Jones Distinguished Profressorship

JONES DISTINGUISHED PROFESSORSHIP

My Emporia—

My Athens Midwest

Where are you going?

The Professors thrive—

From KSTC all the

Way to ESU

________________

All the various—

And sundry Departments

Such Intelligentsia!!!

But what about—

The State of Kansas

Beyond High Education?

______________

What about lonely—

Tallgrass Prairie way out there

And the Z-Bar Ranch?

What about out there—

The vast Chase County prairie

Beyond Strong City?

______________________

It’s lovely that the—

Astute Jones Institute for

Hi-Ed Excellence

The Jones Foundation—

Funds Distinguished Professors

But the Prairie weeps…

Stephen Jones and granddaughter Mildred Hickman

MILDRED HICKMAN

Mildred was born December 14, 1891. We assume her age at 1 year when this photo was taken in late 1892. Stephen was 66 years old.

Stephen and Louisa Jones raised Mildred after Loutie's death in November 1894 until Louisa's death in 1908.

Louisa Margaret (Barber) Jones. There are no known photos of Louisa. Family members say they do not remember seeing one. Newspaper articles state two different portraits were done in the 1880s of Stephen and Louisa Jones and their two daughters, but these portraits have not been located.

An idea of Louisa's appearance may be surmised by viewing photos of her mother Adeline Barber and Louisa's two daughters, Christiana and Loutie.

http://www.nps.gov/tapr/historyculture/stephen-f-and-louisa-jones-family-history.htm 

Why Did Steven Jones Leave Kansas?

WHY DID JONES LEAVE KANSAS?

“Mr. Jones married in Alabama, 

in November, 1849, Miss Louisa 

M. Barber of Tallapoosa County, 

by which marriage he has had 

five children, of whom Christiana 

A. and Louisa M. are living.”

—William G. Cutler's History 

of the State of Kansas

http://www.kancoll.org/books/cutler/chase/chase-co-p5.html 

________________

Stephen Jones was there—

In Chase County Kansas

For ten years and then

His wife came to see the—

Huge elegant tall limestone

Mansion Jones built for her

______________

Plains Vernacular—

19th Century Second Empire 

Grandiose Renaissance style

But Louisa Barber came from—

A Southern plantation family

That had slaves back then

_______________

She was used to a social—

Antebellum Southern lifestyle

Down in there in Alabama

One can imagine what—

Louisa thought of the lonely

Wild Tall Grass Prairies

____________

Stuck out there in the—

Middle of nowhere with only

Little Strong City nearby

Even though she brought—

Her own black servants to

Serve her like a Southern belle

_______________

Still, that’s probably why—

She lasted only five years out

There in the wilds of Kansas

So Jones, his wife, his children—

They all moved to Kansas City

After he sold his Empire Ranch

____________

Maybe that’s why he came—

Back to Strong City to die

Homesick for his real home

So that now he’s buried—

There in the Prairie Grove

Cemetery west of town

Steven F. Jones

STEPHEN F. JONES

(1826-1914)

Stephen F. Jones spent—
$1.9 million building the 
Spring Hill Ranch 

Including the stone fences—
But only owned the property 
For 10 years and occupied 
_______________

The limestone ranch house—
For only 5 1/2 years and
Then moved to Kansas City

Was the Tallgrass Prairie—
Too lonely for him, all that
Vast Midwestern Noir?

Z-Bar Ranch Memoir

Z-BAR RANCH MEMOIR

— William Least Heat Moon

PrairyErth: (a Deep Map)

______________________________

Jones missed his Z-Bar

Ranch in the Tall Grass Prairie

What was he thinking?

Was it Strong City

His grand limestone mansion

The lonely prairie?

____________________

The best architects

The best quarry stonemasons

The Renaissance style?

Plains Vernacular

Second Empire style 19th

Grandiose architecture?

________________________

A Chase County gem

Out in the middle of Nowhere

Did the Plains approve?

Why did he come back

To die a rich cattleman

Surveying his realm?

________________________

Sitting on a wall

Watching the cars go by there

On Cottonwood Street?

His rich vast estate

Still financing the Kansas

That he loved so much

OUT THERE 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n43htQtrle4&list=PLFECA16070644D57B

Lying there in bed—
In the dumpy Garden City
Wheat Land Motel

It took a bottle—

To get asleep and more
To realize who I was
________

I was as much a—
Nonfiction novel as
IN COLD BLOOD was

Maybe even more—
Because the people in
Holcomb, Kansas
_________

They were just as—
Alienated as I was back
In the chic Big Apple

GETTING READY  

The two killers plan ahead—
knowing yet not knowing 
what Holcomb Kansas has
in store for them…

[Perry sizes up some rope in the
Haines Hardware store, planning 
ahead of tying up the Clutters.

The rope, tape bought there
at Haines Hardware—unknowing
accessories to the crime]

Hickcock: It’ll be a simple heist.
Twenty grand in the safe. We’ll
snatch it and head for Mexico!!!

Perry: Yeah, well, we’ll see.
No job’s really easy, ya know. 

Perry: Jeez, look at that big old 
fuckin church. Built like a goddamn
old limestone French Cathedral. 

Hickcock: There’s the local Movie
Palace, the Granada Theater. All
these little fuckin towns got their
churches and movie houses. 

Perry: Yeah, they all got their
churches on one side of the
street and their dream palaces
on the other. Both of them 
in the same fuckin racket.

Hickcock: Wanna be in a movie?