|
 JUDA
JONES BOCKIUS, HENRY BOCKIUS
Children of Juda and Henry,
left to right: Buddy,
Alfred, Blanche, Loretta
(Babe).
Juda was a sister to Joseph
Hubbard Jones, and daughter of William Stephens Jones.
Those few who remember her
to this day speak of her as a vibrant, strong athletic woman. She rode
horses as well and as easily as any man. She rode side saddle in order to
wear her long skirts as she rode.
There are finer pictures of
her and her family but this in the cotton fields show their strength and
willingness to work. If anyone has ever picked cotton they know what a
torturous chore it was. The burrs on the hull of the cotton can well leave
one's hands bloody from the task.
To some extent it may have
been this woman who paved the way for the Joneses to be accepted by the
Osage. She was a woman as strong in her attitudes as her physical life.
She began to be friendly with various unsavory rough characters in the
area. Due to this she picked up information regarding plots and schemes to
murder Indian women for their wealth. As she ran to report these things
she had stumbled upon she was shot. While she was in a car, she was run
off the road to try to make it look like an accident. The people who found
her called Bellzona and her son Lee Otis, who was a child at the time. As
Lee, son of Joseph Herbert Jones, walked over to where she was on the
road, she pulled her blouse back and showed him the gunshot in her side.
He carried the event all his life, never telling it, until just before he
died when he labeled these pictures. Why? The Joneses are most loyal to
their children. Probably, he felt it was to protect them from the
knowledge of the horrid happening. Since the whole family is no longer
living, he must have felt it was time to divulge the truth.
It is an interesting
observation to note she showed Lee, who was a child and her nephew, but
didn't show Bellzona, her sister-in-law. The times in Oklahoma were
perilous and dangerous. One never knew who was involved with the schemes
to possess the oil wealth of the Indian.
Bill Hale is a name that
became infamous because of his part in the bombings of Indian homes, and
murders all to possess their wealth. His picture is shown in the old news
clippings. These were the things Juda learned before they had been carried
out. Babe, Loretta, Juda's daughter, married a man in Denver, Colorado who
owned hotels. If she is still living no contact has been made with her.
Buddy is the one whose wife
was the cook for the Joneses when Bertha died.
Alfred "Alfie" Bockius
This photograph of "Alfie" Juda Jones
Bockius's oldest child is a good description of the man. I had an
opportunity to meet him when he was an older man and I was still a girl.
He was visiting at the ranch house. At the time I had no idea about his
connection to the family, no knowledge of Juda, his mother, as Grandfather
Joseph Jones's sister, or anything else about him. However, I was
impressed with him as a person. He was very much in control of his world
around him, it seemed. When he spoke his words were clear and he was
careful to take the time to wait on a person's comments to make sure they
understood what he was saying. I remember him using his large hands in
gestures to illustrate a point he was trying to make. He was sitting in a
large, over-stuffed, comfortable chair and his attitude was very much like
it is in this picture, what we would call in slang today as "laid-back."
When I met him there were no remnants of a cowboy attire. He wore a crisp
shirt and soft stylish slacks but I remember his clothing fitting his
large, athletic looking, frame, well. I, even though youthful, could see
the man had the respect of the family. He was comfortable in his
surroundings, much like he might have been at home and we were the
visitors. Of course, his early loss of his mother would have made him
comfortable in the home of the descendants of his mother, Juda's brother,
Joseph. He had probably spent many hours there as a youth.
Henry Bockius For
all my life I have known nothing about this man, Henry Bockius, except his
name. The family always mispronounced it as "Buckius." After these many
years, almost 70, in fact, via this computer, I heard from a descendant of
his. She gave me the correct spelling. I then went back to the photograph
and, sure enough, softly written in pencil was the correct spelling, "Bockius."
Dad wrote the names on the back of these photographs the year he died
in 1986 with a pen and he wrote it just as he had always misspronounced
it, "Buckus." Henry's descendant, Linda Hauns, tells me this man's family
was originally from Pennsylvania. I'm sure there will be many interesting
things to learn about this Bockius family. The descendant was glad to
hear about his family. She said it made the dry genealogy facts come alive
for her. I've discovered it isn't a very good thing to assume anything
about these old photographs. I believed that since Juda or Blanche, her
daughter, were not in this photograph Juda was no longer living and maybe,
Blanche was married. Henry has a look of suspicious cautiousness and the
children have a saddness about their faces, it seems to me. The times were
so hard though, that alone could have caused their countenances to be the
way they were in the this photograph.
Juda Jones Bockius
Juda, "Aunt Jude," is dressed here and on
her way to church, probably. These folks were so poor it was hard for
them to dress for church. In agreement with their southern ancestor's
ways, who were able to stitch up clothing in a hurry, from whatever
fabric was available their poverty didn't keep them from always having
something to wear to a meeting. Probably the only expenditure here would
have been Babe's patent leather shoes and Jude's purse. She seems to be
allowing the purse and shoes to be obvious as if to say, in her mind,
"you see, I can afford to buy something, here." It was true they were
very good with sewing up outfits even to the men's suits. I find it
interesting to sse the style for the men's clothing, circa 1916, in
Henry's pictures show the ties and shirts matching in color value, just as
might be done in this day and time, the year of 2005. |
