The Widow’s Story: The Death of Cloyce D. Jones, Part One

The suspicious death of a railroad laborer in Uhrichsville in 1929 sent shock waves through his close-knit neighborhood.

Content warning: This post contains references to suicide. If you or someone you know has a mental illness, is struggling emotionally, or has concerns about their mental health, there are ways to get help. Click here for resources to find help for you, a friend, or a family member.

Cloyce Densel Jones (1886-1929) was born in Glenmont, Holmes County, Ohio in June 1886. Cloyce was the son of the unmarried couple James Allen Jones (1863-1925) and Minnie Cullison (1868-1915) and, in his youth, lived on his grandfather’s farm in Holmes County. It was not until his mother married that he lived with his mother and stepfather in Knox County, Ohio. Cloyce worked as a farm laborer in Holmes and Knox Counties and, in Knox, met his first wife Stella May Dudgeon (1895-1913). The two married in the fall of 1911 but, sadly, Stella died just days after giving birth to a daughter in January 1913.

Eventually Cloyce was hired as a laborer on the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad and that brought him to the Twin Cities area of Tuscarawas County. When staying in Tuscarawas County for work, he would rent a room in Tappan and there met a woman named Mary E. West (1886-1971). The couple married in May 1919 and continued to live for a short time in Tappan before they moved to Uhrichsville by 1925. They bought a house on East Fourth Street, within sight of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad tracks.

Despite how close the homes were to the railroad tracks, the street was very neighborly and the Joneses knew most of their nearby neighbors. Next door to them was fire marshal George W. White (1873-1953), catty-corner from them were carpenter Ernest (1883-1966) and his wife Oma (1882-1943) Covert, and the young couple Harry (1908-1985) and Lela (1912-1994) Fouts were nearby as well. Harry was a clay worker and Lela was the daughter of Ernest and Oma. It was a close-knit neighborhood with houses that sat close to one another and where residents looked out for each other.

Cloyce and Mary Jones had no children of their own but the daughter of Cloyce’s sister and brother-in-law, Freda Shuss (1912-1938), lived with them. The home they all lived in was a small, sixteen by thirty foot two-story home with a shed addition off the back. All told the home was perhaps 1200 square feet of living space at the most and, when the Joneses lived there, the home had two bedrooms upstairs and a single bath downstairs. Luckily, Freda often visited her parents’ house east of Dennison and so was not always in the Jones’ home.

It was a typical mid-December day when Lela Fouts noticed a tall woman wearing a black coat and black felt hat walk up onto the Jones’ porch and knock on the door sometime between 2:00 and 3:00 pm on the afternoon of Monday, December 16, 1929. The door briefly opened, closed, and then opened again. Lela saw someone, perhaps Cloyce Jones she thought, in the doorway after it opened the second time. Whatever conversation occurred was brief. The woman soon left, and Lela thought nothing further of it.

Later, around 3:15 pm that afternoon, a “tramp” pounded on the Covert door and told Oma Covert that he had been accosted in the street by Mary Jones. Mary claimed she had found her husband dead in the bathroom and was hysterical and needed help. Oma, another neighbor named Margaret Mapel (1883-1945), and Oma’s son walked across the street to the Jones house. Once inside they encountered a frantic Mary and saw Cloyce Jones’ lifeless body lying against the wall in the downstairs bathroom. Mary, oddly the neighbors thought, asserted to them several times that there was no gun in the house. Cloyce had obviously been shot though and a call was made to police immediately.

End of Part One

Enjoy my stories?

© Noel B. Poirier, 2024.