Encouragement

submitted by: Jeff Corry


Uriah T. Jones is my great grandfather. My father Elwood Jones Corry gave a brief history of Uriah.T. Jones at a Jones reunion on July 27, 1974. In this speech my dad said: "Most everyone responds to a word of commendation and encouragement. Grandfather would not overlook the opportunity of commending a person for a job well done. It wasn't done in the spirit of insincere flattery, but in a straight forward statement of commendation with a real basis of fact."

Now for two incidents that my father recorded. These are dad's words:

"I have always remembered a comment he made to Milt Clark, after Milt had pitched a load of loose hay from a wagon, up and through an opening in a metal frame barn that stood at the west end of the lot just north of where my sister Ruth and Scott Urie's house now stands. (The home still stands on Dewey Ave.) I was a boy in my teens, and along with grandfather, we watched Milt unload the hay one fork full after another as he picked the hay up from the load and pitched it into the barn through the opening. When he had finished, grandfather walked over to the empty wagon and said: 'Milt, I believe that is the fastest I have ever seen a load of hay pitched from a wagon into a barn.' A smile of satisfaction appeared on Milt's face.

On another occasion, grandfather had asked me to line an irrigation ditch with rocks. This ditch. was for a garden stream going along the south side of his lot. I worked at it for a while, but was a little uncertain as to whether I was doing the job as it should be done. Finally, I decided I had better go in the house and talk to him about it before doing any more. I went in his home and said to him: "I am not sure I know just how those rocks should be set in the ditch. Maybe I am not doing it the way you want it done."
'No one knows just how the job should be done. You go out and lay them the way you think they should be and it will be alright' he explained. He had given me the reassurance I needed and I went back and finished the job."