Morgan Jones (7 October 1839 – 11 April 1926) was an American railroad builder, born in Wales.

Early life

Morgan Jones was born at Tregynon, near Newtown in

Powys Powys (; ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh succession of states, successor state, petty kingdom and princi ...

, Wales, the son of Morgan Jones and Mary Charles Jones.Phil Carradice, "Morgan Jones – Railway Builder" ''BBC Wales'' blog (21 October 2014). He worked on the family farm as a young man, but served an apprenticeship with the

Cambrian Railways The Cambrian Railways owned of track over a large area of mid Wales. The system was an amalgamation of a number of railways that were incorporated in 1864, 1865 and 1904. The Cambrian connected with two larger railways with connections to the ...

before he emigrated in 1866.

Career

In America he became

foreman __NOTOC__ A foreman, forewoman or foreperson is a supervisor, often in a manual trade or industry. Foreman may specifically refer to: *Construction foreman, the worker or tradesman who is in charge of a construction crew * Jury foreman, a head j ...

of a construction crew on the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

, with Grenville M. Dodge as his mentor. He was present for the driving of the "

Golden Spike The golden spike (also known as The Last Spike) is the ceremonial 17.6-karat gold final spike driven by Leland Stanford to join the rails of the first transcontinental railroad across the United States connecting the Central Pacific Railroad ...

" joining the rails of the

First transcontinental railroad North America's first transcontinental railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the " Overland Route") was a continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail netwo ...

in 1869. In 1876 he was hired by Grenville Dodge, then at the Texas & Pacific Railway, to finish an extension project into

Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

. He brought the construction in on time, within a strict deadline from the state legislature, and was hailed as a local hero for the timely completion. Jones went on to build and operate hundreds of miles of railroad, mostly in Texas, mostly without land subsidies. He was president of the Fort Worth & Denver City Railway, one of his most successful projects. He was also director of the Wichita Valley Railway Company.

Personal life

Jones was a bachelor. Two of his nephews from Wales, Morgan C. Jones and Percy Jones, joined him in the Texas railroad business. He lived in

Abilene, Texas Abilene ( ) is a city in Taylor and Jones Counties in Texas, United States. Its population was 125,182 at the 2020 census, making it the 27th-most populous city in the state of Texas. It is the principal city of the Abilene metropolitan statis ...

, at the Hotel Grace in his later years, and died in 1926, age 86. In 2014 there was a segment on

BBC Radio Cymru BBC Radio Cymru is a Welsh language radio network owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts on two stations across Wales on FM, DAB, digital TV and online. The main network broadcasts for hours a day from ...

about Morgan Jones the Texas railroad man. His great-nephew Grant Jones was a longtime Texas state legislator.Isaiah Warner
"Public Service: A Tribute to Former State Senator Grant Jones"
''Houston Chronicle'' (November 15, 2013).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Morgan (railroad builder) 1839 births 1926 deaths American people of Welsh descent