Published: November 07, 2009 05:03 pm      

Descendants of area pioneer gather for memorial dedication

Thursday afternoon the local Moon-McGehee Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas presided over the dedication of a memorial marker at the grave of Judith Jones Williamson, who lived in Texas before statehood and settled in Hays County in 1851. The ceremony took place under a blue sky in the little Hugo Cemetery on Purgatory Road near FM 32.

Members of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, as well as descendants of the pioneer, area citizens and friends of Texas attended the short graveside ceremony, preceded earlier in the day by a luncheon and program about the life of the early settler.

“My ancestor was known as ‘the notorious Aunt Judy,’” said Sally Jennings, a great-great-granddaughter who told of her forebear’s entry into Texas in 1839 and subsequent life in Hays County. “It was also said that she carried a .45 in the big pockets of her dress, and I can only imagine what she would think of the fuss we are making over her today. But surely she and my other ancestors are smiling at the happy sight of friends and cousins getting together, some meeting for the first time.”

Judith Jones was born in 1831 near Little Rock, the daughter of Andrew Jones, one of 11 children born to Oliver and Margaret Jones. Eight years later Margaret and several grown children left Arkansas and established claim to land on the Sulphur River in what is now Cass County, where the Jones clan is believed to have engaged in the raising of livestock.

On Feb. 19, 1849, Judy married Jim Williamson, and after selling her father’s land grant in 1851 the couple made their way to Hays County to join the other Williamsons who settled near Hugo, also called Purgatory Springs, near the place where Hugo Road now intersects Purgatory Road.

In addition to the usual housekeeping chores which fell to frontier women, “the notorious Aunt Judy” did most of the clan's spinning and weaving, making a coarse unbleached cloth which she dyed purple with oak bark boiled in water. She was remembered by grandchildren as a stern disciplinarian who herded them with the crook of her cane, but a grandmother whose love for them came through the tough exterior.

Accounts of life in early Hugo and stories of its early residents have been captured in two notable local histories, Clear Springs and Limestone Ledges and Wimberley: Belle of the Blanco.

Judy and Jim Williamson raised six children: Joseph Andrew, Mary, James William (also known as Bill), Zachariah, Cannon and Albert (Ab). Descendants of Ab attending Thursday’s celebration included Keith Williamson of Spring Branch, along with sons Keith, Mark, and Earl Read, and daughter Chris Cruess of Phoenix; Joy Pierce and Sally Jennings of San Antonio, who descend from James William; and Joseph’s great-granddaughter Kaye Lane of Rule.