The Jones / Crider (Krider) Family History
by Ronald A. Jones, 2010

In 1994, the Tredyffrin Easttown History Club Quarterly,Vol. XXXII No. 4, published “Growing up at the Berwyn Drug Store.” This was the story of the Walker family as related by Mildred Walker Jones, my mother, and her twin sister, Merle Walker Lee. I am the elder son of Frank Krider Jones and Mildred Walker Jones. This narrative relates the story of the Jones / Crider (Krider) relationship, the other main branch of my family tree.

Crider (Krider)

I shall start with the Crider (Krider) side because of the odd fact that the last name was spelled two different ways, Crider and Krider, within the same immediate family. I have never known why!

Frederick Crider married Adeline Kelly in 1851 in Philadelphia, PA. He was a blacksmith. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Frederick enlisted as a private in Company “I”, 9th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry on a 90 day enlistment (April - July l86l). Frederick and Adeline had four children: Frederick Crider (later a painter); George Krider (later a blacksmith); Frank Krider (later a carriage maker); Elizabeth Crider.

As far as I know, son Frederick and wife Amelia lived mostly in Delaware County. George married Elva Potts. Frank never married. George and Frank became partners in a carriage works located along Lancaster Avenue in central Berwyn. Supposedly, a fire in 1891 that destroyed this carriage works persuaded Berwyn residents to organize a local fire company. The carriage works was sold in 1919. Keystone Garage took over the site and was itself consumed by fire in 1923.

George and Frank owned property on Walnut Avenue in Berwyn. After selling the carriage works, George moved to Florida where he died in 1922. Frank worked for Berwyn Millwork Company and American Bronze Corporation.

He was a member of Berwyn Council No. 362, “Order of Independent Americans’. He died in 1924. Elizabeth married Howard Cox Jones in 1897.

Jones:

Elias Jones married Sarah Hoopes Cox in 1871. They were Quakers, members of Goshen Friends Meeting. They are buried in Goshen meeting cemetery. Elias and Sarah had four children: Howard Cox Jones; Edwin S. Jones (twins); Jane Marjorie (Jennie) Jones; Mary Ella Jones.

Howard married Elizabeth Crider. Edwin married twice; Clara Moore, who died, and Elizabeth Pickel. Jane married Thomas Smedley late in life. They are buried in Willistown Friends Meeting cemetery. Mary married George Hibbard, They moved to British Columbia, Canada, where their descendents live today.

Jones / Crider (Krider):

Howard Jones and Elizabeth Crider were married in 1897. They made their home in Malvern. They had three children: Charles Palmer Jones (Charlie), born 1898; Frank Krider Jones, born 1900; Miriam Adeline Jones, born 1902.

Howard Jones worked as an engineer with J. Bishop & Company platinum plant in Sugartown and Malvern. In September 1903, an exploding hydrogen tank at the Malvern plant took the life of Howard, leaving his wife Elizabeth, a widow with three young children. Howard was 30 years old.

At this time in our country’s history, survivor’s benefits were a rare thing. Government programs for social assistance were not well established. Much of the aid for widows and orphans came from family, churches, fraternal organizations, labor unions, and life insurance. I do not know what resources or aid Elizabeth had at her disposal but I was told that life was hard. The family belonged to the Malvern Baptist Church. Howard was a member of “Patriotic Order, Sons of America”, Chapter 549. Other Jones and Krider family members may have helped, but eventually Elizabeth found it impossible to support her family.

Philanthropist Steven Girard had endowed a school in Philadelphia, Girard College, to provide home and education for “poor, male, white orphans”. Elizabeth enrolled her sons, Charles and Frank, in Girard College.

Frank’s graduation diploma states that he attended Girard College from 1908 to 1918. Charles probably entered at the same time; he would have graduated in 1916. Facilities at Girard College were certainly not fancy. Food, housing, and clothing were basic. (Frank, my father, later told me that they received a pair of shoes each year. All of the donated shoes were put into a pile where each boy searched for a pair that fit. The shoes might not match in style or color.) The education was considered very good.

Miriam lived with relatives and received her education in Berwyn schools. She graduated from Tredyffrin Easttown High School in 1920.

