Donald Jones and Daisy Bishop

PART EIGHT

CHAPTER 20
DONALD AUGUSTUS JONES and DAISY MAE BISHOP

3 December 2016

Donald Augustus Jones was born 9 August 1903 in Long Prairie, Todd County, Minnesota. He was named for two uncles Don Weaver Jones and Abraham Augustus Jones who later went by the name Jack. He was the son of Fred Newton Jones and Emma Selina Samuelson. Emma Jone’s sister Lydia Paulina Samuelson had married a man named Jay Eugene Baker and was living in Todd County which may account for the Donald’s family moving there to be close to his aunt. Lydia Baker had a son Frank Baker who was born 7 May 1904 in Long Prairie, Todd, Minnesota

The next year in the 1905 Minnesota State Census was taken and while the family of Jay Baker, and his father Fred Jones were listed for some reason, his mother Emma and his brother and Donald were not enumerated in the census. Donald Jones’ family remained in Minnesota until after 1907 when his younger brother Earl David Jones was born 14 June 1907 in Todd County, Minnesota.

By the time of the 1910 Census Fred Jones had moved his family back to Knoxville Township in Marion County, Iowa where he was located 22 April 1910 on farm in Knoxville Township. Donald is enumerated in the household of his father. His parents had had 4 children according to the 1910 Census however only three of them were still living in 1910. His father was working on a rented farm not very far from his father’s half Uncle Abram Cronkhite. Fred’s three children were listed as “Loid Louis” Jones age 8, “Don A” Jones age 5, and “Erl D” Jones age 3. On this census all the children are listed as being born in Iowa when in fact the Donald and Earl were born in Minnesota.

Donald’s father could not make a go of farming and soon went to work as a miner for the Red Rock Coal Company in Melcher. This labor intensive work must have but a strain on his parent’s marriage as by the 1915 Iowa state census when Donald was 13 his parents had divorced. His parents were living in Dallas Township were more than 20 years ago Donald’s Jones grandparents died in a murder suicide scandal when his father was only 17 years old. His father Fred Jones was living in the town of Dallas and his mother Emma a few miles away in the community of Melcher just a few miles south of Dallas. Fred and his brothers were living with their mother in community of Melcher located in section 11, township 74, range 21, immediately south of and adjoining the Town of Dallas.

Donald Jones was raised in near poverty as that his father had only made $500 in 1914 and his mother $300 as a house keeper. A public school building was erected in Melcher the summer of 1914 where the Jones boys attended school. In this 1915 census Donald Jones’ mother gave her religious affiliation as being a member of the Christian Union Church while his father had no religious affiliation. This census also showed that Donald Jones cousins, Frank and Clarence Baker were also living in Melcher with their father Jay Baker who was divorced from Donald’s aunt Lydia.

Three years after this 1915 census was taken Donald’s mother remarried. On 2 November 1918 in Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa she married a miner named Ed Goyen. Donald Jones was 15 years old when he became the step son of this 33 [1885] years old a miner a native of Michigan.

By 5 January 1920, his mother and stepfather had moved from Marion County, Iowa to Sioux City, in Woodbury County, Iowa some 240 miles northwest of Melcher, Iowa. His father remained in Marion County for a time living with his uncle Abram Cronkhite Donald’s mother probably prompted the move because her only sister Lydia and her second husband Fred Brodeur had moved there from Des Moines.

The population of Sioux City grew to 71,227 by the 1920 census, making Sioux City the 99th largest city in the United States. Sioux City began as a boom town in the 1880’s but by 1915 it had become Iowa’s second largest city attracting thousands from the tri-state area especially after the Panic of 1893 had plunged the nation into an economic depression. Even in a depression people have to eat and the Sioux City Stock Yards grew until eventually it covered 80 acres on the south side the Floyd River a tributary of the Missouri.

Sioux City, Iowa was strategically located on the Missouri river where the states of Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota intersect. Sioux City emerged from the 19th Century as a leading livestock market and meatpacking center. It was also a wild and wooly community that attracted sons and daughters of poor farmers and a vast number of foreign immigrants to work in the slaughter houses upon which Sioux City was built. Sioux City was still a wild town when the Joneses moved to the city where records showed that in 1921 there were 20 houses of prostitution with 53 women working within these establishment. And while National Prohibition made alcohol consumption in America illegal, booze flowed freely in the city.

