William Jury, born circa 1812, left England for a new life in Canada. With that move he set in motion many moves to come.
Canada
About 1830, William set sail for Canada. After he arrived, he met his future wife Eleanor “Ellen” Willett, who had also arrived In Canada from England. They began a new life together in 1835 and became the parents of four children. In 1848, William built a big barn on the property. He would not live to enjoy the fruits of his labor as he soon became ill with typhoid fever and died.
Somehow Eleanor managed to raise the children. Much of the burden likely fell on John, who was 12 when his father died. He became a shingle maker and when he was 22, he married Matilda White.
Moving to Kansas
In 1868, at only 30 years of age, Matilda died. She was buried in the graveyard of a country church about 4 miles west of Drumbo, Ontario, Canada. It isn’t known if this is the event that set in motion plans to move to America. However, in the fall of 1869, John, his children, his mother, his sister Ellen, and his brother’s family headed southward. Only his sister Ann(Jury) Carr stayed in Canada.
November 23, 1869, they are listed as new arrivals at the Western House Hotel in Ft. Scott, Kansas. The cooks at the hotel were African Americans and this was a whole new experience, especially for the children. They had never encountered an African American prior to arriving in Ft. Scott.
Getting a House
From Ft. Scott, the family traveled 18 miles southwest of Ft. Scott to a friend’s home. They spent a few days with their friends before moving into a clapboard house. They stayed in this house until spring. Then John Sr. bought a farm that had a log house. The house had a tar paper roof. It was gone with the first storm that blew in. So, John Sr. relied on the skills he had learned in Canada and built a shingle roof using black walnut.
The Grasshoppers
When the MK&T Railroad came through the area, the some of the workers boarded with the family. They were all Irishmen and John Jr. remembers them wearing red shirts. However, the railroad workers moved on and so did the family. About 1873, grasshoppers were so bad “they looked like snow coming down.” The family lost all their crops.
So, family sold out and moved to Missouri. It is believed that his brother’s family also moved as they had son born in Chiliothe, Livingston, Missouri on Christmas day 1873. They spent the winter, summer, and next winter in this location. They raised good crops of corn, broom corn, and tobacco. However, they lost several horses before returning to Kansas
Kansas Again
It was during this stay in Kansas that John Jr. claims that he met up with Frank and Jesse James. They were running from the law and he gave them directions through the woods. In exchange, he helped him pull a heifer out of a muddy buffalo wallow. Whether the story is true is unknown. (More search may shed light of the feasibility of the details of this story.)
Michigan
However, after 3 or 4 years back in Bourbon County, Kansas, the family was on the move again. This time, John’s sister Ellen stayed behind as she had married Thomas Harnett of Hiattville. However, John had remarried to Harriett Warner and it is assumed that she made the trip with them as they headed north. John, his brother William, and his mother finally settled near Sand Lake, Michigan where John Jr. hauled logs and shingles.
After about a year, the family decided that they had moved too far north. So, they headed southward, but only for a short distance. This time they purchased 40 acres of timber land near Tallmadge, Ottawa, Michigan, about 8 miles west of Grand Rapids, Michigan. They remained until 1883 when John’s mother Eleanor (Willett) Jury died.
South Dakota
With his mother gone, John Sr. pulled up roots again. This time his brother did not join them in their travels, electing to stay in Michigan.
John sent his wife, daughter Matilda, and daughter Hattie back to Kansas. It is believed that they traveled via stagecoach. It is unknown where his wife and Hattie stayed, but Matilda went to stay with John’s sister Ellen (Jury) Hartnett.
Meanwhile, John Sr., John Jr., and possibly his other sons went to check into homesteading in South Dakota. They found it to be very busy as many people were wanting land. They ended up spending 50 cents to simply sit in a chair overnight. Mighty pricey for the 1880s.
So, they headed back to Kansas.
Kansas Yet Again
By 1885, John was back in Kansas. This time to stay. John Sr. and Harriett lived in multiple locations, but all within spitting distance of Hiattville. He died at his home north of Hiattville in 1911.
Continuing The Tradition
John’s children each moved small distances with John Jr. moving the furthest. Wilbert stayed the closest moving only to Kansas City, Missouri. Meanwhile, Matilda, who married William J. Peelle, moved as far away as Wichita. Both Walter and John Jr. lived in Western Kansas. However, after a time, Walter returned to the Hiattville area and John Jr. moved to Redlands, California.
John Jr.’s children kept the moving spirit alive with some in Western Kansas, some in California, and one who really went rogue and ended up in Bucks County, Pensylvania.
Portions of the story are based on notes of John Jury Jr., brother to Matilda Jury. The notes are not complete as only a portion of the pages have been preserved.