Martha Brown

THORNTON BROWN FAMILY REUNION

~Living the Legacy

Martha Brown

Martha Jones Brown

Martha Ann Jones was born October 1866 to Manual and Emma Jones in Frelsburg, Texas, located in Colorado County.

Here two sisters were Jennie Jones Newsome and Lizzie Jones Toliver. Richard Edward, John, and Manual Jones, Jr. were her brothers.

Martha was the mother of fourteen children. The first eleven children were boys. A girl named Laney, then Nealie, and Martha were her last three children. Five sons and one daughter died before reaching adulthood. Therefore, we can understand the devotion that these seven boys had for their only sister, Martha (Babe).

Martha Jones Brown was a very industrious woman who worked on the farm. Her chores included cooking dinner for the family, keeping house, and picking nearly 400 pounds of cotton a day. From the geese that she raised, she would pluck feathers and use them to make feather mattresses for her children, which she left to them at her death. Her granddaughter Flora used the feathers from the mattress her father had to make pillows for her bed in memory of Grandmother Martha. Grandmother Martha was gifted at making beautiful quilts.

In the early 1900's, Brother and Sister Hall, who were missionaries, came to the Powell Point and Boones Bend Communitieis and taught holiness. Martha accepted Christ as her Saviour as did many of her children. This was the beginning of the Church of God in these communities. She was a devoted Christian woman, and before her death, she was President of the Women's Missionary of the Powell Point Church of God.

During her reign as President of the Mission, they bought a bell that hung in the steeple of the church. Back in those days, the bell was rung to send different messages to the communities. That "Bell" is now in front of the Kendleton Church of God in Kendleton, Texas.

Martha died February 26, 1919, and most of the land that she and Thornton had acquired was paid in full.