Jones Cottage
The following article that documents the history of the Jones Cottage and its restoration appeared in the 12 April 2021 issue of the Milton Renaissance Foundation Newsletter (Angela Daniel-Upchurch, Editor).
The work was undertaken by John Harbin Keener and Lena Caroline Scott Keener.
Not all the images referenced in the article are included here. However, they will be found online at:
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"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." Robert Byrnes
That certainly would seem to be the experience of F. B. Jones as it pertains to the cottage he built circa 1905 adjacent to the Episcopal Church (now The Woman's Club) on Academy Street. According to his daughter, Emily Jones Bradsher, her father determined to build a "house on the hill" to be a rental property. That plan seems not to have worked out exactly as he intended.
Today, well over one hundred years later, the house is still standing, but there is no record or recollection of it having ever been occupied by anyone outside his family. (I would welcome input to the contrary.)
At one time or another each of Mr. Jones' adult children lived there.
Eventually, his only surviving son, Clyde Ray Jones, and wife Minnie Mae Cannady Jones, bought the house as a family home from his father's estate in 1931, and lived there the rest of their lives. After Clyde's death in 1977, it was the home of his daughter Alice Jacqueline Jones Charette until her death in 2017.
My husband, John, and I purchased the house in early 2019 and have recently completed the restoration of this "house on the hill" which we are calling the "Jones Cottage."
I have always felt that the stories of the homes and businesses in towns like Milton are especially interesting because they are, to some degree, "family history made visible," forever linked to life stories of their early inhabitants. With that perspective, the history of the Jones Cottage is best understood through an account of F. B. Jones and his family, as reflected by public and family records, as well as oral history passed down through three generations.
