Sarah Gertrude Jones

Sarah Gertrude "Trudie", daughter of Dr. Nathaniel Barber Hall and Nancy Ann Boulware, was born November 7, 1850, in Fairfield County, South Carolina. She was the first child born to Nathaniel and Nancy.

The Hall Family moved to Floyd County, Georgia in 1853. In 1858, they moved to Webster County, Georgia. They lived there until 1868, when they moved back to Floyd County.

Trudie told one of her granddaughters that her mother (Nancy Hall) was often ill, and, during those times, she took care of her younger brothers. One of her duties was taking the boys for haircuts. She also rode along with her father as he made the rounds treating his patients, and, when needed, assisted her father.

On November 24, 1870, Trudie married Robert "Bob" Haywood Jones at her parents’ home in Floyd County, Georgia. They were married by Reverend Charles J. Oliver. The Hall farm was located on Armuchee Creek in Floyd County, and Bob Jones's family owned and operated a flour mill on the creek, next to the Hall farm. In addition to being neighbors, the Hall and Joneses probably attended the same church.

Bob and Trudie Jones were the parents of six sons and a daughter.

The Jones family moved to Collin County, Texas in 1886. This is a story about the trip from Trudie and Bob's granddaughter, Minnie (Jones) Bernstein:

". . .Papa was ten years old when they came to Texas—Uncle Ike was fourteen and Uncle Ben and Uncle Bob were somewhere between those two. Uncle John and Uncle Jim were younger, about eight and six, I think, and Aunt Gertrude was 'just a baby,' as Grandma said. If you are wondering what this has to with anything, this is it: I want you to picture a family on a train coming from Georgia all the way to Texas. I don’t know much about what trains were like in the year 1885, nor how long it took for a trip like that. Papa had a pure silver cup that they took with them as a drinking cup. Can you imagine how many times six boys would go for a drink in a day?

"At one stop on the way, they had time to get off the train and relax a bit. When they got back on the train, Uncle Ben was counting everyone to be sure that no one was lost. Every time he counted, he was one short. He looked at everyone and then counted again. Again he was one short. Finally, someone asked if he was counting himself. He was the one missing."

After Robert died, Sarah Gertrude lived with her only daughter, Annie Gertrude Jones McCarty, and her family. Virgie McWhirter Lewis (a great-granddaughter) remembers Sarah Gertrude drinking a hot toddy every evening before going to bed. She said that if Annie Gertrude was a little late in making the toddy, Sarah would “raise Cain.” Virgie said that Sarah Gertrude always wore a black dress and a little white cap.

Sarah Gertrude died November 29, 1941, in Dennison, Texas. She is buried at Cannon Cemetery in Grayson County, Texas.