Westmoreland
Postmarked: 13 July 1913; Houston Tex.
Stamp: 1c Green Ben Franklin #331 To: Miss K. B. Jones Burlington, Iowa 718 N. 3rd Message: July 13 /09. Dear Auntie:- Rec’ved your letter some time ago have been pretty busy. Will try & write long letter in a day or so. Lots are selling so fast all the best ones are gone. With love. Daisy, |
Daisy has not been identified, but she speaks of lots being nearly sold out, so she may have bad some connection to the real estate business, and possibly Westmoreland Place itself. The original investor in Westmoreland, William Wright Baldwin, Sr., was from Burlington, IA, and it is tempting to speculate that there might be a family connection between the Baldwin family and “Auntie” K. B. Jones. Unfortunately, no link between Miss K. B. Jones and the Baldwin family can be found, nor can anyone named Daisy from Burlington or Houston with an Aunt from a Jones family be identified with the information at hand.
“Auntie” K. B. Jones is most likely Katherine B. Jones, daughter of Amos P. Jones, a carpenter from Troy, Rensselaer County, NY. Amos moved to central Illinois, first to Peoria by 1860, then to Warsaw, Hancock County, IL where Katherine’s sister Mabel married John L. Houke about 1869. Houke was a locomotive engineer, and railroads were big business in that part of the state as rail lines linked markets in Chicago with products in the greater Midwest. Kate Jones stayed with her sister’s family through 1880 and moved with them to Burlington before 1900. John and Mabel had a son Frank (May 1870), but otherwise no other children and Katherine remained as a part of the family. In 1904 she was listed as a saleslady for G. Moard, living in the 700 block of North Third Street. John Houke died 23 February 1928 and was buried in Aspen Grove Cemetery in Burlington, Des Moines County, IL. Mabel died 26 May 1930 and is buried there as well, and also Katherine B. Jones, who died 7 April 1949 at the age of 89. Also in that cemetery are the remains of William Wright Baldwin, Westmoreland Place’s investor, (1845-1936) and his wife, Alice Tuttle Baldwin (1850-1926). |