Elizabeth lived in Berwyn with her bachelor brother, Frank Krider. She worked at what jobs she could find. She inherited his house on Walnut Avenue upon the death of Frank Krider in 1924. She was struck by an automobile on Lancaster Avenue near the Berwyn train station in 1932. She died of her injuries.

Howard Cox Jones, Elizabeth Crider Jones, and Frank Krider are buried in Malvern Baptist cemetery.

Charles P. Jones (Charlie) enlisted into the U.S. Army after his graduation from Girard College. He attained the rank of sergeant during the time of World War I, but I do not believe he served overseas. Later he moved to Elizabeth, NJ, where he worked for American Gas Accumulator Co. He never married, and upon retirement he moved to Ft. Pierce, FL. He died there in 1986.

Miriam A. Jones graduated from Tredyffrin Easttown High School in 1920. In 1924, she married Stephen Jackson, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran of World War I. Steve retired from the Marine Corps with the rank of sergeant. His decorations included the Silver Star. Upon retirement from the Marine Corps he worked for American Bronze Co. in Berwyn. Miriam worked in a lawyer’s office in Phoenixville. They had no children. Steve died in 1964, Miriam in 1972. They are buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Frank (who would become my father) graduated from Girard College in 1918 and found employment with DuPont Corporation. As early as 1920, he was sent to Chile in South America to join the staff at a DuPont nitrate mine and processing plant. I do not know what all of his duties were but accounting was probably one of them since he worked as an accountant the rest of his life. He told me of two other activities in which he was involved. Occasionally he rode on a railroad to guard a shipment locked in a safe or strongbox. He never knew the contents, but he was armed with a double barreled shotgun He was also assigned supervision of the company store. The native workers at the mine and plant were all Chilean, bought everything at the company store, and spoke only Spanish. Frank learned to speak Spanish and was fluent in the language the rest of his life. Travel on his job took him into Bolivia and Peru as well as Chile, much of it on horseback. Later, the West Indies would be added to his area of work travel. He made several trips to these Spanish speaking countries during the 1920s and early 1930s, This association with DuPont Corporation probably lessened the impact of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Frank Krider Jones married Mildred Walker in Berwyn in 1936. His employment with DuPont was over. The Jones family lived in the Greentree area of Paoli, the Merwood area of Upper Darby, and then, in 1942, returned to Berwyn. There were two sons, Ronald Alvin Jones, born 1938, and Lloyd Krider Jones, born 1944.

Frank worked as an accountant for various firms until he went independent in the mid 1950s as an accountant and tax consultant to small businesses, Frank took an active interest in local affairs and regularly attended township meetings. His views and opinions were not always in accordance with those in political prominence.

He also waged an almost one-man crusade for many years against the practices of the insurance industry. He died in 1992 at age 91, and was buried with his parents and uncle in Malvern Baptist cemetery.

Mildred Walker Jones, or “Mid” as she was known, worked as a secretary at Tredyffrin Easttown Junior High School, and retired from that position. She was active in charitable work, was Past Matron of the Order of the Eastern Star, and a lifelong member of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Berwyn. At this writing she is 95 years of age and a resident of Devon Manor.

Ronald Alvin Jones and Lloyd Krider Jones both attended Easttown Grammar School and Tredyffrin Easttown Junior High School. Ronald attended Tredyffrin Easttown High School, and was a member of the class of 1956, the first class to graduate from Conestoga High School, Lloyd’s high school years were at Conestoga.

Both went on to complete bachelors and masters degrees at The Pennsylvania State University. Ronald served in the United States Marine Corps 1961-1964. He worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in California, Oregon, and Arizona. He retired in 1994 and resides in Arizona. He never married. Lloyd, the last of the area clan to carry the name “Krider”, married Janet Greenwood in 1969. They had three children, Darryl, Dayle, and Aimee. They lived in Morrisville, PA. Lloyd retired from a long high school teaching career. He died in 2009. At his request, his ashes were buried at sea off New Jersey.

The members of this family never achieved financial greatness, never owned vast acreage of land, never held high political office, never became captains of industry. They were as most families. They faced the triumphs and tragedies of life as they met them. They made their contributions to family and community as best they could.