![]() ![]() ![]() Tragedy struck Margaret again when 23-year-old Charley Evans, her youngest (1860-1883), drowned trying to rescue a companion who had fallen through the ice of Lake Pepin. This union with Uncle Jones led to one of Jennie's Lloyd-Jones’ favorite riddles: “My eldest sister is my youngest brother's mother-in-law,” for indeed, Margaret’s brother Enos, the youngest of the clan, was married to Eleanor, the eldest daughter of Uncle Jones. As there was already a “Thomas” in the Lloyd Jones family, her new husband was dubbed “Uncle Jones.” Descendants of his line live in Arena to this day, always welcome connections and additions to the lines from Richard and Mallie. Jones of Arena, a widower with growing daughters. ![]() In 1873, the second “Jones” of her name appeared when she married Thomas B. There their two sons, Orren Thomas and Charles Henry, were born in 18, and there, two years later, Thomas Evans died, leaving Margaret a young widow with two small sons to care for.īy this time, the Lloyd Joneses had set their eye on “the Valley” in Wisconsin and it was to that refuge that Margaret returned. Meanwhile, Thomas and Margaret lived the life of true pioneers in Fillmore County. His life was saved by the raftsman, who grabbed him by the seat of the pants! Years later, that same Evan Evans became Jenkin’s tent mate and companion throughout their service in the Civil War. He nearly lost his calf, but hung onto its tail. Another experience of that long trek to Iowa was that of crossing the Mississippi on a raft. His rap at one cabin door afforded him a refreshing face-hand-and-foot bath, a warm supper, a night indoors, and a fresh lunch. He took with him a little money and lots of lunch, slept in the open, milked the cows, giving the milk to the pioneers who were willing to allow him to keep his cows and calf within their fenced lot for the night. When word reached home that they could do well if they had a few cows (milk being scarce there), Evan, after much pleading with his parents, started out on foot with two cows and a calf, driving them all that distance alone. ![]() Thomas’ younger brother, Evan Evans, described the way they filled their wagon with a few chickens, a barrel of salt pork, and a few dire necessities and set out for Iowa, where they built their log hut and started their farm. The young couple lived in Old Helena before settling at York, Fillmore County, near the Iowa line of Minnesota. We know little of Margaret's first marriage. Aunt Margaret's homes, even in the most unlikely soils, blazed with native flowers and carefully tended herbs, a colorful splash of beauty that eased the heart and elevated the spirit.īy the time Margaret married Thomas Evans, she was 21 and the family had moved to Spring Green. We are told Mallie gathered flower seeds from her native Wales to beautify her unknown American home. Certainly, Mallie's lifelong love of the beautiful was echoed by her daughter. One can well imagine that the growing Margaret was the prime distaff helper to "the little mother” Mallie, who had exchanged the familiar hills and valleys, language and loving friends of Wales for life as a pioneer wife and mother. Ahead were Utica, New York, the frigid winter of 1844, the sudden illness and death of her little sister, Nanny, and the final 1845 destination-Ixonia, Wisconsin. The voice of calm in the midst of Lloyd Jones turbulence.īorn January 13, 1835, in Llandysul, Wales, and named for Richard's remarkable mother, Margaret Enoch (Jones), our Margaret would have been nearly nine when the tears and embraces of friends and relatives sent the small family off to its future. Rather, Richard and Mallie’s third-born child was “Aunt Margaret the Peace-maker.” Gentle. And yet Margaret was never, by any account, a bitter woman. A second marriage would end in a second widowhood. Her two sons, young men of immense talent and promise, would soon die-one trying to save a friend from drowning one from a virulent throat cancer. This picture of Margaret, seated quietly amidst her siblings, shows a woman already marked by widowhood. ![]()
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