Mr. Billy Jones and his son John bought, en dats zackly how come dat
town git its name. It was named for Mr. John Jones.

"My mars, Mark Childress, he never was married. He was a bachelor, en
I'se tellin' you dis, boss, he was a good, fair man and no fault was to
be found wid him. But dem overseers dat he had, dey was real mean. Dey
was cruel, least one of them was 'bout de cruelest white man dat I is
ever seen. Dat was Harvey Brown. Mars had a nephew what lived with him
named Mark Sillers. He was mars' sister's son and was named for my mars.
Mr. Mark Sillers, he helped with de runnin' of the place en sich times
dat mars 'way from home Mr. Mark, he the real boss den.

"Mr. Harvey Brown, the overseer, he mean sure 'nough I tell you, and de
onliest thing that keep him from beatin' de niggers up all de time would
be old mars or Mr. Mark Sillers. Bofe of dem was good and kind most all
de time. One time dat I remembers, ole mars, he gone back to Panola
County for somepin', en Mr. Mark Sillers, he attendin' de camp meeting.
That was de day dat Mr. Harvey Brown come mighty nigh killin' Henry.
I'll tell you how dat was, boss. It was on Monday morning that it
happened. De Friday before dat Monday morning, all of de hands had been
pickin' cotton and Mr. Harvey Brown didn't think dat Henry had picked
enough cotton dat day en so he give Henry er lashin' out in de field.
Dat night Henry, he git mad and burn up his sack and runned off and hid
in de canebrake 'long de bayou all of de nex' day. Mr. Harvey, he missed
Henry from de field en sent Jeff an' Randall to find him and bring him
in. Dey found Henry real soon en tell him iffen he don't come on back to
de field dat Mr. Harvey gwine to set de hounds on him. So Henry, he
comed on back den 'cause de niggers was skeered of dem wild bloodhounds
what they would set on 'em when dey try to run off.