Silas B. Jones New Madrid/ Cape Girardeau, Missouri

lukejones

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Jun 25, 2016
I'm looking for information on a soldier and his family in New Madrid/ Cape Girardeau during the Civil War era.

Silas B. Jones was born (possibly in New Madrid) abt 1831. His enlistment paperwork in the Union Army listed New Madrid as his place of birth, but his children later listed various places for "father's place of birth" on different documents. His children, however, were all very young when he died and his wife remarried an English immigrant, so his children may have been confused.

I have only found one Jones family living in New Madrid on the 1840 census. There was a Richard (Rich'd) Jones with a male child about Silas' age. The 1840 census, however, only lists the name of the head of household so I can confirm this is Silas' father.

The first confirmed record I can find of Silas is on the 1850 census when he was working as a laborer on the farm of Simon Poe in Cape Girardeau.

In 1853 Silas married Evaline Boon(e). Evaline was was born to James Boon and Elizabeth (Douglas) in 1836
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in Missouri City. I believe her family was related to Daniel Boone. I haven't found any evidence of that, but my grandparents used to tell me Daniel Boone was some sort of a great uncle when I was little.

I have found possibly six children for Silas and Evaline. There was a Mary F. Jones born in 1852 or 1853. The other children are William E. b. 1854, Ida Mae b. 1858, Elizabeth b. 1860, Silas b. 1861, and John Joseph Jones b. 1862. Ida Mae later married John Devine and moved to Illinois. She died in 1938. The younger Silas later moved to Texas and died in Austin in 1947. John later married Irene Powell and lived in Tennessee for a while, but died in Charlotte, NC in 1939. The 1900 census shows John's step-father, Luke Smith, living with him in Chattanooga at that time.

The 1860 census shows Silas and Evaline living on a farm (I assumed owned by them). In the summer of 1862 Silas enlisted in the Union Army and mustered with the 29th Missouri Infantry in August/ September 1862. Silas then left his unit ill to Patterson, MO about November, 1862. He died April 15, 1863.

After Silas' death, Evaline married Luke Smith (b. 1834 in Derbyshire, England). I'm not sure of the year they were married, but I believe Smith had a daughter Annie Smith (b. abt 1856). The 1880 Census shows Luke and Evaline living St. Louis with Annie, William, Silas, and John.

I can't find them in Tennessee or Missouri on the 1890 census, but like I said before, Smith was living with his step-son in Tennessee in 1900. I assume Annie and Evaline had died at that point, but I cannot find any death records for either.

John named his first son Edgar Luke Jones. I assume the middle name was after his step-father who he was obviously very close to considering Luke Smith lived with him during his older years and the name of his son.

If anyone has any additional information about any of the members of this family, it would be greatly appreciated.
 
Hi, and welcome!

It looks like there's a pension file for both the widow and dependent children, so you haven't ordered the file, I'd suggest doing that. They're on the pricey side, but many hold a wealth of information. The last one I ordered had affidavits verifying a number of family relationships, plus copies of two letters the soldier had written home to his mother.

Jones_Silas_B_Organization_Index_to_Pension_Files .jpg
 
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Hi, and welcome!

It looks like there's a pension file for both the widow and dependent children, so you haven't ordered the file, I'd suggest doing that. They're on the pricey side, but many hold a wealth of information. The last one I ordered had affidavits verifying a number of family relationships, plus copies of two letters the soldier had written home to his mother.

View attachment 103790

Thank you. Do you know how I'd go about ordering this?
 
Because these are expensive, it's a good idea to see if the pension file has been digitized on Fold3. I checked and didn't find it, but someone else might want to double check. A free trial or one of their sale price memberships can be a big savings, especially if you have multiple files you're interested in seeing.
https://www.fold3.com/

It's also a good idea to check there, because you really don't know how much information the file contains. I just opened a file at Fold3 that had 107 pages. Another in the same regiment only had 13.

If it's not there, pension records can be ordered through the National Archives.
https://eservices.archives.gov/orderonline/start.swe?SWECmd=Start&SWEHo=eservices.archives.gov

1) You'll need to create an account, and then order reproductions of Military Service and Pension Records.
2) Choose the Federal Military Pension Application--Civil War and Later Complete File (NATF-85D).
3) Select a delivery mode.
4)There will be a screen where it asks for information about the soldier and you'll want to copy in the name and service information exactly as on the index card I posted above. It will ask for application number, and I'd include the widow along with her name. There will be a space for other information and you can put in the minor children application number there. If you're ordering for someone whose service records are listed under various spellings or who served with multiple units, then that should be listed as well.
5) Then you send them 80 bucks.
6) Then you wait. It seems like forever, but the last one I ordered only took about a month.

Video about the pension file digitization project here:

 
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