Sarah Young, 1874-1939

Another servant found in the Jones family household was Sarah Young. She is buried in the Jones family cemetery in southern Lafayette County. So often what we find in our genealogical research is information about mothers and fathers. After all, we are looking for our ancestors aren't we? Overlooked and unremembered (is that a word?) are the single people, especially the ones that are dislocated from their siblings and parents. Sarah was one of those people, as was her friend William Hardcastle. Possibly the only sign of Sarah today is her grave marker and the census information below. Take a few seconds to think about Sarah and her life.

1900 Census
Lafayette County, Mississippi
Beat 4
John Browning 70 IL VA SC landlord
Sallie J. 39 TN NC NC
James Jones 19 MS stepson
Lena A. Jones 15 MS stepdaughter
Georgia Jones 13 MS stepdaughter
John Jones 8 MS stepson
Norwood Jones 4 MS stepson
Sarah Young 24 MO Eng Mexico (born 1876)

1910 Census
Lafayette County, Mississippi
Taylor township
Sallie J. Browning 48 widowed TN NC NC boarding house owner (born 1862)
Johnnie P. Jones 18 MS MS TN "son" helper, I.C. Depot
Norwood Jones 16 MS MS TN "son" laborer, driving team
Sarah Young age 38 PA Eng Eng servant (born 1872)
William Hardcastle age 86 single Eng Eng Eng no occupation

1920 Census
Lafayette County, Mississippi
Beat 4
Norwood B. Jones 24 MS MS TN farmer
Carrie Mae 22 MS MS MS
Marvel Marie 5 mo old daughter MS
Sarah Young 44 PA Eng Eng "servant private family"

1930 Census
Lafayette County, Mississippi
Taylor village
Norwood B. Jones 34 MS MS TN farmer
Carrie 32 MS MS MS school teacher
Marvel 11 MS daughter
Norwood L. 9 MS son
Mitchell L. 7 MS son
Sarah H. Young 60 single MS MS MS "housekeeper" with line drawn through

William Hardcastle, English Servant

I wish I could find the grave for William Hardcastle, English servant. He first shows up in the 1880 census as a laborer in the household of Louis B. Jones and his wife, Helen. The census indicates that he was born in 1828 in England and was single. In 1900, William Hardcastle is listed as a servant in Louis's household once again, 75 years old, born in England and with 1855 given as year of immigration to the U.S. After Louis died, William went to live with Sarah Jones Browning, Louis's remarried daughter-in-law. He was still living in 1910, 86 years old, in her household.

William was more than a servant, I believe, because Louis named his youngest son William Hardcastle Jones. Perhaps he is buried in the Jones family plot without a marker. We'll likely never know the circumstances that brought him to Lafayette County from England, but he is remembered now, nearly a century later.

Jones Family Plot

View of graveyard

I spotted this cemetery from the road during a recent drive through the Lafayette County countryside, and my husband obligingly stopped so I could take pictures. It obviously is a family cemetery plot, and based on the names on the tombstones the plot appeared to belong to the Jones and Williams families.

William J. Jones was the oldest person buried there, born September 13, 1802, and his wife Angelina was born August 27, 1809. From the research I've done, William and Angelina owned a fairly large plantation near the community of Taylor in southern Lafayette County. They were born in North Carolina but lived in Tennessee just prior to moving to Mississippi. The 1860 Federal Census indicates that William owned real estate worth $25,000 and had a personal estate worth $45,000. The personal estate was comprised primarily of slaves as the 1860 Federal Slave Schedule indicated ownership of 40 slaves with his son Louis owning 20 slaves.

With such an estate and with several children, I expected to find a lot of information on the Jones family, but actually not much turned up. This was puzzling until I dug a bit more.

William J. Jones

1850 Census
Lafayette County, Mississippi
William J. Jones 45 NC farmer $4,000 real estate
Amelia 27 NC (should be Angelina)
Lewis B. 18 TN student
Hannah P. 14 TN
Edmond 11 MS
Sarah A. 8 MS
John J. Bolin 35 GA carpenter

1860 Census
Lafayette County, Mississippi
William Jones 56 NC farmer $25,000 real estate, $45,000 personal property
Angelina 46 NC
Martha 22 TN
Hannah 20 TN
Edmond 18 TN
Sarah 15 TN
John Hale 35 NC Overseer

Angelina Jones

Records show that William enlisted in Company G, 1st Miss. Infantry in 1861 and served for the duration of the war. As you can tell from the 1870 census, William's land lost much of its value. Both he and Angelina died not long after the census, William in 1871 and Angelina in 1873. No record is found after 1860 for son Edmond so I believe he probably died during the Civil War.

