JONES, Grace MORRIS ALLEN 1876-1928

MORRIS, ALLEN, JONES

Posted By: Errin Wilker (email)
Date: 7/27/2014 at 13:04:54

Grace Morris Allen Jones was born in Keokuk, Iowa, January 7, 1876, and died at Piney Woods, Mississippi, March 2, 1928. Her parents, James Addison and Mary Ellen (Pyles) Morris, removed with their family to Burlington soon after Grace’s birth. She attended school there and was the first colored person to graduate from the Burlington High School, which was in 1891. She attended the Burlington Normal School in 1894-95, Elliott’s Business College, Burlington, in 1909, and Siegfield Musical College in 1910-12. On completing a year’s study in the Burlington Normal School, she taught school at Bethel, Missouri, a year, and followed this by acting as assistant teacher in the colored schools at Slater, Missouri. In 1902 she founded the Grace M. Allen Industrial School at Burlington where she employed both white and colored teachers, and accepted both white and colored pupils. In 1906, she discontinued the work of this school and for a few years traveled for Ambidexter Institute of Springfield, Illinois, and Eckstein-Norton Normal and Industrial Institute of Cane Springs, Kentucky, as financial agent. In 1912, she was married to Lawrence C. Jones, the founder of Piney Woods Country Life School, and became a teacher of English in and the executive secretary of that institution. From 1918 to 1923 she was president of the Mississippi Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, and was otherwise engaged in activities for the help of colored people. She exerted an unusual influence for good during her very active career.

Source: Annals of Iowa, Third Series, Vol. XVI, No. 7, January 1929, Pg. 555.