A Tennant Family

Joseph Aaron Stones was born in Florence, Nebraska 11 December 1860. He is the son of Joseph Stones Sr, who was born in England, 4 April 1826 and came to America as an immigrant and settled in Franklin, where father spent his younger life. He was forth of a family of five, having three older sisters, and a younger brother who died in infancy.

He never told us very much about his early life, but I do know his father was very strict with the family, and he being the only boy had much hard work to do.

In those days the harvesting was done with the cradle, as they called it (a scythe with a basket attached), and the bundles were bound with straw, an art that he taught us boys to do. The work in those days was in a large part done by oxen in his boyhood days, as there were not very many horses a that time.

At the age of 25 he married Anna Eliza Housley, my mother, 2 may 1885, and later homesteaded a farm at Franklin, Idaho. From here another history tells most of his life, written by Emma Housley Auger, Mother's niece, who know the family about as well as we knew ourselves, so I shall just jot down a few of the things that reveal the personal side of his character.

His word was law to his family and good as a note to his friends. He expected his family to work hard as he had always done. He loved people, and did much for everyone moving into the community were he lived. He had a lot of patience with everyone moving in to the community wherever he lived. He had a lot of patience with people, but not so much with stubborn animals. He was quit religious and held many church positions, at one time bishop, and for many years as Bishop's counselor. He also served as choir leader, and many other positions. We always had family prayer and had the family take turns in offering the prayer.

He was never very stable, but seemed to like to move from place to place. He was a good rough carpenter and improved the outbuildings wherever he went, but he never took so much interest in the house. It seemed our barns and sheds were always better than our house, but every place was left better by his having live on it.

He was an excellent marksman with a rifle and won many shooting contests and loved to hunt. He also was a lover of music, and at one time played a base violin in the Lowe Orchestra. He also played a flute and accordion; he was good bass singer, and often he and mother would sing together.

Unlike his father, he did not take very much interest in beautifying and landscaping the yards. Whatever was done in this line was left up to mother. His father was an ardent flower lover and gardener.

He was a lover of good stock, and always improved whatever he had. He made great strides in developing his horses. I remember when he only had four head of small horses, but in a few years he had some of the best in the country, and often he would trade with neighbors and match teams that would sell at premium prices.

In his younger days he did much canyon work, getting wood for the home, school, also logs to make lumber, besides the farm work. He was also handy at cement work, and built many roads and bridges as road supervisor. He knew the art of using dynamite for blasting to get the best results.

He loved humor, and was always jesting, and joking with the neighbors and to tease the grandchildren and mother too, if he could find something to tease her about.

It seemed he was gifted with the power in the priesthood to heal the sick and he was called often in this capacity. He lived a simple life and never cared for fancy things.

He became crippled in his hip in his older years and had to use crutches. The last few years of his life he devoted to a little wood-chopping and reading church books and stories. He was always glad to have friends and neighbors visit him. He died a few days after having a stroke 1 February 1944 at Franklin, Idaho and is buried in the Franklin Cemetery. They moved to Franklin from Cambridge in 1930.