The "big three" meat packing plants, Cudahy, Armour and Swift, established themselves in the Sioux City stockyards area. Thousands of people worked at the stockyards and its related businesses, such as the meatpacking and rendering plants, which covered more than 200 acres along the Chicago & North Western Railroad lines.

The 1920 United States Census had Donald living at 114 South Virginia Street with his mother and her husband “Edd”. The 1920 directory of Sioux City also stated the family was living on Virginia Street. The 1920 Polk Company City Directory for Sioux City misspelled Edward Goyen’s last name as Gowan but he is listed at the address 114 South Virginia with Emma.

Emma was running a rooming house and Donald and his brothers were all listed under their step-father’s last name of Goyen. Lloyd Jones was listed as 18 years old born in Iowa and Donald Jones was listed as 16 years old born in Minnesota. Earl Jones was 13 years old and also born in Minnesota. Lloyd and Donald were already working as laborers in Sioux City’s meat packing slaughter houses. Earl at only 13 was not yet put to work. Besides her own family, listed at the address of 114 South Virginia were three roomers. Two of them were Donald’s former uncle Jay Baker and Donald’s 15 year old cousin Frank Baker.

Only a few houses down from Donald’s step father’s address lived the family of Wallace McPherson at 106 South Virginia Street. In his household was his 14 year old stepdaughter Daisy Bishop. Sixteen year old Donald Jones certainly would have known Daisy from the neighborhood and probably as well as from school.

By 1921 Donald’s parents Fred and Emma Jones must have temporarily reconciled as they are listed as living together in the Sioux City directory. They had moved from Virginia Street to 1009 Iowa Street. Fred Jones is listed as a laborer in the Cudahy Meat Packing Company. Whether Donald’s stepfather left Emma, or divorced her or even he had died is unknown. There are no more records located for him.

Living at the 1009 Iowa address is also Donald’s 19 year old brother Lloyd who was still working for Cudahy Meat Packing. The directory however listed him as Floyd instead of Lloyd but 1009 Iowa was given as his address.

Donald was also “boarding” at his folks 1009 Iowa. He was listed as a “seaman”. He must have wanted to not spend a life in the Sioux City slaughterhouses and had joined the navy probably in at the end of 1920 or early 1921. The city directory for 1922 does not list any of the family of Fred Jones living in Sioux City. Where they may have gone is pure speculative. Lloyd Lewis Jones appears to have joined the army in 1922 and Donald A. Jones was probably in the Navy. Certainly Donald’s parents split for good while he was in the navy.

The 1923 directory showed that Emma Jones had temporarily returned to Sioux City with her teenage son Earl and moved in with her sister and brother in law Lydia and Fred Brodeur at 515 Jones Street. Earl Jones was listed as a laborer. After 1923 the Fred Jones, Emma Jones and their sons were entirely gone from Iowa until Donald Jones returned in 1924. Why he returned to Sioux City may have been because he still had an aunt and cousin there and he also may have been romantically involved with Daisy Bishop. The family of Fred Jones, and his ex wife Emma Samuelson had scattered after leaving Iowa, with Lloyd and his father Fred heading to the Pacific Northwest while Emma and Earl Jones finding themselves in Southern California.

Record of Donald Jones’ service have not been found but he probably was mustered out of the Navy in 1924 and returned to Sioux City to find that all of his relatives except his aunt Lydia Brodeur and his cousins Clarence and Frank Baker had left the state.

Donald A. Jones having recently returned from being in the navy took up again with his sweetheart Daisy Jones. However Daisy was married at the time to Cleo John Phelps.

Daisy Mae Bishop was the daughter of Jesse Bishop and Jennie Bowman born 7 April 1904 in Sioux City. Her parents were divorced in 1909 and Daisy Mae’s mother Jennie married twice more. She was married to a man named Frank Jenkins in 1913 whom she divorced in 1915 and married for the 3rd time Wallace McPherson in 1917 when Daisy was 12. Wallace M McPherson raised her until she left home at the age of 16 years.

Daisy Mae left her step-father’s home in 1921 at the age of 16 when she married John Cleo Phelps on December 6, 1921 in Sioux City. He listed his age as 25 years old and living in Sioux City working as an “assistant gas maker”. Daisy listed her name as “Mae” and lied about her age saying she was 19 years old when she was only 16. Phelps may not have known his bride’s true age. Witnesses to the marriage were John Phelp’s family and they were married by a Justice of the Peace. Daisy may have married Phelps because he had a good job. However the marriage of John Phelps and Daisy was an unhappy one.

