Death certificate of Fannie Puckett says her father was born in MO. The story Frances Puckett Going to Ohio [Los Gatos Daily Times 11-30-1953] says that after his father died, his mother ran a boarding house and in two years 'saved enough to send her two boys back to Pennsylvania to live with her sister, Mrs. Grace Whiteman [sic]. Some of the Whiteman's nearest neighbors were the Smiths, and Worth Jones grew up with, wen to school with, and married one of the Smiths' daughters. The first of their five children was Frances Dorothy. She became the "mother" of the family nine years later when Mrs. Jones died. Worth Jones was ill, and the children went to live with relatives. Frances grew up with her Grandmother and Grandfather Smith."
Worth Jones 14 b. MO was living in 1860 in the household of Elisha Whightman [sic] in Mead Twp, Crawford, PA, but he was not living in that household in 1850. There was no other Jones in the Wightman household in 1860. He was not living in the Elisha Wightman household in 1870. Record courtesy of Richard and Margaret Wiebusch: In 1870 ìWerth W. Jonesî was living with his brother Leon E. Jones in San Jose, CA and working as a ìclerkî for Spring & Co. at the corner of Santa Clara and Market Streets in that city. [1870 San Jose City Directory, compiled by Cohatin and Pomeroy (San Francisco Excelsior Press, 1870), p. 75.] Undoubtedly the story about Fannie dreaming of "going to California" dates from that year (see notes on Fannie Jones Abbey Puckett). He may also have shown up in the 1870 census living with Reuben B Jones, son of Zachariah Jones, who is probably the brother of Worth's father (see notes on Reuben). In 1880 he was a boarder in the household of Henry Crumling in Fairview, Butler, PA. Age 32, b. MO, parents b. PA, no occupation. He could not be found in the 1900 or 1910 Soundex/Miracode for PA.
Email from Margaret Meacham Wiebusch: "Worth Jones fell off an oil derrick in 1884 in Scio, NY and was killed. Worth's family was from Missouri but they went west to California in 1848 and his father died. His mother remained in California but sent Worth and his brother Leon back to live with their uncle, Elisha Wightman, in Crawford, PA. Mr. Wightman was a neighbor of Chauncy Smith."
Cemetery record: interred 8/31/1884, section 7, lot 8103