver Hedgcoxe about ten miles southwest of McKinney and was eleven or
twelve years old when Lincoln issued the decree emancipating the negroes.
Although Gun is now in his seventy-fifth year, he says he can see as well as
ever, hear perfectly, sleeps well, eats heartily and works every day.
On November 17 last year he
and his wife celebrated their golden wedding anniversary with a dinner to their
children and friends at their home which they own in the little village of Allen
where they have resided in recent years. They are the parents of eleven children
- eight boys and three girls. Presents totaaling value to more than one hundred
dollars were given them, that occasion as tokens of esteem and genuine
friendship. One of their white friends, Milton Whisenant, gave them a five
dollar gold piece which they are saving and keeping in the bank at Allen.
Never Arrested or Paid Fine.
Few persons, white or black,
as old as "Gun" can boast of being native born Collin citizens who have never
lived anywhere else during that long period. Old "Gun" proudly boasts of the
fact that he was never arrested, never paid a fine and was never summoned before
the grand jury but one time in all his life.
Attended School in McKinney.
This old time negro attended
school only about four months altogether in his life. That was when he was about
thirteen or fourteen years old and then resided with his parents six miles
slightly southwest of McKinney on land now belonging to George Thompson. At that
time, sixty years ago, what few colored children living in or around McKinney,
attended school in a little hewn log school house that stood in Lewisville [east
McKinney] near the site of the two-story eight-teacher, colored school building
of the present time. "Gun" walked to and from school every day and thought
little about the twelve-mile daily tramp over muddy roads to school and back
again. He says his teacher was an old colored man named John Garret. In those
days, Jake Chamberlain, who died a few years ago at the age of 114, was the most
influential negro in McKinney.
Methodist, Then Baptist.
In his youthful days, "Gun"
joined the Methodist church at old Lebanon and was steward in it until the
society disbanded. He then joined the Baptist church which maintained an
organization there and for over forty years has been a Baptist deacon. Uncle
"Gun" in explaining his changed of church membership said, "I just had to have a
spiritual shelter so when the Methodists disbanded their church I gladly did the
next best thing and joined the Baptists. We have good people in all the churches
and some in all the churches who don't live as they should all the time. I
believe in Christianity and in supporting religion and the churches by living
right every day and by contributing from our money to support the churches."
Successful Farmer.
"Gun" Jones has claimed to be
a farmer throughout his long life and is still engaged in that avocation to some
extent. He has been a tenant all these years on farms owned by T. A. Coleman,
Lone Christi, Price Bush and others. He has always followed threshing during the
summer and fall seasons. In the earlier days before modern improvement in
threshing machinery, he was known as an expert "feeder" and "separator" man. For
a number of years he was with the Coleman & Harrison threshing firm. Composed of
the late Prof. T. A. Coleman, county superintendent of schools, and Mm. B.
Harrison, then of McKinney but now a prominent business man of Petersburg, Va.
He was in the same position with Bob Fisher's thresher for a continuous period
of fifteen years.
Respected by Whites.
Uncle "Gun" has always
conducted himself so as to be a model citizen for his own race to pattern after
and lived in a way that has won the respect and esteem of every white
acquaintance. Uncle "Gun" says that the early white settlers and old-time
citizens of Collin were the best people in all the world and he still loves the
few surviving ones and reveres the memories of these who have passed on to the
other shore. Collin county had only been organized six years when he was born
into the world and McKinney, which was incorporated and became a town
seventy-nine years ago was then only a tiny pioneer village, just four years old
at the time of his birth. Comparatively few Collin people are now living in the
county who were born in slavery times, and still fewer, if any others are living
here who are native born.
Surname Index
Recommended Citation:
"Gun Jones,
EARLY SETTLERS OF COLLIN COUNTY." Collin County, Texas History
and Genealogy Webpage by Genealogy Friends of Plano Libraries, Inc., <http://www.geocities/genfriendsghl>
[Accessed Fri February 13, 2004 ].
|