John Phelps was a War War I veteran. He had joined the army 16 July 1917 when he was 20 years old in Yankton, South Dakota where he served as a World War I “doughboy” in the 147th Field Artillery Regiment, 66th Field Artillery Brigade, 41st Division. He served in The Meuse-Argonne Offensive, also known as the Maas-Argonne Offensive and the Battle of the Argonne Forest. Both were major battles as part of the final Allied offensive of World War II. In 1919 he was honorable discharged from the army and during the next two worked in Minnesota before finding his way to Sioux City.

The 1921 directory of Sioux City, “Cleo” Phelps was living with his parents at 113 South Howard Street working as a laborer. The following year in 1922 he is still shown as living at 113 Howard but without Daisy. He was a laborer for the W T Elevator Company. By 1923 he had left Sioux City probably to Michigan where he remarried in 1925. Daisy and Cleo Phelps were divorced on March 7, 1924

At the age of 20 years Donald Jones had returned to Sioux City by September 1923 either on leave or visiting when he got Daisy Mae Bishop Phelps pregnant. Their son Kenneth Delbert Jones was born two months after Daisy and John Phelps was divorced. He was born 17 May 1924 in Sioux City out of wedlock. The name Kenneth probably came from Daisy’s younger brother, Kenneth Warren Bishop, who died in 1917 at the age of 10.

However two weeks after the birth of his son, the parents were married on 3 June 1924 in Elk Point in Union County, South Dakota. When Daisy married Donald Jones she used the name “Daisy Phelps” and stated she was a widow when clearly she wasn’t. Daisy Phelps was of Sioux City and “age 19”. She was actually 20 years old.

In his marriage record Donald was listed simply as “D.A Jones” and stated his residence was Big Creek, California, age 22, and said he was a Bachelor. Big Creek was in Fresno County, California. There are several reasons they were married after their son was born; one being that Donald Jones was working in California and could not get back to Sioux City in time. The other is that he may have simply had doubts about marrying her.

In 1923, Big Creek, where Donald Jones gave as his residence, was in the middle of a hydroelectric dam work which was being completed on the San Joaquin River just below its confluence with Big Creek in Fresno County. The year 1923 also saw the completion of Powerhouse No. 3 which then came online, and was billed as the "electrical giant of the West". It was the largest hydroelectric plant in the West, capable of generating 75 megawatts, a huge amount at the time. Also completed in 1923 was the conversion of Big Creek's power transmission system from 150kV to 220kV – the highest commercial voltage in the world at the time. Donald could have certainly worked on these dam projects as that later in the 1930’s he found work on Boulder Dam.

Married life was hard on Donald Jones, as he and Daisy were among the poor working class and had not been married at the time of their son’s birth. Donald Jones could not find work except doing odd jobs throughout his marriage to Daisy.

In 1924 when Donald and Daisy were married, the Sioux City Stockyards were at its peak. The stockyards that year handled 3.7 million hogs which was 50 percent more than the number of people in all of Iowa. Over 10,000 hogs were slaughtered each day and processed at the three big meat packing operations. While the stockyards and meat packing operations provided employment to the poor working class people of Sioux it was at the expense of their neighborhoods that suffered the ever present stench from the manure from the stock pens, the blood from the slaughter houses, and rendering plants where the unusable parts of dead animals were made into fertilizer and soap. It was said that people however became use to what was called “smelly Sioux City” because it put roofs over their heads and food on the table.

Additionally the stockyard and meat packing plants’ animal waste, blood, and hair were washed into the Floyd River which merged with the Missouri River. At the conjunction of these two rivers was a residential area known as “South Bottom”. Here Donald and Daisy Jones lived and where their child Kenneth was raised.

Donald Daisy lived in Sioux City’s “South Bottom” which provided housing for the meat packing plant workers who worked on west side the Floyd River. Laborers settled close to their employers because transportation was scarce and people either walked to work or if lucky bicycled. The area stretched approximately from Third Street south to the Missouri River and from Nebraska Street east to the Floyd River. The South Bottom area was also an ethnic melting pot from the 1880s until 1963 when the housing area was completely wiped out by urban renewal, the construction of Interstate 29 and the rechanneling of the Floyd River.

Donald Jones and Daisy Bishop Jones lived at various times in the South Bottom area of Sioux City where rents were cheap, primarily on Wall Street near the Wall Street Mission. The Wall Street Mission was located at 312 S. Wall Street and served the city’s poor, its alcoholics, its immigrant population and the children of the working class.

