Misc: Introduction to A.O. Jones Diary, Lincoln Parish, LA
Submitted by: Calvin B. Jones, 180 Bay Drive, Farmerville, LA 71241




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SOURCE: Ruston Daily Leader newspaper article dated May 10, 1995

Photo caption: Louisiana Tech officials and members of the Arthur O. Jones
family pose with Jones' original diary and a transcription of it. Calvin B.
Jones and George Jones (center) hold one of the original tablets on which the
diary was written. Dr. Walter Wicker, director of libraries, is at left; Bobs
Tusa, head of the department of special collections, manuscripts and archives,
is at right.

FARMER'S DIARY GIVEN TO TECH

Louisiana Tech News Bureau - The original diary kept by Simsboro farmer Arthur
Osban Jones has been donated to the Louisiana Tech's department of special
collections, manuscripts and archives by his sons, Calvin B. Jones of
Farmerville and George Jones of Simsboro.

Arthur O. Jones, born in 1897, was a native of Winn Parish whose family moved
to Lincoln Parish in 1920. His mother was Bertha Colvin of Vienna.

Arthur Jones and his wife, Claudie Marie Alexander of Vienna, were cotton
farmers near Simsboro until 1946, when he went to work at the Shell Plant in
Minden. They had five children.

For much of his life Arthur Jones served as the clerk of the historic Walnut
Creek Church, erected in 1846, and he participated in the ceremony when the
church records were donated in 1971 to the Lincoln Parish Library. He died in
1986.

Mr. Jones wrote in his diary every day from Jan. 1, 1926, through Jan. 5,
1944. Each day he recorded the weather, activities on the farm, visits to
family members and friends and trips into town. He noted who was born, who was
married and who died in the surrounding area as well as nationally significant
events. He also kept a record of the items he had bought and their cost.

An example from the diary in 1941: "Dec. 7, Sun., Went Church at Simsboro -
The USS Oklahoma sunk by Japan, over 300 our casualties reported. Dec. 8,
Mon., Worked at plant - U.S. declared war on Japan. Dec. 9, Tue., Workked at
plant - Later casualties over 3,000."

Dr. Bobs Tusa, university archivist, said the diary is an excellent record of
daily life on a farm in North Central Louisiana and provides useful source
material for researchers in meteorology, agriculture, history and social
sciences.

The donation includes both the original handwritten diary and the typewritten
transcription made by Calvin Jones, with photographs and family history
compiled by Arthur Jones' granddaughter, Bridget Richardson of Simsboro.

The Department of Special Collections, Manuscripts and Archives is on the
fourth floor of the Precott Memorial Library at Louisiana Tech. Interested
people can call Dr. Tusa at 257-2935 for more information.