You see, the Cherokee had learned to be home builders back east before and during the removal. They were familiar with the natural materials that were essential as they neared the dangerous travel that was forced upon them when they approached the area of Arkansas and into East Texas on their way into Indian Territory. Much of the Indian Territory is made up of the Cross Timbers. The Cross Timbers settlers suffered ten years before and after the Civil War. Their population and production losses became a handicap caused by the Civil War.

In 1860, the Cross Timbers counties of North Texas which included Denton, were in the statistics reported by the Throckmorton Administration during the War which was 82,600 bales of cotton were produced during 1860, but that amount declined to 22,800 bales by 1870, caused by declining prices of cotton.

My Uncle Adam Jones was the cotton broker during the 1890's. He owned the Jones Hotel which was later converted into a residence by the T.B. Bridges family. The building was constructed of good milled lumber that was imported from the mills that were operating in East Texas. A small part of the structure of the old hotel still remains today. The hotel was a two-story building at the time Uncle Adam operated it. The hotel was used by the cotton buyers that came in to grade the cotton and ship it out to different locations.

Uncle Adam had three sons. One was named Elmo; he was a large and strong Black Dutch man with a good mind for the local cotton business. At this time there were two hotels and three cotton gins with three locally owned banks. All of these businesses were located near the railroad loading docks.

It was during this time that Uncle Adam went to the Aubrey banks to borrow $75,000 for the benefit of cotton promotion needs and was refused the loan. Uncle Adam hooked up to his buggy with this son Elmo, and enough supplies for a trip back to the old home place in Pulaski County Tennessee to obtain the $75,000 that was needed for the local production of cotton. After the father and son found their loan in Tennessee, they quickly hitched up and started back to Aubrey.

The family’s Black Dutch connection in Tennessee provided a security unheard of as the money came into town – where it was known that this arrival was loaded with the cash from Pulaski County Tennessee.

The local economy picked up promptly as the money was deposited into the three different Aubrey banks. The local banks at this time had capital of less than $25,000 each according to old newspaper advertisements.

Uncle Adam was a brother to my grandfather Noah Jones, and this infusion of funds helped to increase the economy in Aubrey as the prices of cotton were also increasing dramatically during this time. The following year, they again made a trip back to Pulaski County, Tennessee, in the same buggy to repay the loan.

My personal observation of the facts of these trips to Tennessee was that the father and son team were able enough to insure the safe arrival of these amounts both coming and going.

It was about forty years ago that Jackie and I along with my sister Mary Ann, and our family which consisted at this time of Deborah, Onor, Noel, and Lou Ann, enlisted the help of Sam Reynold’s daughter, Fayola, and my brother Bobby Jack to run our newly opened hardware store. I never knew I had so many cousins until we arrived at Pulaski County, Tennessee to visit and record the family historical happenings which occurred more than 100 years earlier.

The old Black Dutch people that were long ago cousins were in Tennessee and managed to change their backgrounds and surroundings enough to remain and still possess their property without the interference of the government and escaped the great removal that we have found in the historical happenings.

We spent about four days with these cousins. These longtime Cherokees in Pulaski County Tennessee had a deep southern accent. They set out immediately with the first thing they wanted to teach us was how to talk as they did. Our accents were changed with delight for four days.

Every morning cousin Ester, would wake Jackie and I up and say "How do you want yo eggs Mista Bounca," because southern hospitality was most certainly the order of a few days.

A large family in this neighborhood was nothing. Half of them lived on the south side of the "holler" and a small spring fed stream of clear water flowed down the middle of the "holler." On the north side all of the family members attended the Presbyterian Church, while on the south side of the stream everyone attended the Methodist Church. The Tuckers lived on the north side and the Jones lived on the south side.

After our breakfast on Sunday morning we went to Sunday School at the Presbyterian Church in Tennessee, and then at eleven o’clock we walked across the stream of water and went to the Methodist Church in Alabama. While we were worshiping at the Methodist church, my sister Mary, cousins Giles E. and Herman and I formed a quarter with Aunt Bertha at the piano.

Giles E. was the song leader and Aunt Bertha was the pianist on a regular basis. Before we left church that morning, it was announced that a singing would take place on the Tennessee side of the "holler." All of the Alabama kinfolks came over to Tennessee which was only a rock’s throw from the Methodist church in Alabama.

It was at this time that I could not understand why the rest of the family could stay Black Dutch and stay with such a friendly and healthy group of hardworking people and be a part of the removal that took place more than 100 years earlier.

The local Cherokees of Onega are planning a trip to Mexico and will meet with the Texas Tribe the last of the month at Eagle Pass, Texas. I am having a little health problem and perhaps if I don’t kick the bucket before then and the doctors’ allow me to go, I will go as promised. This is the 152^nd anniversary of Chief Sequoyah’s death. He is buried on a large ranch at Zaragoza.