The 1924 Iowa State Census listed Donald Jones age 22 as living with his father in law William McPherson at 316 Wall Street along with his wife Daisy Jones and son Kenneth Jones.

When Daisy Bishop was a child the Sioux City Woman’s Club had opened a day nursery on June 10, 1914 in response to the children of working mothers bringing to school their preschool siblings with their school age children. The first day care was in a tent by the Wall Street Mission. It was soon moved into the building itself. The activity center for children continued serving families there for nine years until in 1923 it was moved to a more desirable location. Goodwill Industries started out of the Wall Street Mission in Sioux City. It was the main gathering place for South Bottoms residents.

The 1925 directory showed Donald and Daisy Jones’s residence as 317 Wall Street across the street from the Mission and the McPhersons. They must have moved shortly after the 1925 state census was taken which showed that William McPherson was paying $20 a month rent on the home he occupied with his wife Jennie and his son Frank.

While Donald A Jones was married to Daisy each year they moved from one location to another but mainly stayed in the South Bottoms which boasted at least seven grocery stores, all of different ethnicities and an ice house. There were African Americans, Russians, Greeks, Native Americans, Italians, Poles and German living in the South Bottoms along with the poor whites. A former resident said “Everybody down there was poor but we didn’t know we were poor because everyone was poor.” Most families of the South Bottoms area had fathers or husbands or even mothers who was working for the railroads or in the meatpacking plants.

In the year, 1926, Donald A. Jones address was given as 707 10th Street. He was listed as a laborer and married to Daisy Jones. The following year in 1927 they were back on Wall Street at 301 South Wall Street. Still married to Daisy, Donald was listed simply as a laborer. He was not working in the meat packing plants as the company where he worked would have been listed. He probably was supporting his family taking odd jobs and not making much money which would have added to the instability of their marriage.

The marriage of Donald and Daisy Jones fell apart in 1928 when he was 25 years old and she was 24 years old. They were listed in two separate households. Donald Jones had moved to a room attached to his former home. His address was given as 301 ½ South Wall Street and he was probably renting a room from Mrs. Emma Mouncey who owned the property. He now had found employment at the Armour Meat Packing Plant which stood like a fortress on the other side of the Floyd River. His wife Daisy was living back with her stepfather William McPherson and her mother at a home at 1410 Dace Street where they took in boarders. She was living there presumably with her son Kenneth Jones. She gave her occupation as “helper” which meant she was helping her folks run a boarding house.

In 1929 Donald quit working at Armour and the city directory stated his occupation as “Tempmn Rtl”. The abbreviation section of the Polk Directory does not give any information on what this occupation was. He was living at 2101 South Helen Street in Sioux City where he was renting a room. Daisy Bishop and her son Kenneth were living with her mother at 1212 Leech Avenue in the South Bottoms.

In October 1929, the Stock Market on New York City’s Wall Street crashed heralding in the Great Depression, a time of economic hardship that last until World War II. When the Great Depression began in earnest, hundreds of unemployed hungry men waited outside the meat packing plants in the rain and cold or snow, for hours for a few openings at the plants. However Donald A. Jones was not one of them for he had left Sioux City, leaving Daisy Bishop Jones and his son Kenneth Delbert behind to fend for themselves.

Donald A Jones left his wife Daisy Bishop Jones behind in Sioux City by 1930 when in the 1930 census he is found in Wichita, Kansas some 400 miles away. There on 19 April 1930 he was listed as rooming with the Ford family at 241 Green Street. He gave his age as 26 years old [1904] and born in Minnesota with his father born in Iowa and mother in Sweden. His occupation was a radio operator for airplane communications perhaps a skill he learned as a “seaman”. The term wireless telegraphy was largely replaced by the more modern term "radiotelegraphy". The transmission of “speech radiotelephony” began to displace wireless telegraphy by the 1920s for many applications, making possible radio broadcasting. Wireless telegraphy however continued to be used for private point-to-point business, governmental, and military communication, such as telegrams and diplomatic communications, and evolved into radioteletype networks. Donald A stated he was single, not even divorced, so he had left his family and life in Sioux City behind for good.

