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Obituary, Willard Jones

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Willard_Jones_ObituaryA service of worship in memory of Willard Jones of Fairfield was held in the Fairfield Community Presbyterian Church on Jan. 13 at 2 p.m. Rev. R. Keith Roumpf conducted the services. Mrs. Russell Broderick was organist. Pallbearers were George Briggs, Jack Briggs, Norman Jones, Donald Jones, Ronald Jones and Stanley Schliep. Interment was in the Fairfield Cemetery. Arrangements were by McLaughlin Funeral Home.

Willard Jones was born on Dec. 25, 1881. He was the son of George Thomas Jones and Margaret Standard. He was raised on a farm near Fairfield. Mr. Jones had four brothers and five sisters, all of whom preceded him in death.

On Nov. 25, 1908 Mr. Jones took as his bride, Ella Smith. This couple lived all of their married life around and in the Fairfield community. They were very much a part of a generation that knew little besides hard work and love shared in raising a family. Willard always took pride in farming with harses and kept a team for plowing gardens long after his retirement. Mr. Jones was a member of the former Congregational Church of Fairfield.

He was preceded in death by his wife less than a year ago.

Surviving are six children: Mrs. Audrey Egan of Ayr, Wendell of Jerome, Ida.; Vilas of Mullen; Mrs. Berdena Schliep of Clay Center; Mrs. Velma Briggs of Hastings and Mrs. Virginia Hatman of Wynnewood, Okla. Twenty grandchildren and ten great grandchildren and several other relatives and friends survive to mourn his passing.

Services held Thursday for Vilas H. Jones, 60

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Vilas_Jones_ObituaryFuneral services were held on Thursday afternoon, May 16, for Vilas H. Jones, 60, who died on Monday, May 13 at the Pioneer Memorial Hospital.

Services were held form the United Methodist Church at Mullen with the Rev. Dwight Kemling officiating.

Mrs. Doris Miller and Wayne Hampton furnished the music, with the songs, “Precious Memories” and the “The Lord’s Prayer”.

Honorary pallbearers were Roy Arends, Joe Bader, Harry Deidel, Dale Eppenbach, Ted Evans, Gordon Hansen, Glenn herr, Glen Hodges, Don Long, Gerald Long, Ed Macke, J.E. Macke, Arthur Mathews, Robert Murphy and Allen Smith.

Active pallbearers were Connie Boyer, Richard Cash, Don Herbig, Ernest Leach, William Sonnenfelt and Rolland Ridgway.

Interment was in the Cedarview cemetery at Mullen with Marcy-Upton Post 109 of the American Legion furnishing the military honors.

Vilas Howard Jones, the son of Willard and Ella Jones, was born on a farm near Fairfield, Nebr., on March 21, 1914. He attended school there and graduated from Fairfield high school in 1932.

He came to Mullen in March, 1946 with the United States Geological survey. He was in partnership in a grocery store for a short while and then took up the work of an automobile mechanic, being employed for many years in the Chevrolet garage. Shortly before his final illness he began to work for the Nebraska Department of Roads.

He was married to Neva Little on August 5, 1946, and four children were born to this union.

Mr. Jones was a member of Marcy-Upton Post 109 of the American Legion at Mullen and Lewis Trobough Post 256 at Fairfield. He joined the United Methodist Church at Mullen in 1959.

He was preceded in death by his parents and a sister, Velma Briggs.

Survivors include his wife; sons Sgt. Donald of the Air Force at Colorado Springs and Ronald of Mullen; daughters Mrs. Robert (Bonnie) Bain of Curtis and Jean at home, two granddaughters;

One brother, Wendell of Jerome, Idaho; and sisters Mrs. Ed (Audrey) Egan of Ayr, Mrs. Raymond (Berdena) Schliep of Clay Center and Mrs. Virginia Hatman of Wynnewood, Okla.

Neva June Andrews

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Neva_June_Andrews_ObituaryNeva June Andrews, 76, of Mullen died April 14 2004 at Hillside Estates in Curtis, Nebraska. She was born June 11, 1927 to Carl and Teenie (Long) Little in Cherry County. She attended rural school and graduated from Mullen High School. Neva married Vilas H. Jones of Fairfield, August 5, 1946 in Kansas. He preceded her in death in 1974. To this union four children were born Bonnie, Donald, Ronald and Vonnie (Jeanie). She married Garlan Andrews November 12, 1982 in Mullen.

Neva was a secretary at Mullen Public Schools from 1968 until her retirement. After retirement she enjoyed ranching with her husband, Garlan. She was a member of the United Methodist Church. Her joy in life was her family and all the students she mothered while working at the high school.

