Jim Jones Essay 1772 Words 8 Pages

James Warren "Jim" Jones was born on May 13, 1931 to James Thurman Jones and Lynetta Putnam. Jones's father was a Warld War 1 veteran. and Jones's mother "believed she has given birth to a messiah." Jim Jones was born in a rural area of Randolph County, Indiana, near its border with Ohio. He was of Irish and Welsh descent, and later claimed partial Cherokee ancestry through his mother. During the Great Depression the Jones' family left Randolph County for Lynn in 1943. It is there that he grew up in a shack with no plumbing. It is said that Jones' father was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. His (Jim's) friends described him as "weird" and "obsessed with religion and death." His friends from childhood reported that he would hold funerals for small animals and had once stabbed a cat to death just to hold the funeral. Jones heald great interest in Joseph Stalin, Karl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi and Adolf Hitler, and was quick to notice all their strengths and weaknessses. Jim's parents seperated while he was in highschool and he lived with his mother in Richmond, Indiana. Later he graduated from Richmond High School early and with honors in December of 1948. While working in a hospital, Jim Jones met Marceline Baldwin who was a nurse. Jim and Marceline were married in June of 1949.After being married the Jones' moved to Bloomington, Indiana. The two had one child together, in 1959 naming him Stephan Gandhi Jones. They also adopted several children of various ethnicites. Jones often refered to his family as "rainbow family" and was proud of it. The couple adopted three children of Korean-American ancestry named Lew, Suzanne and Stephanie. They adopted a child who was partly Native American named Agnes. In 1961 the Joneses became the first white couple in Indiana to adopt a black child, Jamed Warren Jones, Jr. He urged others to adopt interracially.The Joneses also adopted