Joseph Thomas Jones (June 11, 1842 – December 6, 1916) was an American

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

who built his fortune as an

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

producer. He funded construction of the

Gulf and Ship Island Railroad The Gulf and Ship Island Railroad (G&SI) was constructed in the state of Mississippi, USA, at the turn of the 20th century to open a vast expanse of southern yellow pine forests for commercial harvest. In spite of economic uncertainty, entrepren ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, co-founded the City of Gulfport and developed its

seaport A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

Early life

Joseph T. Jones was born to Albanus A. and Jane (Thomas) Jones in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, on June 11, 1842. He was educated at public schools, and worked in the stairbuilding trade with an uncle for two years.

Military service

In 1861, at age 19, Jones enlisted in the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. It proved essential to th ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

and was assigned to Company H, 91st Pennsylvania Volunteer

Infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

. Jones served as

Quartermaster Sergeant Quartermaster sergeant (QMS) is a class of rank or appointment in some armed forces, especially those of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, and formerly also in the United States. Ireland Quartermaster sergeant () appointments in the Irish ...

, Second Lieutenant, and

First Lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a ...

. At the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864, Jones was appointed acting Captain. In June 1864, at the

Battle of Cold Harbor The Battle of Cold Harbor was fought during the American Civil War near Mechanicsville, Virginia, from May 31 to June 12, 1864, with the most significant fighting occurring on June 3. It was one of the final battles of Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses ...

, Jones was wounded in both feet. He was sent home to Philadelphia to recover from his wounds and was discharged in September 1864.

Oil ventures

Although crippled from war wounds, Jones used his war-time savings and bank loans to begin drilling for oil in western Pennsylvania in 1865. After 12 dry holes, Jones finally hit oil in 1867. Jones fortune began to change in the Bradford oil fields with the development of more than 500 oil-producing wells and incorporation of the Bradford Oil Company.History of the counties of McKean, Elk, and Forest, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections
/ref> To move crude oil to

railhead In the UK, railheading refers to the practice of travelling further than necessary to reach a rail service, typically by car. The phenomenon is common among commuters seeking a more convenient journey. Reasons for railheading include, but are ...

s, Jones invested in oil

pipeline Pipeline may refer to: Electronics, computers and computing * Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on ** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...

s which produced greater dividends than the oil wells. By 1883, Jones was known as the largest crude oil producer in the United States. In the 1890s, Jones began investing in oil ventures in

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

, thereby increasing his wealth.

Mississippi investments

Through mutual friends, Jones heard of a potential investment in a

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

venture in south Mississippi, which included 63,000 acres (25,500 hectares) of

southern yellow pine In ecology and forestry, yellow pine refers to a number of conifer species that tend to grow in similar plant communities and yield similar strong wood. In the Western United States, yellow pine refers to Jeffrey pine or ponderosa pine. In the ...

s that were ready for harvest. Although the unfinished Gulf and Ship Island Railroad (G&SIRR) was in bankruptcy, Jones formed the Bradford Construction Company with other investors and bought the railroad. Using his fortune from oil production, Jones finished construction of the G&SIRR, bought out his partners in the Bradford Construction Company, and merged with the railroad to form the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad Company. Along with

William H. Hardy William H. Hardy (February 12, 1837 − February 17, 1917) was an American businessman who founded the Mississippi cities of Hattiesburg, Laurel, and Gulfport. Early years Born to Robert W. and Temperance L. (Toney) Hardy in Todds Hill (in L ...

, Jones co-founded the City of Gulfport as the railroad's southernmost terminal and had a deep-water channel dredged in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

, creating a

harbor A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a ...

and the

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

of Gulfport. Gulfport Panorama Great Southern Hotel

He married Melodia E. Blackmarr on October 15, 1876, and they had two children. Although Jones' family resided in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

,Joseph T. Jones
/ref> he spent much of his time in south Mississippi overseeing his investments in the railroad, timber, and shipping. He had the

Great Southern Hotel Yue Hwa Building () is a historic building located at the junction of Eu Tong Sen Street and Upper Cross Street in Chinatown, Singapore, next to Chinatown MRT station. Built by Swan and Maclaren in 1927, it was then the tallest building in Chin ...

constructed in Gulfport to serve as his

Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South, is the coast, coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The list of U.S. states and territories by coastline, coastal states that have a shor ...

residence, and nearby, an office building was constructed for the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad Company.

Death and legacy

By 1910, Jones was living with his wife and children in Buffalo, New York. He developed health problems during the last three years of his life and died on December 6, 1916, at his home in Buffalo. He was interred in the Jones Family Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery. At the time of his death, his estate was estimated to be worth 15 million dollars. In 1935, Grace Jones Stewart, heir of Joseph T. Jones, donated to the city of Gulfport a tract of land along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico to be used solely for recreational purposes. Despite efforts to develop the land for other objectives, it endures as the Joseph T. Jones Memorial Park. On January 18, 1942, a life-sized bronze statue, atop a

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...

, was dedicated in Gulfport to "the city's greatest benefactor". The statue faces the harbor that Jones built.Grimsley, Reagan. "The Legacy of the Builder: Joseph T. Jones and the Development of Gulfport, Mississippi" ''Journal of Mississippi History'' V. 76 N. 1 and 2 Spring/Summer 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Joseph T. 1842 births 1916 deaths Businesspeople from Philadelphia American railway entrepreneurs American businesspeople in the oil industry Monuments and memorials in Mississippi History of Mississippi Gulfport, Mississippi 1942 sculptures Bronze sculptures in the United States People from Gulfport, Mississippi 19th-century American businesspeople