I. YOUTH

John Hamel, often called Hamel or Ham, was born in Walnut Hills, Ohio, in May 1845, the oldest of three children. As a boy, he spent most of his time in the vicinity of Cincinnati, near Walnut Hills. Six feet tall, slender, and fond of the outdoor life, he hunted, fished, and explored geological formations. Undoubtedly it was here that he began his life-long interest in Indian artifacts, searching out relics left behind by the Miami, Shawnee and other Indians who had populated this area between the Miami and Ohio Rivers before the coming of white settlers.

His father, Dr.Newman OliverJones, joined the rush to the California goldfields in 1849. Ham was only 4 years old, and his younger brother Newman Oliver, Jr. was not yet born. Unfortunately Newman Oliver Sr. died in El Dorado County, California, soon after his arrival in California.

For five years, Ham lived with his mother and brother and sister in the home of his grandparents, William and Elizabeth Creager. In the 1850 census William “Cregger “ was found residing in Cincinnati, Columbia Township, Hamilton County, Ohio. He was a landlord and had real estate valued at $7,900. Elizabeth, his wife, was 54. Others in the household included Harriet, age 19, Casper, age 14, Amanda, age 10, and Caroline Jones and her son John and daughter Mary.

In 1854 John Hamel’s mother married William Ireland. The Jones children and two of William’s children from an earlier marriage moved into a boarding house in Cincinnati. Caroline and William had two more children before Caroline Creager Jones Ireland died in 1863. They appear in the 1860 census living in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, and 14th Ward. William is 56, born in Tennessee, his occupation clerk. Living with him are Caroline Ireland age 34, John H. Jones, age 15, Margaret A. Ireland, age 14, Mary E. Jones age 13, Newman O. Jones age 10, James F. Ireland age 6 and Eddie C. Ireland age 1 month.

At that time of his mother’s death, Ham was 18 and old enough to be on his own in Cincinnati, but it is possible his sister Mary Elizabeth moved to Chicago with her uncle Samuel P Cregar. Samuel was found in the 1880 census living on Flournoy Street in Chicago. With him were Harriet, his wife; a daughter, Clemintine; and a son H. Wm. Boarding with them was a Lizzie Jones, possibly the daughter of Newman and Caroline Cregar Jones. In Chicago three years later Elizabeth “Lizzie” married Jay D Dodge. They later became the foster parents for two of John Hamel’s daughters by his second wife.

Newman Oliver Jr. also moved to the Chicago area and died at Amboy, Illinois, shortly after he married. Both he and his young wife died of scarlet fever. It is reported that they had children, but there are no records. Before his death Newman worked at Carson, Pirie, and Scott in Chicago.

2.TEENS

In his teens during the Civil War, Ham served with a Cincinnati company of Ohio National Guard that resisted the Confederate General John Hunt Morgan, leader of the Morgan Raiders. On July 8, 1863, Morgan led approximately two thousand soldiers across the Ohio River into southern Indiana. Ohio Governor David Todd issued a proclamation calling out the Ohio militia to protect the southern counties. Unfortunately for the civilian population of southern Ohio, the militiamen did not hear of the proclamation in a timely manner.

The Confederates faced little opposition until July 18, when they encountered a small earthwork, defended by Ohio militiamen, among them Ham Jones. Their presence allowed Union cavalry, under Brigadier-General E.H. Hobson, to catch up to the Confederates. When Ham applied in 1923 for a veteran’s pension for his part in the Civil War, he was refused. As a national guardsman, he was not part of the federal army and therefore considered ineligible for benefits for his service.

After the Civil War, he was employed inspecting and trimming hams for meatpackers in Cincinnati. At that time Cincinnati, often called “Porkopolis”, was the leading pork -packing city in the country. Ham also worked for a ferry company that operated a ferry across the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Covington, Kentucky. It may have been while working on the ferry, known as Kennedy’s Ferry, that he met the family of his future wife, Elizabeth Roberts.

3. MARRIAGE 1869 and MINING: Elizabeth Roberts [1851-1879]

The Roberts family often visited Kentucky, the birthplace of Mr. Roberts. It is possible that Ham joined the Roberts family when they were returning to Illinois where Mr. Roberts was a miner, prospector, and farmer. It is also possible that Mr. Roberts taught Ham the skills of mining because Ham worked as a miner for the first time in Mt. Carroll, Illinois, then later in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Indeed, in the 1870 census he declared his occupation as lead minor. By that time he and Elizabeth have been married for a year, and they live next door to Elizabeth’s parents.

