Basel Jones (1925)

JONES, SKEELS, WATTS

Posted By: Ida Morse (email)
Date: 9/18/2006 at 20:32:08

Earlham Library Obituaries, August 1925
Earlham, Iowa

Early Chapel Founder Is Dead

Mr. Basel Jones, Early Jackson Twp farmer and Father of Estimable family of Children, answer’s the Summons of Death Thursday.

Basel Jones, the youngest son of William Jones and Rebecca Skeels Jones, was born in Holmes County, Ohio on the 16th day of December 1844. On the 17th day of March 1870, he was married to Sarah Watts, daughter of John and Elizabeth Watts, also of Homes County. Mrs. Jones passed away January 12, 1901.

To them were born eight children, Chester, Cora, Reson, Joseph, Laura, Levi, John and Maude. Laura died thirteen years ago. The other children survive him, and all were with him when death came on August 13, 1925.

Farming was his occupation. For several years he owned and operated a farm near Glenmont, Holmes County, Ohio, where the six eldest of his children were born. In 1883 he removed from Ohio, with his family, to Madison County, Iowa, to a farm he had purchased near Pitzer. There the two youngest children were born, and there all the children grew to maturity. That farm was his home until he came to Stuart ten years ago.

In his early manhood he became a member of the Church of Christ of Glenmont, where he was a regular attendant. On finding no organized church of his communion in the vicinity of his Iowa home, Mr. Jones with a number neighbors, arranged for regular preaching services in a nearby schoolhouse and supported that work until they were able to organize the Early Chapel Church, of which he was an officer and to which he adhered until his removal to Stuart. He affiliated with the church of Christ at that place, and remained a communicant until his death. He was a believer in the efficacy of the church, and his children will never forget the regular trips the entire family made by wagon in the early days to the old schoolhouse for Sunday School and preaching services. He lived his life quietly and without ostentation in strict accord with the principles he taught, chiefly by his own example to his children-honesty in business and social relations, and moral and spiritual cleanliness in everyday life.