Information abounds for J. Wyman Jones. A lawyer son of a shopkeeper that became wealthy at real estate, railroads and mining. He designed and pulled together the financing for the founding of Englewood, New Jersey, which some consider the first designed suburban community. The house that he built there in 1850 is (as of 1997) now owned by CBS anchor Charles Osgood. After Englewood, J. Wyman Jones became the first president of the St. Joseph Mining Company in Missouri. Along with his mine manager, J. Wyman used new diamond drilling practices to make the company very profitable. It flourished and absorbed all the competitor companies that came along. He was the president of that company until his death in 1904 at which point his son, Dwight A. Jones took over the presidency until his own death in 1913. Today the Bonne Terre Mine is closed but used as a scuba diving site called the Billion Gallon Lake Resort.He had two sons by his first marriage to Harriet Dwight Dana. In 1882, Harriet passed away and in 1886 he married Salome Maria Chapin nee Hanna. In 1888, he purchased 300 acres in Georgia and founded the Glen Arven Country Club named after his mother, Ruth Arven. In 1899, President McKinley vacationed with J. Wyman Jones at his winter home in Thomasville, Georgia. The New York Times read "The President is resting".
** Note that he went by J. Wyman Jones in nearly all business and personal dealings.
Individual Facts:
Name: John Wyman Jones
Sex: Male
Father: JONES, John, Esq.
Mother: ARVEN, Ruth
Birth: 2 May 1822 in Enfield, Grafton, New Hampshire
Graduation: 1841 Dartmouth College, Dartmouth, Massachusetts
Occupation: 1845 as Lawyer in New York City and Utica
Marriage: 1846 to Harriet Dwight DANA
Census: 1850 in Utica, Oneida, New York
Occupation: 1850 as Real Estate Speculator in New York and New Jersey
Occupation: 1865 as first President of the St. Joseph Lead Mining Company in Bonne Terre, Missouri
Marriage: 1886 to Salome Maria HANNA (previously married to George W. Chapin w/ 1 living child)
Residence: 1896 in Bolton, Massachusetts (Summer Home)
Residence: 1899 in Thomasville, Georgia (Winter Home)
Census: 1900 in Bolton Town, Worcester, Massachusetts
Census: 1900 in Bolton Town, Worcester, Massachusetts
Children:
JONES, James Dana
JONES, James Dana
JONES, Dwight Arvin
CHAPIN, Charles M. (step-son)***
Associations:
Brother-in-law: DANA, James Dwight (Geologist)
Brother-in-law: HANNA, Marcus Alonzo (Republican Senator; McKinley Campaign Manager)
*** interesting side note, both James Dana Jone's step-brother, Charles M. Chapin, and his son-in-law, Edgar Davidson Congdon (married to his daughter, Edith Dana Jones) were distant cousins (4th). Descendants of the Converse family via progenitor, LT. Josiah Converse.
Events:
A biography:
J. WYMAN JONES. (Adapted from a sketch in the "Memorial History of the City of New York and the Hudson River valley.") – It is always interesting to trace the early life of men of energy, for usually there will be found those surroundings which foster a vigorous and independent character. This is aptly illustrated in the life of J. Wyman Jones. Born in the Town of Enfield, N. H., he was subjected throughout boyhood to the hardy and healthful country life of New England; and the rugged aspect of nature, the exhilarating winters, together with a rigorous home training, combined to produce a vigorous and courageous youth, eager for a conflict with the world. His father was a sturdy New England justice, prominent in the affairs of his locality, and several times a member of the State Legislature. His mother was a woman of genuine sweetness and refinement, and a direct descendant of the famous Hannah Dustin. It was the desire of both parents to keep their only son at home, but when his school career at Meriden Academy was ended he pressed onward for Dartmouth College, where he was admitted in 1837. In his class were a son of Daniel Webster, Edward Webster, who died in the Mexican War; Rev. Dr. Leonard Swain, of Nashua, N. H.; and Gardiner G. Hubbard, Esq., of Washington, D. C.
