Interview with Bernard Jones, Sr., June 12, 1982

Partial Transcript: When the, when was he first...

Segment Synopsis: Jones, talks about his father, Wylie Jones, who was deputy sheriff, then sheriff of Caldwell County, Kentucky in the late 19th and early 20th century. He also shares some other information about him.
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Keywords: Caskets; Cobb (Ky.); Farms; Henry Towrie; Livery stables; Widows; Wylie Jones

Subjects: Caldwell County (Ky.); Family farms; Memories; Sheriffs; Stories

Partial Transcript: Did he have any experience with the Night Riders that you know of?

Segment Synopsis: Jones tells how his father transported luggage for a women who was a leader of the Night Riders.
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[contains some racially offensive language]

Keywords: Barns; Buggies; Carriages; Hats; Illinois Central Railroad; Mrs. Halliwell (??); Parades; Salesmen; Stores; Trunks; Wylie Jones

Subjects: Night Riders (Group); Princeton (Ky.)

Partial Transcript: We sold the place to a Mr. Hollingsworth, and he, uh, he...

Segment Synopsis: Jones recounts how his father was threatened by the Night Riders, and some of the other confrontations he had with them.
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Keywords: Automatic shotguns; Buckshot; Confrontation; Dogs; Horses; Letters; Mr. Hollingsworth; Threats; Trees; Trunks; Whippings; Wylie Jones

Subjects: Night Riders (Group); Princeton (Ky.); Shotguns

Partial Transcript: When they were having uh, the night they burnt the factories in Hopkinsville...

Segment Synopsis: Jones talks about the warehouse burnings in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. He tells how his father tried to find Dr. Amoss that night, to ask him to treat his mother-in-law, who was dying from pneumonia.
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Keywords: Amendis White (??); Doctors; Fathers; Illness; Mothers; Pneumonia; Train depots; Trains; William H. White; Wylie Jones

Subjects: Amoss, David A., 1857-1915; Hopkinsville (Ky.)

Partial Transcript: When, uh, you see they didn't have Dr. Amoss' trial until in, uh, March...

Segment Synopsis: Jones shares that his father, although a former sheriff, did not want to testify at Dr. Amoss's trial. This was both because of his personal friendship with him, and because he had many relatives who were affiliated with the Night Riders. Jones describes how he helped his father to hide from the people who wanted to make him testify.
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Keywords: Church; Creeks; Fathers; Horses; Mail; Mr. Tower (??); Quilts; Shootings; Springs; Trials; Witnesses; Wylie Jones

Subjects: Amoss, David A., 1857-1915; Cave in Rock (Ill.); Hiding places; Night Riders (Group)

Partial Transcript: My next oldest brother that, we just moved here...

Segment Synopsis: Jones shares more about why his father didn't want to testify at Dr. Amoss' trial. He tells where several of his relatives were on the night of the warehouse burnings in Hopkinsville (December 7, 1907). He also states that his grandmother passed away that night.
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Keywords: Ann Eliza White; Aunts; Court cases; Death; Doctors; Family doctors; Fathers; Grandfathers; Illness; Leslie Cash; Mrs. John McConnell; Telephones; William H. White; Wives; Wylie Jones

Subjects: Amoss, David A., 1857-1915; Hiding places; Telephone

Partial Transcript: That's right and she passed away...

Segment Synopsis: Jones talks about an oral history interview about the Night Riders that he did with his granddaughter.

Keywords: Granddaughters; Recordings; William H. White

Subjects: Amoss, David A., 1857-1915; Night Riders (Group)

Partial Transcript: Your father you say had been sheriff, um not sheriff, deputy sheriff up until Christmas of 19--

Segment Synopsis: Jones talks about Roy Merrick, who murdered Axiom Cooper, and another murderer, with the last name of Wilson.

Keywords: Axiom Cooper; Brothers; Democrats; Deputies; Henry Wilson; Killings; Murder; Newspapers; Roy Merrick; Wallace Merrick; William H. Wilson; Wilson; Wylie Jones

Subjects: Caldwell County (Ky.); Law enforcement; Princeton (Ky.); Sheriffs

Partial Transcript: Well, did you, did you hear how he got out of town after he shot...

Segment Synopsis: Jones talks about a wanted criminal with the last name of Wilson, telling how he escaped arrest on a horse that belonged to someone else.
[there is a long silence]

Keywords: Dormitories; Escape; Horse theft; Horses; J. D. Satterfield; Sheds; Theft; Wilson

Subjects: Criminals; Criminals--Kentucky

Partial Transcript: You say your father recognized the handwriting of the person who uh, wrote him the note?

Segment Synopsis: Jones talks about the soldiers who were brought in to suppress the Night Riders and restore order. He also describes how the town he is living in (Princeton??) has changed since his childhood.

Keywords: Bail; Bond; Cousins; First cousins; Interviews; Milton Oliver; Notes; Tom Jones; Wilson; Wylie Jones

Subjects: Change; Early memories; Fredonia (Ky.); Night Riders (Group); Soldiers

Partial Transcript: Would you like to listen to this tape that I... made for my granddaughter?

Segment Synopsis: Jones discusses some of the other oral histories he has been interviewed for, and what has happened to these recordings.
[there is a long silence]

Keywords: Copies; Death; Interviews; J.T. Gooch; Recordings; Tapes; Tobacco sales

Subjects: Families; Oral history; Recording

Partial Transcript: Your father do you, did he, he d--did not become a Night Rider because he was sheriff, do you think? Is that...

Segment Synopsis: Jones talks about an encounter his father had with a later offshoot of the Night Riders. He also recounts the death of his father. An unidentified female speaker briefly discusses her family. The interview concludes abruptly.
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Keywords: Brothers-in-law; Death; Ella White Jones; Farms; Fathers; Gates; Heart attacks; Horses; Lucy Ella White Jones; Money; Organizations; Wylie Jones

Subjects: Family farms; Myocardial infarction; Night Riders (Group); Tobacco; Tobacco farms