One in a collection by Allen Bachoroski,
Local Historical Writer,
Tales Along the
Highway of Legends
Note: This
is one in a series of historical stories about local families
in the Trinidad region.
Click here to find out more
about how these stories were collected.
William W. Jones was born in Wales in 1842 and came to
the Trinidad area in 1883 from Ebensburg, Pennsylvania.
He was brought here by the Victor American Fuel Company
to be Superintendent of the coke ovens throughout Las
Animas County, an operation of the coke ovens was essential
to the industrial life of the community.
Mr. Jones sent for his family to live with him, as soon
as he could care for them, in a house on the summit of
a hill in the district called the Coke Ovens, a "suburb
of El Moro". El Moro, at that time, was a place of
considerable importance, some thought the locality which
would surpass Trinidad as the principal city in the county.
Mr. Jones or "Sandy" as he was called by his
associates and employees, met his wife, a resourceful
Welsh woman, and six children in Kansas City and drove
them in a horse drawn wagon to their new home. the older
daughter, Mrs. Thomas Lewis already lived in Trinidad
and another daughter was born later.
Mr. Jones brought from Pennsylvania an unusual supply
of books of literary value. With these, he guided the
education of his young family. The younger children attended
school at the Coke Ovens in a typical "little red
school house" which was torn down about the middle
of the twentieth century. The teacher was said to be more
interested in smoking his pipe then educating the young
children. Therefore, the older children, especially one
daughter of superior intellectual promise, were sent to
school in El Moro.
The Jones family's next move was to Hastings, Colorado,
a mining community in Las Animas County. There the older
children found mates and married. One of the girls, Charlotte,
married Lee Reddick Horn, a young accountant who was at
that time station master in Berwind, a mining camp close
to Hastings. Another daughter, Margret, married James
H. Wilson. The Jones family later moved to Trinidad.
Lee
Horn and Jim Wilson, also moved their families to Trinidad.
The men became involved in business. William W. Jones
and Lee R. Horn were both prominent Masonic leaders and
James H. Wilson was a popular entertainer. A daughter
of Lee and Charlotte Horn was Carrie Lee Horn. She remains
a Trinidad resident where she has taught English at the
Trinidad High School. She also organized the "Rainbow
for Girls" of Trinidad.
(Note:
if you have Photos of this family or know of anyone that
does, please have them get in touch with us so that we
might share some photos of the family here)