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From: "Sherry Balow" <>
Subject: ELIZABETH HILL, Part 1
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 15:26:02 -0800


Elizabeth Hill (Hampton) Jones (Parker)
1830-1893

Re-typed Feb., 2005 from copied pages, the writings of **Hazel Jones
Uthoff, grand-daughter of Elizabeth.
Copies from William Dunbar --Re-typed by Sherry Balow, copied as written
except for occasional use of names in capital letters. Original written
sometime after 1971. FOR RESEARCH USE ONLY.
(note: Anything Ive added will be identified as a note, followed by SB
and will be in parenthesis.) This will include all writings that I
received. Some is repetitive.

Sherry Balow
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ELIZABETH HILL was one of nine children born to John C. and Polly Kizire
Hill; (note: Elizabeth was sister to my 2nd great-grandfather, JACKSON
HILL. SB) she was born in Jackson County, Indiana on July 11, 1832.

When Elizabeth was about 18, she married LEVI HAMPTON and a short time
later the young couple moved to Osage County, Missouri where they lived for
about 7 years before moving to Decatur County, Iowa. Life in this part of
the country was not easy in the best of times and during 1857-1858, times
were particularly difficult. The U.S. was in the grip of a depression, the
Panic of 1857, and Decatur County was a disaster area. During the summer
too much rain, hail, tornadoes, and grasshoppers destroyed the crops.
Winter brought blizzards, deep snow and death. Elizabeths husband LEVI,
and her son, JOHN, died that winter. Elizabeth, vowing never to return,
moved from Decatur County, Iowa to St. Maries County, Missouri in 1858.
During the year that followed, she met, and was courted by, LEWIS B. JONES,
they were married on April 17, 1859 in Miller County, Missouri.

Lewis was one of 10 children born to Thomas H. and Mary Haines Jones; he
was born in a wilderness area of Virginia near present day Middlebourne,
West Virginia in 1802. Lewis married his first wife, Rebecca Haines, in
1824 and seven children were born to this union between 1825 and 1838.
Rebecca died in 1838 and Lewis married a second time. His second wife,
Elizabeth Custer, bore him five children. He was widowed again in 1850.

After Lewis had married and moved away from home, his father bought a
tract of land along the Ohio River and became a merchant-farmer, selling
produce and cured meat to the river boats that carried passengers and cargo
along the Ohio River. When Thomas died in 1849, Lewis bought out the
other heirs and started a lumber business on McKim Creek in what is now
Pleasant County, West Virginia. At one time his holdings included 17,000
acres of land, a saw mill, a store, and a boat building company. During
the Panic of 1857, he lost most of his property; what he was able to save,
he divided among the children of his first marriage.

Lewis then moved west, seeking to recoup his fortune. The children of his
second marriage came with him to Miller County, Missouri. Charles Wells,
with whom Lewis family had been associated in western Virginia, owned 900
acres of land on the Osage River near Tuscumbia, Missouri. Charles wanted
the land cleared and fenced. Lewis agreed to lease a parcel of land which
he would clear and fence in return for the lumber he would remove from the
land. It was during these early years on the Charles Wells Farm that he
met and married his third wife, ELIZABETH HILL HAMPTON.

Lewis remained on the Charles Wells Farm for about 10 years; four children
were born into the family during this time -- WILLIAM LEWIS JACKSON, our
Grandfather Jones beloved brother, Uncle Billy; ELIZA; ULYSSES GRANT,
our Grandfather Jones; and VIRGINIA. About 1869, Lewis, Elizabeth and the
children moved from the Charles Wells Farm to a farm on the Osage River
near Capps Landing which Lewis had purchased with $1800 saved from the
sale of lumber. Lewis farmed and sold cured meat, like his father before
him, to commercial river boats.

When Lewis lived in Pleasant County, Virginia (now part of West Virginia),
he had cosigned notes of others to help them obtain loans. About 1873, he
was asked to make good on one of those notes and in February of 1874 he
drove some hogs into Tuscumbia to raise the money. He returned home about
midnight with pneumonia and died before morning. Elizabeth Hill was left a
widow for a second time -- this time with two young sons and a seven year
old daughter, Virginia. (Eliza had died about four years earlier.)

About 1877, some three years after Lewis death, Elizabeth lost the farm
on the Osage River. (Grandfather said she was cheated out of it) and a
time of wandering began -- looking for someplace to start over again. For
a period of about seven years, Elizabeth and children traveled from Miller
County, Missouri to Cherokee County, Kansas to Northwest Arkansas, back to
Missouri, and finally to Miller County where she settled for a short time.
During the wandering time, Elizabeth supported herself and her brood by
working as a midwife, and her children took whatever jobs came to hand to
add to the family income. Grandfather said, I was never too little for
the big jobs or too big for the little jobs. I often took jobs that others
were too proud to do. We were poor, but I never went hungry or cold.
There is no shame in being poor. The only thing wrong with being poor is
the disadvantages it brings you. During this period, Elizabeth lost her
remaining daughter, and Uncle Billy married and moved away -- Grant
remained with his mother as they moved back to Miller County.

In 1885, Elizabeths brother, John, (note: JOHN A. HILL -- SB) visited
her in Miller County and persuaded her to move back to Decatur County, Iowa
with him even though she had sworn never to return to that horrible
place. After Grant married and moved away, Elizabeth married for a third
time -- to a man by the name of PARKER. Grant could never accept his step
father and we have no record of him. (note: later the husband of one of
one of Elizabeths granddaughters, OLLIE ACTON --my great aunt, was named
RUBY PARKER. He was from the same area, possibly related. -- SB)

Elizabeth died in Decatur County, Iowa on May 11, 1893, apparently the
victim of food poisoning. Her grave is located in the cemetery of the
Bethel Baptist Church near Davis City, Iowa.


---continued in part 2



Sherry Balow




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