Jones' Mill Community

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Back in the 1840s, two folks from New Jersey, John W. Jones and his wife Tamson, known to some as Tamezine, made their way down to Fannin County and put down roots.

They weren't alone for long. Other family members joined them, including sons who had done something worth noting before they ever got to Texas. Those sons had served as missionaries to the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations.

So you had a family that had already been out in the world doing serious work before they started building something new in Fannin County. Around the Jones family's flour mill and cotton gin, a whole community took shape. Jones' Mill, they called it.

Now, that's how communities tend to work out here. Somebody builds something useful, a mill, a gin, and people gather. Four decades on down the line, the Self brothers came along and built a mill of their own, and something interesting happened.

The population shifted, the way populations do, and the place came to be known as the Selfs community. Time kept moving, as it does, and eventually Honey Grove rose up as the predominant settlement in the area. But here's what the marker wants you to know.

The people who came out of Jones' Mill, they didn't just fade into the past. Over the years, many of them contributed to the building of churches and other institutions in Honey Grove. Their work carried forward even after the name of their community had changed.

And today, if you want to find where Jones' Mill stood in the story of Fannin County, you drive about a quarter mile east of this marker and you'll find the historic cemetery, with grave markers dating all the way back to 1850. The community is gone in the way that communities go, but the stones are still there, and the stones remember.

What the marker says

In the 1840s, New Jersey natives John W. and Tamson (Tamezine) Finley Jones settled in Fannin County. Joining them later, other family members included sons who had served as missionaries to the Choctaw and Chikasaw nations. The Jones’ Mill Community arose around the family’s flour mill and cotton gin. Four decades later, the Self brothers built a mill, and the population shifted and became known as the Selfs community. Eventually, Honey Grove became the predominant area settlement. Over the years, many from Jones’ Mill contributed to development of churches and other institutions in Honey Grove. Today, the Jones’ Mill community is represented by its historic cemetery (1/4 mi. E.), with grave markers dating to 1850. (2006)