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Nancy Bellzona's Picture Book
The Osages - Warren Curtis Jones


Warren Curtis JonesWarren Curtis Jones, son of Dennis and Bertha Big Eagle Jones was born May 15, 1929. He died December 4, 1956. His funeral was held during a blizzard which blanketed the lonely prairie cemetery with a cover of glass like ice. Ura May held tightly to her cousin, Donna for emotional and physical support. He is buried next to his mother at Foraker, Oklahoma.

Warren was eight years old when his mother died. Velma, Bertha's sister-in-law and friend saw to it that Warren never missed a meal. She was an excellent cook and she kept the family with traditional eating arrangements. Warren's grandmother, Bellzona was ever alert to his clean, well-kept appearance. The boy was gifted with his mother's personality and he was always welcome in and out of the homes of his extended family.

The relationship of the Native American is different from that of other Americans. There is no cousin. One's cousin is called a brother or sister. Velma and Bertha were raising their children this way. Warren was older than his cousins and he was their hero. They looked up to him with adoring eyes. Warren fished with his Grandsir, Jones, hunted with his Uncle Lee, dallied around the kitchen while his aunt cooked, flitted in and out of his Grandmother Bell's home. No one ever knew his feelings about his mother's death other than his Aunt Velma and Uncle Lee. "There were many nights we sat up with Warren while he cried for his Mother," Velma told the author. The tragedy was never spoken about in their homes. At school he was the protector of the younger children with a vigilant eye as to their problems and in this way repaid his Aunt Velma and Uncle Lee for their protection from the age of eight years after his Mother's death.

Warren served in the military in Europe against the family's wishes as to carrying on the ranching tradition. He faithfully recorded his experiences to a sister-cousin, Donna, and sent along a five-dollar bill with each letter. While in Europe he traveled seeing the countries there. He recorded his visits of castles and monasteries, sending back souvenirs from those places. Once there was a scarf with a map including Nice, another time a purse made by the monks which had been engraved with gold leaf.

Upon his return from the service he began to work at rebuilding the ranch lands. He rented dozers and scraped out double ponds. He rebuilt sagging fences, and he roofed the ranch house. Strangely he didn't stay there in the fully furnished house, but, instead stayed in the more practical ranch which was furnished with more durable oak furnishings. The "Strike Axe Place," which had been Lee and Velma's home was where he chose to stay.

Warren drove pipe line trucks carrying loads of long oil field pipe. He owed no bills when he died. A twenty-one thousand dollar trust was set up for the child his wife claimed was his and who carried the Jones name.

Warren's wife's uncle shot him to death in a small Kansas town largely governed by her family. He had sent her money to come home but she spent the money and called him asking him to come after her. When he arrived, the family told in court he shot the lights out around the house, and when he stepped on to the porch, the wife's uncle, shot and killed him through the door.

A nurse at the hospital told Dennis rigor mortise had set in already, an impossibility in the ten minutes it took for the ambulance to get to the hospital.

William Henry Beaver Jones and Rhoda Holloway Jones were the great-great grandparents of Warren Curtis. His great-grandfather was William Stephens Jones who fought for the Osage at Bartlesville, Oklahoma when they came from Kansas in their own trail of tears.

Disclaimer:
This account was told to the author by Warren's father, Dennis Homer Flynn Jones, who passed away in 1975.  Dennis said he found Warren in his bed at Bartlesville, unconscious where he had been struck with an iron. The case was never taken to a higher court, so all the happenings as to truth will never be known.

Geneva Jones, Warren's wife, is no longer living. Recently, 2008, I have been told Geneva was badly beaten when she returned to Mansfield, Missouri, but there again higher courts would have included all of the incident for records. The family at the time was too devastated to pursue anymore court time and more grief.  Warren's death destroyed a whole family because of his actively contributing to the upkeep of the ranch. I was only 16 at the time and could not move anyone in the family to push for higher courts.  Years later, I expressed a wish to have Warren's body exhumed so a proper autopsy could be done and my family had disbelief that I should even suggest such a thing. The killing was called Justifiable homicide in that court at the time. 

Contact with Warren's heirs was never made until now and as far as is known, none have registered with the Osage tribe.  This registering should be done because Warren would have wanted his descendants to have the educational benefits, housing and medical their tribe could offer them.. 

Having known Warren as a brother, I'm sure of this.  Fifty three years after this event at 2008, I'm still saddened to tears to record these things. However, we must go forward with providing for our family and loved ones through Warren's descendants regardless of the hatefulness of that events to have happened so many years ago, some 53, in fact. It is the whole reason for my doing this work, to try to close a horrific event we suffered through with something good.  If I should be gifted to see my loving brother in the resurrection I will be able to tell him I did everything I could to see his descendants could be provided for, even though he was no longer living.

Donna Jones Flood,
Sister, cousin to Warren Curtis Jones


 

 


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