On the other hand Daisy Bishop Jones was listed as of 14 April 1930 living with her parents at her stepfather’s home at 1618 18th Street in Sioux City. She is listed as being 25 years old when she had turned 26 on April 7th. Daisy Bishop’s “Marital Status” was given as “Widowed” when her husband was alive and well in Kansas but she may not have known that as she never had contact with Donald Jones again. Her relationship to the head of household was given as “Daughter” while actually she was Wallace McPherson’s step daughter. Her real father, Jesse Bishop, was alive, remarried and living in Sioux City, Woodbury, Iowa in 1930. Daisy’s “Father's Birthplace” was given as “Tennessee” when her biological father had been born in Iowa. Her Mother Jennie Bowman's Birthplace was given as Nebraska which was correct. She had a low paying job as an “Elevator Girl” in a department store as a wage worker.

Others in her residence were her stepfather, Wallace M McPherson, age 41 [1889], her mother, Jennie McPherson, age 45 [1885], her half brother, Frank A McPherson age 15 [1915], her son, Kenneth D Jones age 5, a boarder, William D Schuler age 78 [1852] and her great uncle Marion Bowman age 62 [1868].

In the year 1930, Herbert Hoover was President and because of blunders on the part of the Republican controlled Congress, severe tariffs on import plunged the United States and the rest of the world into the worse economic depression in history. A major work project to help with unemployment was the building of a dam on the Colorado River to provide electricity to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.

Donald A. Jones stated that as of 1 April 1935 he was living in Boulder City, Nevada. One did not just happen to live in Boulder City but could only live there if he worked on the building of Boulder Dam which now is called Hoover Dam. Boulder City’s sole reason for existence was to house workers contracted to build the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. Men hoping for work on the dam project had begun settling along the river in tents as soon as the precise site for the dam had been chosen by the Bureau of Reclamation in 1930.

Boulder City was originally built in 1931 by the Bureau of Reclamation and “Six Companies, Inc.” as housing for workers who were building the Hoover Dam. The land upon which Boulder City was founded had a harsh, desert environment. The summer of 1931 was especially torrid, with the daytime high averaging 119.9 °F. Sixteen workers and other riverbank residents died of heat prostration between June 25 and July 26, 1931.

Boulder City was carefully planned through federal supervision as a model community. The town was designed to house approximately 5,000 workers. The status of the workers on the Hoover Dam was reflected in their house sizes and locations. The most important employees had their residences on top of the hill nearer the apex. Managers were housed further down the hill, and dwellings for manual laborers were located furthest away from the public buildings and parks. There was no provision for schools in the burgeoning city, probably because the Bureau of Reclamation expected that only single male workers would populate the town. No hospitals were provided in the city either. Injured workers had to travel 33 miles to Las Vegas Hospital, and when a hospital was established in the city, females were not admitted for a number of years.

Because the Hoover Dam project itself represented a focus for optimism for a country suffering from the effects of the Great Depression, the town itself was to be an additional manifestation of this optimism. There was to be an emphasis on a clean-living environment for dam workers. Boulder Theatre, established in 1931, meant that workers were not obliged to travel to Las Vegas for amusements. Boulder Theatre was the first air-conditioned building in the city..

Such measures such were common for company towns dating back to the 19th century, since sober workers surrounded by their own gardens and provided with appropriate entertainment would be more productive during their working days. The workers of Boulder City were under strict monitoring: alcohol was prohibited in the town until 1969, and gambling has been prohibited since the city's outset. In the case of Boulder City, the prohibition of alcohol and gambling was at least partly because of to the proximity of Las Vegas, which at the time was predominantly run by mobsters. Visitors to Boulder City were admitted by permit, and by 1932, there was a gatehouse through which all visitors had to pass.

Donald A Jones worked at Boulder Dam and lived in Boulder City until the construction of the dam was finished in 1936 when he was 33 years old. As that he was a radio telegraph operator and that was his occupation in 1940 he most likely worked in the radio telegraph offices rather than on the construction of the dam.

Boulder Dam was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Its construction was the result of a massive effort involving thousands of workers, and cost over one hundred lives. By September 1939, four more generators were operating, and the dam's power plant became the largest hydroelectricity facility in the world.

When work on Boulder Dam was finished and people were laid off most drifted into Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Los Angeles is where Donald A Jones is found in the 1940 United States census of California. It is not certain when Donald Jones moved to Southern California but the 1938 California Voter registration showed a Donald A Jones living at 1168 Bellevue Avenue who was a radio telegrapher and a registered Democrat. Donald A. Jones is listed in the 1939 city directory still living at 1168 Bellvue Avenue but no occupation was given. He was listed without a wife and renting. The 1940 directory does not even list a Donald A Jones. It seems old that he did not move to Long Beach where his mother and brothers were living which suggests that he may not have been close to them.

