{"id":2910,"date":"2014-06-06T17:36:43","date_gmt":"2014-06-06T22:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/morgantn\/?p=2910"},"modified":"2017-06-20T22:13:30","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T03:13:30","slug":"jones-madeline-wilson-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/morgan\/jones-madeline-wilson-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Jones, Madeline Wilson"},"content":{"rendered":"

MADELINE WILSON JONES \u00a0<\/span><\/b>1915 – 1973<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0Madeline Jones taught in Morgan County schools for 31 years.\u00a0 She is remembered by many for her quiet wisdom and determined spirit.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 “Mrs. Madeline,” as she was known to her students, was born November 5, 1915 — the second daughter of Sarah Melvina Jones Wilson (1888-1916) and Jesse Monroe Wilson (1890-1975).\u00a0 Due to her father’s interest\u00a0in unusual names for his children, she was named Aleta Madeline.\u00a0 The idea for the name Madeline came from the French novel ‘Les Miserables’ which he read during the weeks preceding her birth.\u00a0 Her sister, older by nineteen months, was named Evelyn Yetive.\u00a0 Subsequent half-brothers were named Jesse James, Gaylon Eugene, Glenn Scott, and Donald Allen.\u00a0 Her half-sister was named Virginia Jo.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 Three months after her birth in the 2nd District of Morgan County, Madeline’s mother died of pneumonia.\u00a0 From the time of her mother’s death, she and her sister were cared for by her maternal aunts Bertha, Columbia and\u00a0Florence Jones, her uncle Henderson, and her grandparents, Serena Clay Barger Jones (1847-1939) and Benjamin Wiley Jones (1854-1920).\u00a0 The house in which she was born, built by her father, was located on the Jones farm in the Joyner community.\u00a0 It remained unoccupied for many years after the death of “Sallie” Wilson.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 Jesse Wilson worked at various jobs in the Morgan County area after his wife’s death.\u00a0 He lived at Petros with his parents, Esther Glass Wilson (1872-1968) and Peter Wilson (1886-1940).\u00a0 He made frequent visits to see\u00a0his children unless circumstances prevented him from doing so.\u00a0 One such set of circumstances was the influenza epidemic of 1918.\u00a0 Mr. Wilson’s large family was beseiged with the flu.\u00a0 One day he walked by the Ben Jones farm on his way to make funeral arrangements for a teen-aged sister.\u00a0 On the way, he stopped to yell from the gate to check on the condition of his daughter, Madeline, aged three, who was suffering from both diptheria and scarlet\u00a0fever.\u00a0 Contact between the two families had been almost impossible because of the flu epidemic.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 After making arrangements for the burial of that sister and yet another teen-aged sister who died the next day, Mr. Wilson again visited his daughter.\u00a0 Her condition was critical.\u00a0 The Jones family had been “sitting\u00a0up” with her every night for over a month, and the “Granny woman” of the community had given up hope.\u00a0 Mr. Wilson went to Harriman and persuaded\/coerced a throat specialist to make a house call to treat his\u00a0daughter, Madeline.\u00a0 The fee agreed upon was $25 and a gallon of moonshine — the moonshine to be paid after the visit was completed.\u00a0 It was to this doctor, and her father for bringing him, that Madeline Jones owed\u00a0her life.\u00a0 After the specialist treated her, her condition continued to improve, although she had a permanent hearing loss and was thin and pale for the remainder of her childhood.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 Madeline attended Joyner Elementary School where she graduated from the eighth grade.\u00a0 She and her sister walked the two miles to school each day even in cold, snowy weather.\u00a0 She attended Central High School in Wartburg where she graduated in 1934, the salutatorian of her class.\u00a0 After her graduation, she attended the University of Tennessee.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 Her first teaching position was at Ruppee School in the southwest portion of Morgan County.\u00a0 It was a one-room school for which she received a warrent for $50 a month.\u00a0 Due to the insolvency of the county, it was almost impossible to cash these warrants for full value.\u00a0 Madeline boarded with the Fred Hamby family in the Ruppee community.\u00a0 In addition to teaching school, her responsibilities included preparing her students to sing at funerals and escorting them to the church to do so.\u00a0 On at least one occasion, she also assisted Mrs. Hamby in making a shroud.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 After summer school at the University of Tennessee, Madeline returned for a second year at Ruppee School.\u00a0 In the meantime, she had acquired a permanent certificate to teach elementary school in the state of Tennessee.\u00a0 She also purchased a 1937 Chevrolet from Schubert Motor Company with the understanding she would be taught to drive.\u00a0 Schubert Motor Company was one of the few places where you could get full value for a county warrent\u00a0provided part of the money was applied to a car payment.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Later teaching positions included Petros Elementary School and Elizabeth School.\u00a0 During World War II, she\u00a0was teacher\/principal of Joyner School. From there she was transferred to Oakdale High School where she
\ntaught two years.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In 1939, Madeline Wilson married Kenneth Collin Jones, also of the Joyner Community.\u00a0 They were the parents of one daughter, Betty Lynn, who is married to Don L. McNeilly.\u00a0 They have two daughters — Donna Lynn and Lisa Dawn.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The greater part of Madeline Jones’ teaching career was spent teaching in Wartburg schools.\u00a0 When the new high school building was completed in 1946, she transferred from Oakdale to Central High School.\u00a0 There she taught a variety of subjects — math, algebra, French, and physical education.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In 1950, Madeline returned to elementary school, teaching fifth grade at Central Elementary School from that time until her retirement in 1968.\u00a0 By that time she had taught the children of many of her former students.\u00a0 Her classes were well-disciplined although she seldom resorted to “paddling.” Her methods were up-to-date and designed to impart basic education while keeping students interested in learning.\u00a0 She set professional standards for herself that few teachers were able to attain, and she retired at the age of 53 when she felt she could no longer meet her own standards.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Aleta Madeline Wilson Jones died January 15, 1973 after a courageous battle against cancer.\u00a0 Her legacy to her former students is the memory of her wisdom and determination.<\/p>\n

*Written in response to a request from theMorgan County Retired TeachersAssociation*Written and submittedby\u00a0Betty Lynn Jones McNeilly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MADELINE WILSON JONES \u00a01915 – 1973 \u00a0Madeline Jones taught in Morgan County schools for 31 years.\u00a0 She is remembered by many for her quiet wisdom and determined spirit. \u00a0\u00a0 “Mrs. Madeline,” as she was known to her students, was born November 5, 1915 — the second daughter of Sarah Melvina Jones Wilson (1888-1916) and Jesse… Continue reading Jones, Madeline Wilson<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-2910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-jones","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3570,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910\/revisions\/3570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}