Jones Colony

Lee County, TX

Status: Located – Needs More Research

Year Established: 1800s

Council of Governments: CAPCOG

Public History: Jones Colony, on Farm Road 180 a half mile north of Highway 290 in southeastern Lee County, was a freedman settlement founded sometime between the end of the Civil War and 1875 by the brothers Abram, Alexander, George, and Philip Jones. Farming and ranching were the principal occupations of its residents. In 1908 the county superintendent of schools apportioned funds for twenty-four students at the Jones Colony School. The community’s students later transferred to the school at nearby Globe Hill. Jones Colony is believed to have reached a peak population of between fifty and sixty residents in 1910. The community had Baptist and Methodist churches, but only the Baptist church still met in the 1980s. In the late 1980s the population in Jones Colony was reported as ten. By 2000 Jones Colony Church and Jones Colony Cemetery still marked the site of the rural community, but no population figures were available.

Community History: From TSHA Handbook of Texas: “Jones Colony, on Farm Road 180 a half mile north of Highway 290 in southeastern Lee County, was a freedman settlement founded sometime between the end of the Civil War and 1875 by the brothers Abram, Alexander, George, and Philip Jones. Farming and ranching were the principal occupations of its residents. In 1908 the county superintendent of schools apportioned funds for twenty-four students at the Jones Colony School. The community’s students later transferred to the school at nearby Globe Hill. Jones Colony is believed to have reached a peak population of between fifty and sixty residents in 1910. The community had Baptist and Methodist churches, but only the Baptist church still met in the 1980s. In the late 1980s the population in Jones Colony was reported as ten. By 2000 Jones Colony Church and Jones Colony Cemetery still marked the site of the rural community, but no population figures were available.”

Cemetery: Jones Colony Cemetery