Jake Phillips and the Jones House

A bit of History on the
Theodore and Kate Jones house
of Union Church Road, formerly known as
Headtown Road and before that, Fairgrounds Road

Preliminary Information
In the wee hours of Sunday morning, May 14, 1916, a shot rang out and a man was left dead on the floor. Details are not known to me but the tragedy apparently occurred during or directly after a poker game. Who fired the shot and for what reason, I don’t know. However, the victim was 36 year old James Oliver, a husband and a father of four young girls.

The House
The frame house was built on property—where it still stands—by a local grocery merchant named Jacob (Jake) Phillips and expressly built for the use of the widow of James Oliver and his daughters. Beside the house, Jake built a grocery store which was run by him or others until about 1940. I don’t know the date the house was built but the information may be on record in Washington Co. Courthouse.

I have no idea why Jake built and deeded the home for and to the needy family unless it was from the goodness of his heart. Earlier in his life, he had been married but I think the union wasn’t long lasting. There were—and still are—rumors in the family that Jake sired a daughter out of wedlock and that the child may have been one of the Oliver girls. I have found information to contradict the last part of the hearsay but a daughter actually was born by another a local woman from an affair. I know the names of the alleged mother and child but I will not reveal them.

Some of the Oliver family lived in the house until the Jones family bought it in the late 1940’s. I remember two of the daughters from yo youth, one married a Truelove and the other married a Bulla. Jake is buried in an unmarked grave in the Union Church cemetery just a few yards from the house.