Daisy Bishop and her son remained in Sioux City where the drought that created the Dust Bowl of the Great Plains states added to the misery of the Depression. While listed in the 1930 census, Daisy Bishop is not found in the Polk City Directory for Sioux City until 1932. She was probably living at home and may have lost her job. When Franklin D. Roosevelt became President in 1932 things began to change. He established an old age pension called “Social Security” and a series of programs to put people back to work.

The Polk Directory for 1932 listed Daisy Mae Bishop as renting at 301 1/2 Wall Street down in the South Bottom by the Wall Street Mission. It was the same residence that Donald Jones rented in 1928 when their marriage fell apart. Daisy Bishop managed to find work in the Armour & Company meat packing slaughter house. She also managed to get out on her own away from her stepfather’s care.

Daisy Mae Bishop, the following year continued in 1933 to live at 301 1/2 South Wall Street and worked at Armour & Company. Her son Kenneth now 8 years old was probably attending school and after school programs at the Wall Street Mission for working mothers.

On 5 December 1933 the 21st Amendment ended national alcohol prohibition. Daisy Mae Bishop may have been part of the majority that celebrated in Sioux City, Iowa. While the old saloons were gone, new beer taverns and drinking establishments flourished in the city especially in the South Bottom among the working poor.

In 1934 when Daisy Bishop was now 30 years old, still working for Armour and Company and living on Wall Street, she became acquainted with Peter Callaghan, a 33 year old bell man who worked at the Warrior Hotel which opened on 20 December 1930, and eleven stories tall. While it closed in 1976 it is still considered a historic structure located in downtown Sioux City, Iowa.

Peter Callaghan was born 3 August 1901 in Joliet, Wills County, Illinois to Irish immigrants John Callahan and Nora Leahy. He was raised there and is found there in the World War I draft registration. He was was 11 years old when his father died and 16 when his mother passed away. He drifted around until coming to Sioux City where he met a divorced woman named Mrs. Delores Jones. They married 14 April 1932 in Elk Point, Union County, South Dakota by a Justice of the Peace across the river from Sioux City. He may have moved to Sioux City as that he had an older brother named Cornelius Callaghan and there is a man of the same name living in the city employed as a salesman.

The 1932 Directory of Sioux City had Peter Callaghan employed as a Bellman for the Warrior Hotel and living at 1009 Jackson with a woman named Edna. The marriage license of Peter said that he was a bachelor when he married Delores Jones so either Edna was the middle name of Delores or he was living with some woman named Edna. The following year Peter was living at 1311 West 3rd Street, still working as a Bell Man at the Warrior Hotel and living with Delores.

In 1934 Peter and Delores Callaghan were renting from Wallace and Jennie McPherson’s boarding house at 1618 West 18th Street. It was at this residence where Daisy and Peter met. The exact relationship between Peter and Daisy is unknown. Jennie McPherson who was the informant on her daughter’s death certificate listed Peter Callaghan as Daisy’s husband when she died in May 1940 and the death certificate is under the name “Mrs. Daisy Mae Callaghan.” However in the 1940 census Peter and Delores are living together along with Kenneth Jones who Peter lists as his “stepson”. There’s no record of a marriage between Peter and Daisy.

The Polk directory for Sioux City consistently lists Daisy under Daisy Jones and living at 301 ½ Wall Street until 1938 and probably until shortly before her death in 1940. The 1935 listing stated that Daisy was the “widow” of a “Leonard Jones”. She is living at 310 ½ so perhaps the person compiling the directory mistook Donald for Leonard in the notes compiled. The 1938 directory listed her occupation as “trimmer” which meant she worked in the meat packing plant and would have been on her feet all day. She is not listed at all in the 1939 directory although Peter Callaghan was listed as living back at 1311 West 3rd Street with Delores and his occupation was given as a laborer instead of a Bell man.

Daisy may have been out of work with her health declining in 1939 as she died 5 May 1940 in the Methodist Hospital in Sioux City. The 1939 directory gave Peter Callaghan’s address as 1810 South Cypress and that was the last residence given on Daisy May’s death certificate where she is listed as Mrs. Daisy Mae Callaghan.

