As noted in the May issue of the PRT, the Gatlin Jones Cemetery was established in 1907 and is located at 508 S. Third Avenue in Patagonia. James Isaac Jones (1849-1931), the patriarch of the Jones family, moved to Santa Cruz County around 1907. Unless otherwise noted, all the Gatlin Jones family members mentioned are buried in the private cemetery.
James Isaac “Ike” Jones was born in Joplin, Missouri in 1849. He grew up in Texas and served in the Company D Frontier Forces of the Texas Rangers from 1870 to 1871. He married Mary Ann “Mollie” Weaver in 1872 and they had five children: Mabel Emily, Bessie Ynez, Houstin Alvie, David, and John. The 1900 U.S. Census lists the family as living in San Ysidro, New Mexico. James’ occupation was farming. In 1904 their oldest daughter, Mabel, married and died a few months later. She is buried in Old Rincon Cemetery, Rincon, NM.
When the Jones family moved to Arizona, James was granted “permit to enclose and cultivate 20 acres within the Huachuca National Forest and to maintain a dwelling house, and the necessary outbuildings and fences to protect growing crops, for the purpose of making a home for himself and family.” [Bisbee Daily Review, 7/20/1907]. James later homesteaded 160 acres in the Parker Canyon area where he and Mollie remained until their deaths in 1931 and 1926 respectively.
As noted in last month’s “Glimpses” article, Bessie and Houstin “Hucie” each married a Gatlin brother. Bessie died in 1907, less than a year after her marriage to Albert Gatlin. Hucie married Jesse Gatlin when she was 16 and died at age 28 in 1919.
Twins David and John Jones both helped on their father’s homestead. By 1920 John was farming on his own 58-acre homestead in the Huachucas in Cochise County. That same year he was a juror on the famous H. E. Wootton trial in Bisbee. The “Bisbee Deportation case” was brought against 210 citizens of Bisbee and Warren for the offense of “kidnapping” when they participated in the deportation of about 1,100 miners and their supporters in 1917. [Bisbee Daily Review 5/1/1920]. Wootton was found innocent. After the trial John noted: “I went on the jury with only a slight knowledge of what happened over in Bisbee on July 12, 1917. After listening to the evidence presented in the Wootton case, I feel that what happened there was fully justified under the law of necessity. I believe that any unbiased jury would have been convinced that the deportation was the only available means to avert bloodshed and the destruction of property in the Warren District.” [https://speccoll.library.arizona.edu/news/remembering-bisbee-deportation-1917]
In 1924 John married Inez Zander and they had two sons. John sold his ranch to Blain and Laura Lewis and moved to the Lochiel area where he continued to ranch. [Betty Barr, More Hidden Treasures of Santa Cruz County, 2008: 151]. He served several terms as a Santa Cruz County Supervisor in the 1930s. He died in 1970 and Inez died in 1984.
David Jones served with a cavalry unit in World War I and returned to the Parker Canyon area to ranch until 1942 when his ranch was purchased by Lincoln Hathaway. [Arizona Republic, 12/27/1942]. He married Gladys Barham in 1936 and they had one son. He also worked as a copper miner and as a prison guard in the Florence State Prison. [Arizona Daily Star, 7/12/1981]. Gladys died in 1979 and David in 1981.