Alonzo T Jones and Isaac VanHorn

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

Isaac D. VanHorn and his wife Adelia were sent by the SDA church to the Pacific Northwest in 1874 as the denomination's first pastoral team to the area.  Isaac and Adelia had been married by Elder James White in Battle Creek 1865.  The VanHorn's first lived and worked in the Walla Walla Valley, where they and church members built the first SDA church in the Washington Territory.

 

In May 1876, the Isaac VanHorn family (which included his wife Adelia, son Burt, and Adelia's sister, Frances) and his assistant -- Alonzo T. Jones (a recent convert who had been serving in the army, and whom Isaac VanHorn baptized in Walla Walla) -- moved to the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Their first evangelistic meetings in what is now the Oregon Conference was in Oregon City. They next went to Salem and held meetings. On January 14, 1877, they officially organized the first church in the Willamette Valley, in the State capitol of Salem.

 

In April of 1877, Alonzo Jones married Adelia Van Horn's sister, Frances Patten.

 

In the 1880 census, the VanHorn family is in "East Butte, Oregon" (now known as "Tigard"), with a visitor, "Ellen G White," who is listed as a "speaker & writer."

 

Ellen White, along with Elder Stephen Haskell (who was staying with a neighboring family) were in Oregon for the 1880 Campmeeting held in Forest Grove, as noted in the Morning Oregonian newspaper.

 

What makes this all even more interesting to me is that Isaac VanHorn's wife, Adelia, and Alonzo T Jones' wife, Frances, were not only sisters, but were the "double" 6th cousins of my 2nd great grandfather.

 

Here are Isaac and Adelia Van Horn, and Alonzo and Frances Jones:

[hch]

It is a small world among Adventists.

 

I had the privilege of being friends with Alonzo Jones' grandson Everett Jewell.

 

Would not have known of his relation except he once mused "The church did not treat my grandfather very well."

 

Which led me to learn that tidbit.

 

Having met the grandsons of Ellen White, Alonzo Jones, and J Andrews and finding them to be gracious Christians;

it makes me realize that their grandparents must have had a godly influence in their families

to have such Christian people in the third generation.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

hch, you had me stumped there for a minute.

 

Alonzo Jones was not Everett Jewell's grandfather.  His grandfather was Cornelius VanHorn, brother of Isaac VanHorn.  And Cornelius' wife was Amanda Patten, sister of Adelia Patten VanHorn (Isaac's wife) and Frances Patten Jones (wife of Alonzo Jones).  

 

So Alonzo would be Everett Jewel's great uncle.  (And Everett was my grandfather's 8th cousin.)

[TruthSeeker123]

Really interesting, rudywoofs. We Adventists seem to be a really tight night community.

What do you mean by 6th and 8th cousins? I know that second cousin has two meanings: (1) where our parents are cousins and (2) where I am your father/mother's cousin. So, in what sense were they your grandfather's 6th and 8th cousins?

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

"6th cousin" means that my 5th great grandparents were the 5th great grandparents of another person.

 

Similarly, 8th cousin means that my 7th great grandparents were the 7th great grandparents of another person.

 

 

If your parent is 1st cousin with someone, you would be 1st cousin 1x removed (1 generation back).

 

If your grandparent is 1st cousin with someone, you would be 1st cousin 2x removed..

 

Here's a good chart...

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

By the way, when my mom first joined the SDA church, she was the first in either her or my dad's family line to do so.... neither she nor my dad had even heard of Seventh-day Adventists, so there is really no *close* connection of my family with other SDA's -- only the distant connections that I chance upon...

 

Mom's family didn't attend church, but the close ancestral religions were Mennonite, Quaker, and Catholic (and Jewish).

 

Dad's family were Baptist, with Methodist-Episcopal, Catholic, and Jewish ancestral religions..

[TruthSeeker123]

Thanks for enlightening me.

[Jones OK]

Can anyone tell me if there are any close relatives of Alonzo Trevier Jones and Frances Jones still living ?  If so, can you tell me how they can be contacted ? 

My wife and I have been fans of A.T. Jones' 'Third Angel's Message' sermons of 1893, 1895 and 1897 for some time.  During this time certain discoveries have been made, lately, in neuro-science regarding the functions of the Biblical 'heart' of the human brain, that Jones referred to so often throughout those sermons. These recent discoveries now vindicate what he said in those sermon / 'arguments' that Ellen White said were 'framed' by the Holy Spirit. 

Enough well-respected SDA leading figures have attempted to smear A.T. Jones' good name and work in the past, that these are very exciting developments that confirm that what Jones taught to the SDA GC sessions in the late 1800s, was spot on.  And especially so in his 1897 GC session sermons when Jones argued that the 'Science of Salvation' is the chief of all sciences, since it deals with the mind (brain) itself. 

Only the 'prescience' of God can account for the fact that this and other things Jones 'argued' from the perspective of the SDA 'religion' throughout those 61 sermons, are now being confirmed by non-SDA 'scientists'. . . AND it would only be fitting that any of A.T. Jones' living relatives should be told of this good news that clears their ancestor's good name, while also vindicating the God that he truly spoke for.  If I was a Jones family member I would want to know this.