Early Pioneers of Unadilla…and my Aunt Dell.

I have many photos labeled Aunt Dell.  I found out that her actual name was Julia Ardell Jones (b.1867) and that she was the daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Jones, sister of Charles Jones, my father's grandfather who helped raise him in Roscoe.  There's no evidence that she ever married but for a long time I was fascinated by two small snapshots. 





They show a middle aged Dell outside, as if in someone's, a white family's, back yard.  Something about the smiles and comfortable body language makes it seem that the family was very close to Dell.  The casual familiarity and the arms wrapped around her display genuine fondness.  And Aunt Dell, which is probably what they also called her,  comes across as a firm but loving person with a sassy sense of humor. An independent, never married woman.  Someone I'd like to know.  And I very much wondered who the other  people were.

I searched around and found that according to the 1905 New York State Census, Ardell Jones age 37 was a live-in servant to the North family,  address: 375 Main St. Unadilla NY.  Mr. Samuel S. North was a banker, his wife was Belle and his daughter age 21 was Blanche.   The 1915 New York State Census shows Julia A. Jones age 47 working for a different family - the Cones also on Main Street.  Frederick L. Cone (62) was a farmer.  His wife was Harriet G. Cone (50).  

My searching led to a wonderful manuscript entitled The History of Otsego County, NY 1740 - 1878 (published 1878).  Among  the many early settlers of Unadilla who came from New England to what was then called "the western wilds of New York State", were some very familiar names: Col. Samuel North "closely identified with the politics of his county and state"  and Dr. Nijah Cone.  So, my Aunt Dell worked for two prominent white Unadilla families!

Dr. Nijah Cone was of particular interest to me. As soon as I saw that name Cone, I wondered if it had been changed from the Jewish Cohen.  And then I read that Dr. Nijah Cone was "among the prominent pioneers of Unadilla and one whose career was marked with honesty of purpose, uprightness and a desire to alleviate the wants of his fellow-man".  I immediately thought: Abolitionist.  Safe havens along the Underground RR.  Did he help my gr. gr. grandfather Samuel Jones (b.1826 VA) to escape and settle in Unadilla?    And in my mind, it made sense that the descendants of this man, with whom Aunt Dell had lived and worked, and whose children she helped raise, would likely share some of those honorable qualities.  Hence the warmth, acceptance and affection that I see in the photos.

I would love to meet a member of the North or Cone family whose family stories, passed down through generations, may have included a woman named Dell Jones.