Survivors include daughter Bonnie (Bob) Bain of Curtis, Donald (Debra) Jones of Omaha, Ronald (Jean) Jones of Hastings and son-in-law Dan Gibson of Beaver Lake. Stepchildren Retonia (Tim) Gruntorad, Kearney, Glen (Colleen) Andrews, Gordon and Rodney (Yvonne) Andrews, Mullen. Grandchildren: Michelle Votaw, Sharmin & Joe Gonzales, Cody Bain, Connie & Shawn Landon, Mellanie Portillo, Tom Jones, Tina & Don Nelson, Jason & Angie and Ryan Jones, Terra Gibson, and Wade Gibson. Step-grandchildren, Randy Simonson, Jennifer Simonson, Seth and Jake Andrews, Katie Andrews, Alandrea Andrews and Michael Andrews, and 10 great-grandchildren. Brothers Elmer and Paul Little, sisters, Thelma Pearman, Minnie Miller, sister-in-laws Berdina Schleip, June & Tex Evans, and Norma Pearson.

Her parents preceded her in death, step-father Joe Ulrich, two brothers, Ivan and Carl, and daughter, Vonnie Gibson.

A memorial has been established to United Methodist Church Cedarview Cemetery both of Mullen and Hillside Estates of Curtis. Pastor Lila Slater officiated. Music was by Lois Folk & Alisa Phillips. Neva’s grandsons were pallbearers. Funeral services were April 17 @ United Methodist.

A.N. Wilson drowns while swimming in a flooded draw

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One of the most tragic accidents that has occurred in this county for many years took place in Catherton precinct, 16 miles northwest of Red Cloud Sunday afternoon, shortly after four o’clock. Albert N. Wilson and a young man by the name of Ole Iverson went bathing in a pond that had been constructed by the damming of a draw. The water was 15 feet deep and about 40 across. They had not been in the water long before Mr. Wilson was heard to give a cry for help and at the same time was seen to throw his arms widely into the air and then sink from view. Young Iverson, at once surmising that the swimmer had been stricken with cramps, immediately went to the rescue, but the struggling man proved too heavy for the younger one and he was forced to abandon him, after he himself was nearly drowned in his efforts to lend assistance. Other help was then secured, and a rope was tied around young Iverson and he made for the place where the body had disappeared. He made a heroic effort to dive and reach the man whose life was, or had already  passed away, but without avail. When he came to the surface blood was running from his nostrils and but for the rope about him he would have never reached the shore. Work was then begun to break the dam and drain the pond, but this consumed time and it was an hour before a sufficient amount of water had escaped to permit of recovering the body. Of course life was then entirely extinct but doctors had been summoned both from Bladen and Red Cloud and they worked with the man in a vain attempt to start a spark of respiration. It was a sad ending of a prosperous life. The funeral was held from the home Monday afternoon, conducted by Rev. Priestly of Bladen. It was the largest funeral ever witnessed in the history of Webster County, the first of the procession reaching the cemetery one mile distant before the last had left the residence.

Albert N. Wilson was born in Frederick county, Virginia November 9, 1856. In 1877 he came to Webster county and settled in the southern part of Catherton precinct but a few years later purchased a farm 6 1/2 miles from Bladen. On October 29, 1855, he was married to Mary Robinson, who now survived him, and with three children, Vera, Maud and Kenneth, mourns the untimely departure of a true husband and kind father. He also leaves an aged father, two sister and three brothers.

Source:
The Webster County Argus
1902 

Clarence H. Wilson Obituary

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Clarence Wilson aged about 75 years dropped dead suddenly in the Inavale Pool Hall last evening, death attributed to a heart attack.

Clarence H. Wilson was born in Frederick County, Virginia, February 14, 1855, and died at Inavale, July 15, 1930 age 75 years.

He came to Nebraska as a young man in September, 1877, and purchased the farm six miles north Inavale where he spent the remainder of his life, living continuously on this place for more than half a century. When he came here, there was no railway town nearer than Hastings, and the country was yet undeveloped.

Mr. Wilson was eminently fitted by temperament and physical hardihood for pioneer life, and it was men like him who made the wilderness into a garden. In the hardships and privations incident to the life of a pioneer he developed a keen sympathy of mutual understanding of his neighbors and friends.

He was united in marriage to Amanda E. Brooks, February 6, 1887, and three children came to bless their home, Raymond, Gladys and Chester.

He took his bride to the home he had prepared and for more than thirty years they shared the joys and sorrows of pioneer life and rearing their children. Mrs. Wilson’s death on May 2, 1917 was the first shadow that fell on their happy home and was a blow from which he never recovered.

Mr. Wilson was not only a pioneer in this community but was in many respects the founder of this neighborhood. It was largely through his efforts and those of his good wife that the New Virginia Church was organized and later the building erected.

His passing marks the end of the original settlers in the New Virginia neighborhood, he being the last of that group who came from Virginia in the seventies.

Funeral services were held in the home and at the New Virginia Church.