Daisy is not enumerated in the 1940 census for some reason. It was taken 9 April 1940, 2 days after her 36th birthday. Perhaps she was in the hospital as she was not at 1810 South Cypress where Peter Callaghan is enumerated with his wife Delores, Kenneth D Jones who he calls his “stepson” and a daughter Gaileen Callaghan. He listed his occupation again as “bell man” in a hotel. Kenneth D Jones was in his 1st year of High School at Sioux City Central High. The home at 1810 South Central was a 2 bedroom one bath 960 square foot Single Family House built in 1930. The residence is about 2 miles north of Graceland Cemetery where Daisy was buried. Daisy was buried without a marker but she was buried next to her great uncle Marian Bowman who died in 1936 in the plots where her grandfather Isaiah James Bowman is buried.

The death certificate of Daisy stated that she was seen by a doctor for 48 hours in the Methodist Hospital before she died of bilateral lobar pneumonia which is caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. Contributing factors was Cardiac Decompensation which is a chronic condition wherein a structural abnormality or disease limits the heart's capacity to pump an adequate amount of blood through the body causing increasing shortness of breath, wheezing and coughing. Daisy also had rheumatic heart disease, a complication of rheumatic fever in which the heart valves are damaged. Rheumatic fever is an inflammatory disease that begins with strep throat. She died a week shy of her son Kenneth Delbert Jones 16th birthday leaving him for all intent and purposes an orphan.

On 2 April 1940, Donald Jones was enumerated as living in a hotel at 430 Kingsley Drive in Los Angles far away from where his former wife was dying in Sioux City. The building has since been torn down but he lived between 5th and 4th Street in what is now known as Korea Town and not far from McArthur Park. He lived in the 58th Assembly District and was listed as a 35 year old divorced lodger born in Minnesota. He had only 1 year of high school but worked as a Radio Telegrapher for the Municipal Water and Power as a “wage or salary worker in Government work.” He made $1,980 in 1939. He was living in Boulder City, Clarke County, Nevada in 1935 having been involved with the construction of Boulder now Hoover Dam from 1931 until its completion in 1936. He may have been sharing a room with another man as two individuals were listed under the same household number. The man was Louis H. Lothridge a 50 year old out of work native of New York. He is listed as having made no money in 1939 which meant he had a source of income that did not necessitate that he worked. In 1935 he lived in Tampa, Florida.

After the Pearl Harbor Attack in Hawaii on 7 December 1941, the United States declared war on Japan, and Germany quickly supported their ally by declaring war on America. World War II lasted until August 1945 and while his two brothers Lloyd and Earl both joined the army as did his son Kenneth, there is no record that he did.

The 1942 directory of Los Angeles shows that Donald Jones had moved a few blocks from Kingsley to a residential area still in what is today Korea Town. He lived at 1037 ½ Irolo Street not far from Normandie and Olympic Avenues. He was still working as a radio telegrapher for the Division of Water and Power for Los Angeles. He was listed as living with a woman named Ann. This opens the possibility that Daisy and he were never divorced and he waited until Daisy was dead to remarry.

There’s no record of a draft registration for Donald Jones although he was 39 to 43 years old during the war. Perhaps being a government worker for the city of Los Angeles gave him a deferment or perhaps he had a medical one.

The period between World War II and his death in 1970 is hard to determine much from available research. A copy of Donald A Jones death certificate might give more clues of his later years. The 1950 and 1960’s were a golden time to be living in Southern California. He was married or living with a woman named Ann but nothing available to this researcher can tell whether she was still married to him at the time of his death. It is very doubtful that he had anymore children by a second wife.

In 1955 at the age of 31, Kenneth D. Jones’ moved his family from Sioux City, Iowa to Long Beach California where he went into business as a representative of the Arlo Refrigeration Company. It is not known whether he met or reconciled with his estranged father Donald who left him when he was 4 years old. It isn’t even known if he knew that he had a grandmother and two uncles living in Long Beach. The same year Donald A. Jones estranged father Fred Newton Jones died in Oregon without contact with his children.

Donald A Jones’ mother Emma Samuelson died in 1962 and may have been cremated as there are no record of her being interred in a cemetery. Two years later Donald’s youngest brother died in 1962 in Long Beach.

Donald Jones had two grandchildren by his son Kenneth Delbert Jones. They are Kenneth Louis Jones born 1951 in Sioux City, Iowa and Deborah J Jones born 1956 in Long Beach. They would be able to know whether they ever met their grandfather Donald Jones or even their great grandmother Emma Jones.

