DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's the marker's own account, the way I'd tell it around a fire on a Wood County evening. J. H.
Jones came a long way to leave his mark on this piece of East Texas ground. A native of Alabama, he made his way to Texas in 1877. He tried his hand at teaching school for several years, then the people of Wood County took notice of him.
In 1886 they elected him clerk of the county. From there Jones went on to become a successful merchant in Quitman, and by all accounts he'd found his footing in this part of the world. Now, some men earn a place in a community.
Others give one. Jones did both. In 1902 he donated property right here, at this very site, to the Old Settlers of Wood County Association.
That organization had been put together only three years earlier, and it had a driving force behind it: a newspaper editor by the name of James L. Ray. Ray built the thing, Jones gave it a home.
From that point forward, the folks of Wood County had a place to come back to, every single year, for homecoming. And they did. Except for a short stretch during World War I, those annual gatherings kept right on happening.
Generation after generation, people returned to this ground. It outlasted J. H.
Jones himself, who passed in 1923. It outlasted James L. Ray, who followed in 1929.
In 1952 the reunion grounds were deeded to the Governor Hogg Shrine State Park, making it official in the way that good things eventually deserve to be. A man from Alabama donates a piece of land, a newspaper editor organizes the neighbors, and somehow, the tradition holds. That's the kind of story this ground tells.
What the marker says
A native of Alabama, J. H. Jones (d. 1923) came to Texas in 1877. After teaching school for several years, he was elected clerk of Wood County in 1886. He later became a successful merchant in Quitman. In 1902 Jones donated property at this site to the Old Settlers of Wood County Association, organized three years earlier under the leadership of newspaper editor James L. Ray (d. 1929). Except for a short time during World War I, annual homecoming activities have been held here. The reunion grounds were deeded to the Governor Hogg Shrine State Park in 1952. (1981)