Catherine Jane Thomas was born on May 22, 1856 in Anglesey, North Wales. She was brought up in the Congregational Church. She was married to William F. Jones (of Tyddyn Baily, Anglesey) on October 14, 1878 in Anglesey. They had eleven children. Only the names of these ten are known: Lydia Ann, (b. December 1878–died in infancy), Mary Ellen (b. June 1882), Robert Thomas (b. May 15, 1886), Gladys (b. December 22, 1888), Henry John (b. May 9, 1889), Amwell M., William F. Jr., Edith May (b. October 24, 1891), Hugh Owen (b. September 18, 1893), and Vivian Olwen (b. February 3, 1900).
William and Catherine Jones
William and Catherine emigrated to the US from Ireland in 1883, settling in Woodbine, Jo Daviess, Illinois. Here she was converted by Calvinistic Methodists. From this time forward, she was an ardent Christian, “desirous of following her Savior closely.”
Depot in Woodbine, Illinois
The family lived in Woodbine for nineteen years. By 1902, they had moved to Shelby, Brown County, South Dakota. She lived in (Houghton) Brown County with her family for the next 17 years. Her obituary describes her as a “loving wife and mother, always talking to her girls and boys about the way of life and teaching them of the Savior Jesus Christ, and ever persuading them to attend church and Sunday school and to give their hearts to Christ. To show her great love, both for her family and her Master, she would sit up until the early hours of the morning, sewing and mending, getting the clothes ready for the little ones, so that when Sunday came they would be ready to go to the house of God. Her greatest desire shown by her last wish and prayer was that the family circle would not be broken up yonder, but that each one should be prepared to meet her in heaven.”
Catherine passed away on December 12, 1919. She was buried in rural Houghton, South Dakota alongside William.
