John Thomas Jones and Margaret Elizabeth Caldwell were married December 24, 1890, on Christmas Eve, at our Grandmother Caldwell’s home in Malad, Idaho.
The first eighteen months of their marriage was spent north of Malad, in a place known as Snake River Country. It was unsettled and there were many Indians around that territory.
Father’s business was that of freighting. He drove eight heads of horse and would be gone from home many days at a time.
When their first child was a few months old, they moved to a log cabin up on the Snake River; this enabled Father to be closer to his work, so that he wouldn’t have to leave Mother alone so often. Their closest neighbor was four miles away, on the opposite side of the river.
Mother could ride a horse well; as she was raised on a ranch and was taught to ride when she was very young. She had gone to visit these neighbors with Father on different occasions, as the river could be crossed on horse-back at certain places.
Mother told us that one day at lunch time, while Father was away, she looked out the window and there were three big buck Indians, she had no time to think of what to do; they were at the door. She had the baby in her arms, and started giving them food (butter and home-made bread, which she had just made.) They took the food and turned and left. She watched them with her heart in her mouth until they were out of sight. Then she took the baby and forged the river to the neighbors, and asked if she could stay with them until Father returned. On Sunday they cooked a very nice dinner. Mother thought she was eating chicken, when they had finished one of the girls asked her how she liked the meat and if she knew what kind it was. Then they told her it was skunk meat, she got really sick and could not stand the thought of eating there again. She was pleased, to say the least, when Father returned home a day sooner than expected. They only lived there for about eight months. Then they returned to Malad Valley and made their home near there for the rest of their lives.
Father worked for Uncle John E. Jones and Uncle Dan E. Jones, his mother’s brothers. They owned a flour mill, store, sheep, cattle, etc. Father would haul feed for the animals and did freighting through Utah and Idaho. Mother ran a boarding house and cooked for the mill hands and all the other hired men that worked on the place. Mother was a wonderful cook. They lived there five years, then they bought a dry farm in Pocatello Valley; they would live there in the summer, but would have to move back to town in the winter so the children could attend school. A few years later they sold that place and bought forty acres of irrigated land in Gwenford, Idaho. They raised beets, potatoes, and alfalfa. He was a great lover of horses and in the winter and early spring he would break horses to work and to ride for other people. When anyone for miles around had a special horse to break, they would bring it to Jack T. , as he was always called. He was a generous and kind man and had a wonderful sense of humor. Father never could stand for a person to scold a child, little children were perfect in his way of thinking.
After a few years and the older children were married and moved away, the folks sold the forty acres and bought an acre of ground on a hill north of the town of Malad, and had a small home built. They raised a few chickens and a garden, also raised peaches, apples and pears. Father worked away from home most of the time, but we looked forward to his coming home and our family get-togethers, we were always taught love and respect for one another. Father always said if you hated anyone, it was because you didn’t know them. Mother was an immaculate housekeeper and we loved to bring our friends home with us, and we knew if it was at meal time they were always welcome, and Mother could always set a table to be proud of.
In July of 1936, Father was stricken ill with cancer. He never went to the hospital, Mother took care of him throughout his long period of suffering. He passed away February 23, 1937.
Later that year Mother sold the home and bought another home closer to town. From 1940-1945, she spent her winters in California with the children that were living there. But she always maintained her little home in Malad.
She passed away of a heart ailment, May 16, 1945. At that time she was survived by her eleven children, fifty-two grandchildren and thirty-three great grandchildren.
Both Mother and Father are buried in the Malad Cemetery, and also since that time the oldest child and the youngest child have been buried in Malad in the family plot.