Northeast Franklin County – Tauy Jones’ House

In 1843 a trading post was located at the ford of Tauy Creek later called "Rock Bottom" to serve travelers on the Fort Scott Road. John Tecumseh Jones, an educated half-blood Chippewa and former interpreter for the Pottawatomies, joined the Ottawa tribe and was later adopted by them. He became their leader, their minister and their storekeeper, besides operating the only hotel in the county, on this site. Jones became known as "Ottaway' or "Tauy" Jones because of his position with the tribe. The creek's nickname of Tauy also refers to the Ottawas. The first house of logs was burned by pro-slavers in 1856 who came seeking to kill Tauy Jones who escaped. In 1867 he completed this sandstone house with stone quarried near Ft. Scott and freighted here by wagon. Although Jones was a friend of John Brown, who frequently camped in the grove across the creek, rumors that the house's cellar served as a station on the underground railway are unsubstantiated. Horace Greeley did visit the Jones', but Abraham Lincoln never got this far south during his presidential campaign in 1859. The home is listed on the national Register of Historic Places.