|
 Dennis
Homer Flynn Jones, born April 29, 1900, Marshall Oklahoma. Died October
11, 1976. Married March 30, 1920 to Metza Bertha Big Eagle. This picture
was taken about that time. Notice the bare wood floor.
The state of Oklahoma was
only twelve years older than Dennis, so one might say the two grew up
together. His father Joseph Hubbard Jones and Nancy Bellzona Collins Jones
came to Ralston, Oklahoma from Guymond, Oklahoma in their flight from the
dust bowl, literally driving their wagons over the dust covered fences.
Early times at Ralston were
hard. There were stories told about how the little family had to struggle
just to stay alive, and not even that, since they lost a little sister,
Eloise Inez when she was only two.
The Osage Indian befriended
them, probably because they were distant relatives, this before the tribe
came into their oil wealth. The family learned many ways of living off the
land, plus they had their own hunting skills.
Dennis's brother Lee told
of the first winter when the snow blew through the logs of the cabin
because winter had set upon them before their father, Joe, had been able
to fill the cracks in the small log shelter he hastily built for them.
Even though the times were
hard, the boys, Dennis and Lee, ran the woods and river with the Osage
children and became close friends with them. Their life wasn't any harder
than the Natives because they themselves lived in teepees.
Dennis fell in love with
Metza Bertha Big Eagle when she was only fourteen. Since the Indian girls
matured early there should have been no problem as to marriage except that
by this time the tribe had come into their wealth and her family did not
want her married. This was natural and understandable since it was the law
of the Osage for the girls to marry into their own tribe. If they lost a
husband and had children who would be without a father, then they were
free to marry into another race. The girls were watched carefully by a
duenna and allowed to have contact with no men outside the tribe.
This was easily overcome
for the two since they were well acquainted and possibly cousins. Dennis
and Bertha were married in Cleveland Oklahoma, went to Kansas City and
stayed there long enough to legalize their marriage. They still had to go
before a judge when they came home, but since Bertha was already pregnant
their marriage was allowed to stand and not be annulled.
Bertha lost her first child
when he was only fourteen months old and even though she had another child
soon, Ura May, she had a very hard time recovering from her loss. Many of
the pictures show her sadness. Their children were: 1 Dempsey L.C. Jones,
7/22/21 - 9/1/22. 2 Ura May Jones 5/2/23 - 11/29/74.
3 Warren Curtis 5/15/29 4
Mary Marlene, 9/15/36 - 9/15/36. |