After his marriage to Elizabeth [Lizzie] Roberts in Mt. Carroll, Illinois, in 1869, he lived for about 10 years on a 4-acre farm north of Mt. Carroll where his first three children were born--Minnie Myrtle, Ralston Eldridge [Ross], and Newman Oliver. He farmed and mined, but Tim and Jim, his team of mules provided his main livelihood. With the team, he hauled cordwood and provided ice to icehouses in the winter. The ice business in neighboring Savanna on the Mississippi was a large part of community life. Hundreds of men were employed all winter to cut and store ice for later use. Ice was cut into large squares, 9 to 10 inches thick, and moved to the waiting wagons that drove right out on the ice for loading. The ice was then stored in sawdust insulated warehouses all over Savanna.

In 1878 their only daughter died of scarlet fever when she was seven, and his wife’s health became so poor that Ham sold his farm, bought a covered wagon, and sent two Mt. Carroll men with his mule team to Colorado Springs, Colorado. He and Elizabeth, Ross and Newman traveled to Colorado by train and stage. Eleven days after they arrived, Elizabeth died and was buried in Colorado Springs. Lori Buckwalter Gilbert [descendant of Ham’s first and second wives] reported that Elizabeth’s brother Harmon, his wife Mary, and their three children went along to Colorado Springs to help Ham with Elizabeth. She wondered, too, if it was possible that Elizabeth’s father was one of the men who drove the team to Colorado.

Lori Buckwalter Gilbert reported an interesting adventure while Harmon was in Colorado Springs. She wrote, “I cannot say for sure John Hamel Jones did this as well but I know from family stories that Harmon and Mary [Airhart] Roberts along with their children lived in tents in Colorado while 'the men' worked the mines. I was under the impression that 'the men' included whomever went to Colorado with them and Elizabeth.

I know that a bear wandered into camp one night and scared Mary [Airhart] Roberts and the kids and they huddled in the tent all day. When the men came home, Harmon had to put Mary and kids on a train back to Carroll County. He stayed there until he had enough money to pack up and follow.

I do not know if there were more women and children returning to Carroll County then, or just my gr-gr-gramma.”

For about 4 years the three remained in Colorado where Ham worked as a teamster and miner and operated a meat market and feedstore. Finally in 1882, he sold his market and store, and with a a saddle horse, a pony, the boy’s dog Carlo, and the mule team pulling the covered wagon, they returned to Mt. Carroll.

4. MARRIAGE 1882: Mary Elizabeth Buckwalter [1861-1887]

The year of his return to Mt. Carroll, he married his second wife, Mary Elizabeth Buckwalter. She gave birth to two children, both daughters—Mary Elizabeth born in 1883 and Ada Vivian born in 1886. Then in 1887 his second wife died. His sons were old enough to stay with their father, but the girls were taken to the home of their aunt, Ham’s sister Mary Elizabeth Jones Dodge who lived in Chicago. Until their marriage, the girls lived with their foster parents, the Dodges, and spent summer in Mt. Carroll with their father and half-brothers.

5. MARRIAGE 1893: Emma Smith [1875- ]

In 1893 he married for the third time, and in 1896 they sold their 200 acre farm and moved to Chicago where they lived near the Dodges. About 4 years later they returned to live in Savanna. The 1900 census lists Ham, Emma, and Ralston living together in Savanna. [Interesting data: Emma and Ralston are the same age!] Ham was a policeman and chief of police for several years. In 1917 and 1918 he was a police officer for the Chicago Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, the same line that his son Newman Oliver Jones worked on most of his life. In 1920 he and Emma moved to Tacoma, Washington. In 1924 he died in Tacoma and is buried there.

During these last years, he continued to prospect throughout Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, and during this prospecting he pursued his childhood hobby collecting Indian relics. His daughter in the 1962 letter says, “He was interested in geology when he, with Dr. Francis Shimer, left Vincennes, Indiana, to locate at Shimer. It was through Doctor Shimer and Miss Ada Joy and Miss Wood that my father was really a geologist all of his life.”[I have not yet verified the truth of this claim, but I plan to investigate Ham’s relationship with Shimer.] At the time of his death in 1924 Ham had a sizable arrow head collection which was given to the Mt. Carroll Historical Society and has been on exhibit at the Miles Museum.