Newton McDonald Jennings (1858-1905)

Newton McDonald Jennings

Birth

May 1858

Jackson County, North Carolina, USA

Death

8 Sep 1905 (aged 47)

Josephine County, Oregon, USA

Burial

Burial Details Unknown Add to Map

Memorial ID

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Cemetery census for the Masonic Cemetery in Grants Pass, Oregon shows that Newton is buried there. However, his granddaughter confirmed that he was never buried in ANY cemetery. He is actually buried on Granite Hill Road near Grants Pass in an unmarked grave.

Federal census records show that Newton Jennings was living in Jackson Co., NC in 1900. In 1905, he and his children were living in a mining camp in Granite Hill, Oregon where he worked as a woodchopper and had a contract to supply the mine with cordwood, working a crew of 15 men.

Newton died from a fatal gunshot wound to the head while he slept. The murder weapon was a rifle belonging to his son Henry Jasper Jennings. Jasper and his sister Dora Jennings were both tried for the murder. Dora was eventually acquitted. Jasper was convicted and sentenced to death but in 1906, the state supreme court overturned the conviction.

Ella Jennings Moody, who was by her sister Dora's bedside when Dora was dying, said that Dora told her that neither she nor Jasper had killed their father.

Ella who lived in SC, as well as one of Newton's granddaughters who lives in Oregon both said that several years after Newton's death, a man named Hank Brown hung himself in a barn loft and left a note saying that he killed Newton and had used Jasper's gun. These 2 women who never knew each other and lived over 2,000 miles apart, both told the story of Hank Brown to their own children so there must be some truth to it. Hank was a neighbor/friend who worked as a "hack" (cab driver) and would often drive Ella to visit her younger sister Dora when Dora was in jail. Ella loved her father dearly and, upon hearing the news of Hank's confession, she was haunted until the day she died that she had unknowingly ridden in the car with her father's murderer.

To date, no evidence has been found for Hank Brown's written confession. Albert Henry Brown is said to be buried in Granite Hill Cemetery. He has no marker.
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