|
Coker Cemetery History #8
by Bob Battaglia
Mitchell George Tomasini, aged 98 years young, passed away Feb 28 and was buried March 4 at the Coker Cemetery. We offer our deepest sympathy to all the members of the Tomasini family. His grandfather, Baron George Ritter Von Tomasini (1818-1912) is also buried at Coker. See his history in the March 2000 issue of this letter. The Baron’s wife was Margaret Ann Autry; her mother was Sarah Jane (Coker) Autry.
In Amos Dickens Jones diary, he mentions living with his brother, Joseph F. Jones in 1847 when they were in Nacogdoches Co TX. Joseph had one son named Seaborn Brown Jones, born 1852. Joseph and his wife had both died by 1870 and in 1880 Seaborn Brown Jones can be found in the Bexar Co census living next to Amos Dickens Jones, his uncle. Seaborn, called “Sebe”, became active driving cattle herds north from San Antonio. He drove herds for Col. Lytle of Schreiner, Light and Lytle and eventually became a trail boss for this group. In the Spring of 1878, Sebe and his friend, Alex Crawford each drove a herd to Dodge City for Schreiner. The steers sold okay in Dodge City, but they couldn’t sell the cows. They had to winter-over on Beaver River in No-Man’s-Land and the following spring, after enduring a winter of blizzards, Schreiner sold the remaining herd to Sebe. He remained in that area for a few years and then moved on. He married Martha Ellen Maltsberger of San Antonio, probably around 1895. Martha Ellen was born in Denton TX in 1860 and was a daughter of George Washington Maltsberger. Martha Ellen had a sister, Mary Ann, who married Jonathon Monroe Jones 1870 in Bexar County. Jonathon Monroe Jones was a son of Amos Dickens Jones.
Sebe Jones ranched up in Montana and eventually ended up in Saskatchewan, Canada, where he had a ranch called the “56’s”. He became a citizen of Canada in 1906. He continued to raise cattle and horses until his death. Sebe Jones died 1917 in Saskatchewan, Canada, due to an accident while training a horse for the Provincial Horse Show. His wife returned to live in El Paso TX and she died there in 1947. They had two daughters. One, Irene Jones Wulfjen, lived in El Paso until 1990, when she died. The other daughter is buried next to Sebe in Mt Pleasant Cemetery in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. This daughter, Seabie, died at age of 7 in 1905 due to illness. Irene Jones and her husband, Charles Wulfjen, had no children.
This story about Sebe Jones is interesting because it reflects the roots of the Coker Community. There were so many relationships developed due to the large families that settled there. It was a busy, well-populated community. For example, there are 22 Maltsberger tombstones at Coker, 30 Jones and 32 Coker tombstones, just to mention a few of the prominent names.
|