Upon graduation, in 1841, he could not be persuaded to locate at home; and although put wholly upon his own resources, he began the study of law in New York City. In 1843 he was admitted to the New York bar, and for twenty years followed his profession, the latter part of the time in Utica, N. Y. Prior to his removal there he married Harriet Dwight Dana, daughter of James Dana, of Utica, and sister of Professor James D. Dana, of Yale University, who survived until 1882. At Utica Mr. Jones made many warm friends in his profession, including the late Justice William J. Bacon, Senator Kernan, Joshua Spencer, and Senator Conkling.Advised by his physician that he must lead an out-of-door life, he reluctantly relinquished the practice of law to give himself to rural pursuits, although still retaining his interest and membership in the New York bar. In 1858, by invitation of a former client then engaged in surveying the Northern Railroad of New Jersey, he made an examination of the proposed route, and being impressed by the natural beauty of the country, with characteristic daring determined to throw himself heartily into the development of the region where Englewood is now located. He spent the summer of 1858 in securing property rights from the original owners, and by the autumn of that year had control of nearly all the land now occupied by that village. He proceeded to lay out the town, to name its streets, and to procure a survey and map of its territory. By the spring of 1859 he had moved his family to the new place and had gained for it the support of several valuable friends. In this same spring, at a meeting of the residents, the name Englewood, suggested and advocated by him, was adopted. Since that time Mr. Jones has been prominent in the secular and religious life of Englewood, and he still maintains a keen interest in its growth and welfare. He has had the satisfaction of seeing it develop, pursuant to the general plan formulated by himself, into a beautiful and progressive suburb of New York City. In addition to the initial work at Englewood he also became largely interested in the neighboring Towns of Closter and Norwood, the latter of which he established and named.
In 1865 Mr. Jones became President of the St. Joseph Lead Company, a corporation manufacturing and mining lead in the State of Missouri; and by persistent energy, overcoming all obstacles, he has raised the company from an almost hopeless condition to its present position as one of the largest lead-producing concerns in the United States. With the lead company are also associated a railway corporation having a road forty-eight miles in length, and a cattle and farming company transacting a large business, of both of which Mr. Jones is President. He is also President of the Doe Run Lead Company. During the thirty years of his presidency of the St. Joseph Lead Company he has spent much of his time at the mines in Missouri, where now there is a prosperous community. During this entire period there has never been a strike among the men, it having been one of the chief concerns of the company, under the leadership of Mr. Jones, not only to treat its employees fairly, but also to aid in every undertaking which promised to contribute to their pleasure, or to their moral or physical welfare.
In politics Mr. Jones has been a Republican since the days of the Free Soil party. At the outbreak of the Civil War, while deep in his work at Englewood, he was an ardent Northerner, frequently speaking at public meetings. He was many years Chairman of the Republican County Executive Committee, and was chosen a delegate-at-large from the State of New Jersey to the Presidential Convention of 1872. In 1876 he was elected a delegate to the State Convention by the Englewood Republicans after he had declared himself friendly to Senator Conkling and opposed to Hon. James G. Blaine, and subsequently by the State Convention was elected a delegate to the Presidential Convention at Cincinnati. There, with five other New Jersey delegates, he refused to vote for Mr. Blaine, and voted on the first and every ballot for Mr. Hayes, who was nominated by the convention. While this course was distasteful to the Blaine adherents, so far as Mr. Jones was concerned it was in accord with the declarations he had previously made, and with the decision of his Englewood constituents. In later years he has taken no active part in politics, but maintains a loyal adherence to his party and an earnest concern for the country's prosperity.
Personally Mr. Jones is a courtly gentleman, thoroughly American, and counts his friends among all classes of men. He possesses a keen insight into human nature, and judges quickly and accurately.
In 1886 Mr. Jones married Mrs. Salome Hanna Chapin, of Cleveland, Ohio. During the winter season they reside at Thomasville, Ga., where they have a Southern home of rare attractiveness. They also have a charming historic home at Bolton, Mass., where Mr. Jones now spends the greater part of each year.
