Thursday, May 29, 2008

C. A. Jones "Hump Back"

Not much is known about C.A. Jones. Diamond refers to him as "Hump Back."
Diamond's account of the trials, show that "C.A. Jones, Hump Back" was tried in a group trial along with: James Powers, Eli M. Scott, Thomas Baker, Geo. W. Anderson, Abraham McNeese, Henry Cochran, C. F. Anderson, Wm Wernell, B. F. Barnes, Wm Rodes and N. M. Clark. All were found guilty of disloyalty & treason and were hanged on Sunday, October 12 and Monday, October 13.
(Diamond, pg 76; McCaslin, pg 82, 200)
(It is rather irritating that those who kept the records or transcribed the records of the trial did not take the time to write out the whole given names of the condemned men.)

This past week, two deeds in the Cooke County Deed Book 5 were found that may belong to C. A. Jones.
If these land deeds do belong to the C. A. Jones who was hanged in the Hanging, then we know his name to be Charles A. Jones.

Cooke County, Texas Deed Book 5, pg 391-392
18 July 1861
Charles A. Jones purchases from Thomas & Sarah Crane a Gainesville City Lot: Block 3 Lot 6.

Cooke County, Texas Deed Book 5, pg 497
7 Apr 1862
Charles A. Jones (also referred to in same document as Charley A. Jones & C. A. Jones) purchases from George L. Scott two Gainesville City Lots: Block 3 Lots #5 & #7

After this second purchase in 1862, Charles A. Jones owned lots five, six and seven in block three of Gainesville City. Further research will need to be done to see what happened to these lots and the Charles A. Jones who purchased them. The 1860 & 1870 census for Cooke County, Texas was searched and a "C. A. Jones, Charles Jones or Charley Jones" does not show up in either census. So whoever bought the Gainesville lots in 1861/1862 was not in Gainesville prior to the purchase in 1860 nor did he stick around to show up in the 1870 census. McCaslin suggests that there was a C. Jones (unmarried, 18 yrs old, b. Louisiana) in the 1860 Clay County, Texas census that was serving with a ranger company.

Was C. A. Jones married? Did he have children? Who were his parents? Where was he from?
Any help into the identity of C.A. Jones would be appreciated!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This hanging was just plain wrong! My great great grandfather was James Powers. These men did nothing wrong except stand up for their belief in freedom of people, anti slavery. What a disservice to mankind!

Anonymous said...

He was referred to as "Hump Back". So the mob/jury hanged a disabled person? It appears he owned land - three city lots. Maybe someone just wanted his property.