Interpreter earns ‘Ottawa Jones’ moniker, legacy
He is so much a part of Ottawa’s history, he was nicknamed “Ottawa Jones.”
John Tecumseh “Tauy” Jones played a unique role in the formation of the local university through his work with the American Indian tribes, a local historian said.
“The Indians who could speak English and operate in the white man’s world, as well as the Indian world, were a specific, unique group of people,” Deb Barker, Franklin County Historical Society director, said.
Half Chippewa and half white, Jones was born in 1800. A college-educated Native American was a rarity in the early 1800s, Barker said.
“He was sent by the Baptist missionary to New York to be educated which was totally unprecedented for Indians at that time,” Barker said of Jones’ college education.
After receiving his education, he taught briefly and then became employed as an interpreter for various American Indian tribes in the western part of the United States for the Office of Indian Affairs. He first came to eastern Kansas near what is now Lane as an interpreter for the Potawatomie tribe.
As often was the case at the time, the Potawatomie tribe later was relocated by the U.S. government to a reservation near Topeka, leaving Jones without a job. But a quick thinker, Barker said, Jones found an alternative.
New tribe, mission
“He allied himself with the Ottawa tribe, and so he served the same function for the Ottawas as an interpreter,” Barker said.
Knowledge of English and writing was of enormous importance, Barker said, making Jones a real asset to the tribe. Perhaps motivated by his educational background that had served him well, Jones was a key advocate for bringing Ottawa University to Franklin County, Barker said.
“Being able to speak the language enabled him to operate on a different plain than the other Indians,” Barker said.
Through his conversion as a Baptist, Jones helped to convince the Kansas Baptist Convention to open a college in Ottawa. The university’s roots can be found in the work of Baptist missionaries in collaboration with the tribe, then located on the banks of the Marais des Cygnes River, according to the university’s website.
“When the Baptist conference in Kansas wanted to start a college, he said, ‘Well, why don’t you start it in Franklin County, and that way you can educate both white and red,’ and they decided to do that,” Barker said.
In his capacity as a delegate for the Ottawa Indian Baptist Church, Jones laid out the advantages of starting a university in the county. An article in a Jan. 20, 1913, edition of The Herald by M.L. Ward titled “Tauy Jones and the Ottawa University” describes the process.
“Mr. Jones, a delegate from the Ottawa Indian Baptist Church[,] suggested that the Indian and the white Baptists should unite in locating the proposed institution. The Indians had land, the whites could furnish the teachers. The Indians earnestly desired their children should be educated and trained as were the children of the whites. He was confident that the Ottawas would assist in establishing and endowing a school which would admit their children,” the article said.
Jones is not recognized as the founder of Ottawa University, that honor is reserved for two Baptist missionaries, the Rev. Jotham Meeker and his wife, Eleanor. The pair “labored ceaselessly to improve the lives of the Ottawas, serving as ministers, nurse and doctor, business agents, marriage counselors, teachers and, of course, spiritual counselors,” as the organizer[s] of the Indian Baptist Church and Ottawa Indian Mission, the university’s website states.
Jones’ role was one of negotiator and conversation facilitator throughout the process of starting the college, Barker said. At that point in the mid-1800s, Jones had become one of the top leaders of the tribe.
“He was just central in the tribe and so he and the tribal elders agreed to sell this land to the Baptists in exchange for Ottawa University,” Barker said. The agreement between the Kansas Baptist Convention and the Ottawa tribe included the tribe giving the university land in the heart of Franklin County on which to build the school. In return, the Baptists agreed to educate the children of the Ottawas.
While Ottawa University was not the first college to educate American Indians, it was one of the first in the area. It also was unique in that it had an Indian department, Barker said, which few colleges had at the time.
Physical remnants
It wasn’t only his work with the tribe in negotiating for the development of Ottawa University that made Jones stand out as a legend. A successful farmer in northern Franklin County, Jones’ advice on agriculture was highly sought after from many in the area, Barker said. In fact, Barker added, his fields were the largest patches of broken-out land in the county for some time.
In addition to being a savvy farmer, Jones was an advocate against slavery and even was close friends with the radical abolitionist John Brown. Jones and his wife, Jane Kelly, paid dearly for his free state beliefs. Pro-slavery raiders burnt Jones’ house in an attempt to kill him and his wife.
Jones was determined to rebuild. His last house still stands about five miles northeast of Ottawa. The house is made of stones from Fort Scott that were transported by oxen, Barker said. The 2 1/2 story mansion, built between 1856 and 1862, overlooks Tauy Creek.
The 1993 edition of “History of Franklin County Kansas” describes the inside of the mansion and perhaps demonstrates the fortune that Jones had amassed over his lifetime.
“The home had a butler’s pantry way, dumbwaiter, look-out in the attic with drop-down ladders (an asset being part of the Underground Railroad) and dungeon. A beautiful walnut staircase extends upstairs from the double doors which has [sic] “J. T. Jones” etched in stone above the main entrance,” it reads.
Ottawa’s main man
While he wasn’t an Ottawa tribe member, thanks to his extensive work with the tribe Jones acquired the nickname “Tauy,” meaning Ottawa, which is derived from the original Algonquin pronunciation of Ottawa.
“He was called ‘Ottawa Jones’ as a nickname because he was kind of the main man of the Ottawas when the whites first started settling here,” Barker said.
Although there is not a recorded obituary for Jones, M.L. Ward identified himself as his close friend and wrote kind words about Jones several years after his death in 1879 from dysentery.
“John Tecumseh Jones was indeed a fine gentleman,” Ward wrote. “He had a kind heart and a generous nature. He was respected and esteemed by his country neighbors. He had a wide vision and large hopes in connection with his race and country.”
Jones’ final resting place is near the original location of the Ottawa Indian Mission in a small cemetery northeast of Ottawa.