1870 Census
Lafayette County, Mississippi
Township 8
W. J. Jones 68 NC farmer $7500 real estate
Angeline 61 NC
Martha 35 TN
Virgil Tyson NC farmer 'black'
Lucy Tyson 50 KY cook 'black'

nearby:
L. B. Jones 38 TN farmer $2500 real estate
H. T. 37 TN
David 14 MS
John 9 MS
Lucy 5 MS
William 3 mo MS

1880 Census
Lafayette County, Mississippi
Beat 4
Louis Jones 48 TN NC NC farmer (died 1901)
Helen 44 TN NC NC (died 1896)
John 19 MS at school (died 1898)
Lucy 14 MS (married a Bond, died 1884)
Wm 9 MS (never married, died 1901)
William Hardcastle 52 Eng Eng Eng laborer
Sarah Youngblood 28 MS KY KY cook

What a tragic turn this family took in the following years. In addition to the deaths noted above, Louis and Helen's son David also died, in addition to several of David's children. His mother Helen's tombstone was inscribed, "Tell Davie, and Willie, to meet me in Heaven." I suppose Louis had the tombstone inscribed thus. When his son William H. died in early 1901, the following inscription was put on his tombstone by his father, "When you died my son, my last earthly prop was removed." Louis himself died just weeks later.

The 1900 census includes a household for Louis B. Jones, a farmer, living with his 29 year old unmarried son, William H., and three servants, including one servant born in England. His location was the village of Taylor. As noted, both Louis and his son died in 1901. Louis's daughter-in-law, his son David's widow, had several small children in her household in 1900. So there may be some Jones descendants out there today.

It appears that this family was wiped out one at a time, from various causes throughout the years, and instead of dozens of descendants, William J. Jones has but a few. Only these graves remain to tell the story of this family. No house remains, no other sign of their existence.

Decoration Days

In the years following the Civil War, a Decoration Day was held in Oxford each year to honor those individuals buried in the Confederate cemetery on the campus of the University of Mississippi. By the time 1892 had rolled around, however, interest in such celebrations appeared to be on the wane. To the rescue came a student at the university, W. F. Nelson, of Copiah County, who raised funds, organized the effort to have the graves cleaned off, and planned the ceremonies.

Beginning at the town square of Oxford, probably in front of the Confederate soldier's monument, the day usually began with a lively band that proceeded to head up a processional parade from the square onto campus. Following the band were school children, bearing flowers, and then any former Confederate soldiers. Upon arriving at the cemetery, the flowers were scattered upon the graves and rousing speeches were given. Southern war songs also were usually part of the occasion. This was a scene that was carried out in many small towns throughout the South during those days, and often you will find photographs of old Confederate veterans posing together on the county's courthouse square.

Prior to one such Decoration Day held on the University's campus, perhaps the one in 1892, the graveyard was cleaned up and the boards which were originally placed at the graves of the deceased soldiers were removed, thus making it impossible to later identify them. At one time a list of the names of the soldiers was reported to have been made, but a search for such a register in 1905 turned up empty. Several of the University's building were used as hospitals where soldiers from the armies of Generals Johnston, Bragg, Price, Van Dorn and Forrest received medical treatment. One of the doctors at such a hospital was Dr. Isom, and his assistant, Dr. A. M. King, prepared a list of those soldiers who died in his ward, complete with their names, company, regiment, state and the disease or wound from which they died. These names are included on the monument that now stands in the middle of the cemetery, a mere fraction of the names of the estimated 700-800 soldiers that were buried here.

Source: "Confederate Cemeteries and Monuments in Mississippi" by R. W. Jones as published in the Mississippi Historical Society's 1905 issue of Publications. Richard Watson Jones was a native of Virginia, born there in 1837, and a Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Mississippi.

Between the stadium and coliseum

The soldiers who rest in the Confederate cemetery on the Ole Miss campus are resting in prime real estate. Wonder what they would think of their surroundings today? Above are the views from the cemetery of the basketball coliseum (top) and the football stadium.

Confederate Cemetery - University of Mississippi

Tucked away in a peaceful spot behind Tad Smith Coliseum on the Ole Miss campus is a little-known Confederate cemetery. The soldiers buried here are memorialized by a single, gray stone monument in the center of the graveyard which is itself surrounded by a low brick wall. The Albert Sidney Johnston Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy is responsible for placement of both the stone monument and the brick wall. When I visited there recently, two small Confederate flags flanked the monument.

Below: steps leading up to the monument. You can get an idea of the size of the cemetery. The plaque on the monument indicates that more than 700 soldiers are buried here, mostly Confederate troops but some of Grant's army too.

Below: only a few names are known of the buried soldiers, and these are listed on the plaque. The earliest burials date from June 1862 following the Battle of Shiloh when Confederate troops retreated to Oxford. At that time, the Lyceum building on the campus of the University of Mississippi was used as a hospital for the wounded soldiers. Later that same year, following the Battle of Corinth in September, General Grant and his troops occupied Oxford, and the university's buildings were used by them.

There is a reason why there is just a solitary marker in a rather large, confined area. Sometime around 1900, workers on campus were instructed to clean up the cemetery by cutting the grass and weeds that had grown up around the graves and around the many markers that identified the graves at that time. Carelessly, the workers removed all of the markers in order to make their job easier, but when it came time to replace the markers no one knew which marker went with which grave! The ladies of the Daughters of the Confederacy then had the single monument erected to replace the lost grave markers. Later, in 1936, the original iron fence that encircled the cemetery was in disrepair and was replaced by the current brick wall, using bricks from the previously-burned Gordon Hall on campus.

Ripley Cemetery - some unusual markers