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ELIZABETH "LIZZIE" ARMSTRONG JONES
Fulfilling the Dream
Elizabeth ALizzie Armstrong was the eldest of James B. and Eleanor (Wilson) Armstrong's children. She is the one most closely associated with her father's redwood grove that eventually became Armstrong Redwood State Natural Reserve. After her father's death, she worked with the Harrison LeBaron family for sixteen years to save the grove for public ownership.
Elizabeth was probably named after James's sister, Elizabeth (Armstrong) Chesney, but she was known throughout her lifetime as Lizzie. Lizzie was born on October 9, 1850, in Urbana, Ohio. Her brother, Walter, was born November 13, 1852, and her sister, Kate, was born October 16, 1857.
While Lizzie was growing up, her father, James, served as a lieutenant colonel in the 95th Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War in 1862. He was captured by the enemy at Richmond, Kentucky, was released on parole, and returned home. Two years later he was commissioned a full colonel in the 134th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and served with his regiment in Virginia.
Lizzie was 24 years old when her father moved the family to California in 1874, where he began buying land in Sonoma County. The family made their first permanent home in Santa Rosa, then later moved to Cloverdale, north of Santa Rosa, where they built a family home and grew citrus trees. James Armstrong also purchased redwood timber land north of Guerneville, a little town on the Russian River. However, he gave 440 acres of redwoods at the north end of his property to his daughter Kate to be preserved for public use.
In Cloverdale, the Armstrongs were next-door neighbors to the pastor of the Congregational Church, Rev. William Ladd Jones, and his wife, Anne (Farrington) Jones. In 1854 Reverend Jones was one of the first Congregational ministers to arrive on the Pacific Coast. After an extensive ministry in Northern California, he had been president of Oahu College (Punahou School) Honolulu, Hawaii, before his return to the Congregational Church in Cloverdale. Lizzie and Anne Jones became best friends.
Lizzie and her sister, Kate, joined the Congregational Church, participated in local social activities, and assisted in social events. They were also leaders in a church society organized by Parson Jones called ACloverdale Missionary Gleaners, which primarily did missionary work, but also did church work, and contributed to the pastor's salary. Money was raised largely by the annual Gleaner Chrysanthemum Fairs, where chrysanthemums were exhibited for prizes and a general bazaar was held. These Chrysanthemum Fairs were the forerunners of the annual Citrus Fair, whose establishment was instigated by Colonel Armstrong in 1892. Lizzie and Kate were in close contact with Parson Jones until his retirement in 1897, when he and his wife moved to Pomona, California, where his wife died in 1899.
On New Year's Day, 1891, James B. Armstrong married his second wife, Jessie V. Magee, in Arlington, Riverside County, California, with Lizzie and her sister, Kate, in attendance. He moved the family to a home he built in Guerneville. When Kate, who had been in poor health much of her life, died in 1898, she left all her property to Lizzie, who was executrix of Kate’s 1895 will. It also stated that she [Kate] had full confidence that if her father outlived her, ALizzie will care for him with due filial affection and also look after Walter's interest.
James Armstrong died on October 15, 1900, after a series of strokes, with Lizzie and his wife, Jessie, by his side. After James's death, Jessie returned to the Los Angeles area to live. Lizzie remained in the family home, and the widower, Rev. William Ladd Jones, returned to Cloverdale.
On March 20, 1901, Lizzie, age 50, married Rev. William Ladd Jones, age 73, at her brother's residence in Sebastopol. Lizzie and Parson Jones made their home in Guerneville, but spent the winters in Cloverdale, until William died in 1908. Lizzie then spent about nine years living in the Guerneville home. She was involved in local real estate and had several Guerneville rentals.
In June 1901 Lizzie dedicated the tree that had been chosen by her father in the redwood grove as the Amonarch of the forest to his memory during the annual encampment of the Veterans= Association, to which her father had belonged. It is now called the Colonel Armstrong Tree, and at 1,400 years old, is one of the oldest on record in the park. She and William later chose one of the tallest trees in the forest to be named the Parson Jones Tree.
Lizzie gave half of her original redwood acreage to her brother, Walter, in 1905, but he soon sold his share to Harrison LeBaron, a family friend. In 1908, Lizzie gave LeBaron an option on her portion of the redwood acreage designated for parkland, which returned the total acreage to 400 acres. An effort in 1909 to have the grove purchased by the state failed when the state legislature passed the bill, but Governor Gillette killed it by pocket veto. However, Lizzie and the LeBarons persisted in their efforts to make the redwood park public property.
In November 1916 the Santa Rosa Republican, formerly owned by Lizzie's father, published an Armstrong Woods Supplement to advocate the proposal to make Armstrong Woods a county park. Along with the LeBaron estate, the other owner of the property involved, Lizzie agreed on the $80,000 purchase price for acquisition and preservation of the woods, but she and the LeBaron estate each gave $5,000 toward the purchase. In the election of 1916, the proposal passed for the purchase of the property by Sonoma County, and in 1917 the property became a county park.
Lizzie took great interest in women's club affairs. A bronze plaque was mounted on a granite boulder at the parking lot near the Colonel Armstrong Tree. At present, this is the only memorial to Lizzie Armstrong Jones. It reads ALizzie Armstrong Jones, dedicated by the Sonoma County Federation of Women's Clubs, May 29, 1923. A special seat of honor was reserved for her at a pageant in the redwoods at Guerneville in 1924, but illness prevented her presence, and she died later that year.
On September 5, 1924, Walter filed for appointment as Lizzie's guardian. At that time, Lizzie was at the Dr. W. C. Shipley Hospital of Cloverdale for treatment. She died there in her sleep on Tuesday, September 9, 1924, of a cerebral hemorrhage, after a nine-day hospital stay. She died intestate, and Walter petitioned to be her sole heir. When the estate was settled in 1925, Walter inherited about $17,000.
Lizzie Armstrong Jones was buried in the Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery September 12, 1924, where a marker was placed the following April. Upon her death, Lizzie was described by the Press Democrat, the local newspaper, as being by nature Aendowed with a quiet, kindly soul that was averse to ostentation of any kind. But she nevertheless made her influence for good felt in many ways.
Abstracted from:
Finley, Carmen J., and Dickenson, Doris M., Colonel James B. Armstrong, His Family and His Legacy, (Guerneville, California: Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods, 2008).