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Note: Supposition of place for burial based on the fact other family members, including her son and daughter, are buried there and there are many unmarked graves. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Portion of Delaine Edwards Report 6/10/01: According to information listed on the 1900 census, Thomas Benton and Millie A. Jones had been married 33 years, or since about the year 1867. Millie was born May 1833 in Illinois according to census information. Descendants indicate her maiden name was Oller. The following is my theory only. I believe she married first Christopher C. Griffith: Christopher C. and Milly A. Griffith are found on the 1850 Scott County census at age 21 and 19 and had probably only been married a short time. By 1860, C.C. Griffith was 31 years of age, born in Arkansas and owned $320 worth of real estate. His wife Milly A. was 30 years of age, listed as born in Kentucky or Illinois, and they had a son James N. Griffith, 4 years old, and a daughter Mary E., 5 months old. Christopher C. Griffith evidently died between 1860 and 1867 when Milla E. Griffith is found on the Scott County Tax List, taxed on 80 acres located in Section 29 of Township 3 North, Range 26 West. She may be the same person listed as Mary Griffith and taxed in 1865 on 80 acres with the same description, except located in Section 26. At any rate, Christopher Griffith seems to have died in the 1860's, leaving a young family. I believe Milly A. Griffith may have married second Thomas Benton Jones about 1867. Thomas B. and Millie A. Jones are found on the 1870 Scott County census in Lafave Township. Millie was listed as age 34 years, born in Illinois. Two children listed in the household as Jones were James H., age 14, and Mary A., age 11. I believe these two children were Millie's two children from her marriage to Christopher C. Griffith. The third child in the household, William S. Jones, was one year old, so there was a 10-year gap between the births of the second and third child. On the 1880 census Millie is listed as "Nellie" and aged 45 years. Her son from the second marriage is listed as William H. and a daughter Matilda Jones was born c1874. Living next door was James Griffith, age 20, who had married and named his 4-month-old daughter Milly J. I believe this James Griffith was Millie's oldest child. Children of Millie A. Oller Griffith from both her marriages:
1. James Griffith, born c1856 in Scott County. He is found as James N. Griffith, age 4 in 1860; as James H. Jones, age 14 in 1870; and as James Griffith, age 20, in 1880. By 1880 he was married to Mary and they had a 4-month old daughter, Milly J. Griffith. James was living next door to the Thomas and Millie Jones family at this time. A guardianship bond in the amount of $640.00 was filed 14 April 1884, naming Lorraine A. Oller as guardian of Millie A. Griffith and C.C. Griffith, minors, with securities listed as William Garner and W.M. Beene. This seems to indicate that James Griffith had died prior to 1884 leaving two children, Millie and C.C. Griffith (named for his parents.)
2. Mary E. Griffith, born 27 February 1860 in Scott County. She is listed as Mary E. Griffith, age 5 months on the 1860 census; as Mary A. Jones, age 11 in 1870. She married Levi B. Jones about 1876 and is found on the 1880 census as his wife, Mary E. Jones, age 20. Please see Dwelling #137/138 of this series for further information about her family. I believe that Christopher C. Griffith died sometime between 1860 and 1865 when Millie is found on the tax list as Mary Jones. She then married Thomas Benton Jones about 1867 and they had:
3. William S. Jones, born April 1869.
4. Matilda Elizabeth Jones, born October 1873. She married Daniel W. Harris.
Millie A. Jones reported on the 1900 census that she had given birth to nine children, of whom only two were then living. This seems to be incorrect as we know her two daughters, as well as son William S. Jones were all living at that time. It seems likely that she had children who died young from both of her marriages. Millie died at some time prior to the 1910 census when her widower Thomas Benton Jones was living in the household of his daughter-in-law, Julia Henson Jones. T. B. Jones of Nola, Scott County, Arkansas wrote his will on 7 September 1909, leaving his daughter Matilda Harris the sum of $5.00 and the remainder of his estate to the children of his deceased son, William S. Jones, except William's daughter Millie Morrow, to whom he left nothing. It is likely he had already given her what he intended her to have, during his lifetime. He named as the executors of his will, his grandsons William Benton Jones and James Henry Jones. The will was proved 5 December 1911 so Thomas Benton Jones had likely died a short time before that date.
Sources: James Township Scott County Arkansas 1900 Census Expanded, Charlene Holland, 1999 Information from descendant, Barbara Hale Reynolds ==================================================== Update: Delaine's theory was correct. Bill Welch allowed me to copy letters he had in his possesion which give the details that Millie was Mary's mother and married first to Christopher Griffith and then to Thomas Benton Jones.