All that is known by this researcher is that Donald Augustus Jones died on 18 March 1970 at the age of 66 years nearly 30 years after Daisy Bishop. He died in Los Angeles County but in what city is unknown most likely Long Beach.

Notes from Kevin L Jones from his father Kenneth L Jones

Kevin L Jones: Thanks for the info but I'm not sure it is right before Donald Jones. Donald's Father was named Jonah Jones. He had three sons Donald, Lloyd and a race track gambler that every one call the Earl who real name was probably Thomas.

Jonah did not come to the USA until the 1900's after he murdered a British soldier. Where Jonah was a wanted man he took over a dead guys identity probably this Fred jones who I don't think we are related to.

I'm pretty sure I'm right about this because Donald, Lloyd and The Earl all told my dad this story many many times when he was a child. Hope this info helps out your research.

·         Ben Williams: I wonder if the telling got mixed up over time...Donald  Jones had a grandfather named Jonas Samuelson...let me send you what i have and tell me what you think..

Kevin L Jones: I looked this over and found a lot of things that don't match with what my dad clearly remembers about his childhood. You have Earl as 22 in 1908 when my dad knew him in the 1950s he was not that old only like 40 even though  he was my grandfathers uncle he was not that much older than Ken  D jones.  in the time you have Donald and his brothers living in Long beach my dad  told me that they were  in Nevada and worked on the Hover dam. Donald jones stayed in Nevada and worked as one of the supervisors there for years and years. You say he lived in LA in 1950s he did not he had a house in Nevada that my dad visited many times during that time period. Ken d. jones  Lived in Nevada with Donald after world war 2. Hi Ben.

 my dad said another thing wrong with what you have here is about Frank mutt  McPherson  was a pulp writer that corresponded regularly with H.P. Lovecraft. He never Married and died young in Sioux City he never was in  long Beach. After WW2 Ken D Jones Was a long distance Trucker and never work for an oil company.

·         Ben Williams I think your dad was misinformed... The Downey directory clearly showed Frank McPherson was in California where he died.

Kevin L Jones: My dad as well as most of his family lived in  long Beach in 1962 the year when Fred Newton Jones died in the same city and no one in the family ever even heard of this guy. I've  seen U.K. tax records that show that Jonah Jones was born in Denbighshire Wales in the 1800s I Believe his wife was named Mary. All of this is very confusing and I'll see what I can do to help clear this up on my end. All of this is very confusing I have a cassette tape made by Ken D jones made for my brother and I telling the history of the jones family and about half of what your saying does not match.

For instance I believe you said Daisy had no grave marker. My Dad and his Father visited her grave when he was a kid put flowers on it and she had a big head stone

Jenny and all of those people were not poor. In the winter Jenny Wore a big fur coat and often had on diamond bracelets. 

The joneses did not work in the stockyards; that was a black family that lived down the street.

The reason Daisy did not have a lot of money was because she was a flapper and had a bad reputation so Jenny cut her off.

On this tape that I mentioned Ken D. said that Frank Mutt McPherson  was a pulp writer that sick all of his life and was bed most of the time and that he died before WW2.

The only thing that I can think of is that there was some other guy in the family namedFrank too.

Also Jack Kirby who created the X-Men, Iron Man and so forth who was a friend of the family before he passed away. He served in the same squad as My Grandfather in WW2 and he told me on more than one occasion about what they did during the war and it does not match what you have. He was there and I don't think he just make something up.

My Father Knew a lot of the people in your research first hand and he is telling a lot what you have there is not accurate. 

My dad is hard to live with sometimes but he has never lied to me.

I don't mean to give offence. The few times that I met you I thought you were a Like a really nice guy and I can tell that you put a lot of work in to this and you may be correct about everything but I choose to believe the oral history that was hand down to me. I hope that I'm not being rude because that it not my intent.

Kevin

Ben Williams: Oral history is very important. I agree with that. I graduated in History when Oral history was just beginning to be accepted. I do not know any of these people. I only met your grandfather once and not under the best of circumstances. I was a professional genealogist before becoming a teacher and the only reason I did this research was on your sister in law Jehill's behalf.

Original Documents and prime sources are the back bone of any research. Family tradition can fill in the rest. It’s not my intention to upset anyone or challenge family oral history.   So take it with a grain of salt and I won't bother you with it anymore... Tell your mother hi for me