From Aunt Vida Jones Woodruff (Grandma's aunt and sister to Levi Benton "Lee" Jones): "You see I was a Jones and my mother was a Griffith, but some of the Jones married Welchs and my grandmother who was an Oller was kin some way to the Welchs."
and from Vivian Greenwood Morrow: Mrs. Millie Morrow, grandmother was Millie Ann Oller. She married Griffith. He passed away and she married Benton Jones, Millie Morrow's grandfather. Had 2 children by Benton Jones (great grandpa Jones). Their names were William Bill Jones (Mrs. Morrow's father) and a girl Matilda Jones married Dan Harris. William (Bill) Jones, Millie Morrow's father, married our grandmother. Name was Julia Henson. They had 13 children Millie Morrow was the oldest, Benton, Henry, Robert, Elmontia, Mollie, George, Nora, Willie and Dora, lived to be grown. Great grandmother Jones children by Bud Griffith names Aunt Sis and Uncle Bud is all I know. Seems Aunt Sis married Uncle Lee Jones and Bud Griffith her brother a Mary Oller. Seems Aunt Mary had 2 children. Bud and Millie Yandell I mean. She married Bob Yandell. Aunt Mary Oller married Bob Yandell after her first husband passed away. =================================================== Millie died at some time prior to the 1910 census when her widower Thomas Benton Jones was living in the household of his daughter-in-law, Julia Henson Jones. T.B. Jones of Nola, Scott County, Arkansas wrote his will on 7 September 1909, leaving his daughter Matilda Harris the sum of $5.00 and the remainder of his estate to the children of his deceased son, William S. Jones, except William's daughter Millie Morrow, to whom he left nothing. It is likely he had already given her what he intended her to have during his lifetime. He named as the executors of his will his grandsons William Benton Jones and James Henry Jones. The will was proved 5 December 1911 so Thomas Benton Jones had likely died a short time before that date. (Source: Delaine Edwards report). ==================================================== Scott Chancery Court Oct. Term 1905
Millie Yandell, Plaintiff V*� Answer and Cross Complaint of Mary Oller Viola Yandell & Others, Defendants.
Mary Oller, asking leave of the Court to appear and be made a party Defendant in the above entitled cause, says she has Homestead and Dower interests in the lands described in the Pleadings, and has not been a party to or summoned in this case and that further proceedings herein without the settlement of her interests aforesaid would be unjust to her and render further litigation necessary. That the facts on her Homestead and Dower rights aforesaid rest are these: 1st That C. C. Griffith died seised and possessed of said lands as setforth in the Plaintiffs Complaint leaving two heirs, with the further facts that he also left a widow: that he died in 1861: that his widow and said two heirs who were then minors living with said widow who was their mother, had Homestead rights in said lands, and said widow in 1865 married T. B. Jones who lived with her and said heirs on said land till 1884. That one of said heirs married Defendant Lee Jones, and the other married this Defendant, who is the mother of the Plaintiff James H. Griffith, the husband of this Defendant and father of Plaintiff bought the half interest of his sister, Lee Jones wife, in said land and paid half the purchase money and their mother T. B. Jones wife, verbally gave him her homestead and dower interests in said land and he established his home on the same and lived thereon till about one year before his death when being in bad health and persuaded that a change of location would probably benefit him, he moved with his family to another farm located on the opposite side of Fourche river and died there but had not and did not abandon the land in question as a home but was struggling to finish paying his sister for her share of it which he had bought as aforesaid, and after his death this defendant paid $40 more of said purchase money, expecting to return to said land and continue the home that her said husband established there, but married her present husband L. A. Oller, before returning and thereupon her first husbands mother, Mrs. Millie Jones, reasserted her homestead right to said land and took possession of it and this Defendant being a married woman did not sue for possession of her Homestead, but her present husband, a nephew of said Millie Jones, rented it of her and moved there with this defendant and submitted to her alledged authority as life tenant of the premises and said Millie Jones held the same till her death about two years ago. But Mary Jones, wife of the Defendant Lee Jones, died about five years after having in the attempt to carry in to effect the conteact of sale she had made to her brother as aforesaid, by conveying her said half interest in said land to his daughter, the plaintiff Millie Yandell, by feed which is in the possession of the Plaintiff but is not of record and not in the power of this Defendant to produce, and this Defendant alleges that the Plaintiff is the owner in fee of the entire estate in said land, all by inheritance, subject to the homestead and dower right of this Defendant and not by purchase of any part of it, not withstanding the deed executed to her as aforesaid by her aunt, Mary Jones, deceased, and that the other Defendants herein have no share or interest whatever in said land. Wnd This Defendant by way of further cross-complaint against the Plaintiff alleges that the Plaintiffs father, and husband of this Defendant, died seised and possessed of another tract of land, to-wit, N. W. � of N. E. � of Sec.1 Township 2 N. Range 26 W. containing 40 acres which has remained in the possession of this Defendant from his death to the present time and her dower in it has not been assigned, though she, through her present husband, has made valuable improvements on it, and it is not connected with the land described in Plaintiffs Complaint, and is not a part of the homestead aforesaid, but belongs solely to the plaintiff, subject to the dower of this defendant. Wherefore Defendant, Mary Oller, prays that the partition heretofore made by Commissioners in this cause be not confirmed but set aside, and that Plaintiff and the other Defendants be required to answer this Cross Complaint and that on final hearing this Defendants homestead right in the lands described in Plaintiffs complaint be quieted, and that dower be assigned her in all the lands aforesaid and for all necessary or proper relief.
A. G. Leming Attorney for Mary Oller
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