Hon. Frank Jones of Portsmouth, N.H. Biography from History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by MLM, Volunteer 0000130. For the current email address, please go to http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000130 Copyright. All rights reserved. ************************************************************************ Full copyright notice - http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm USGenWeb Archives - http://www.usgwarchives.net ************************************************************************ Source: History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and Representative Citizens by Charles A. Hazlett, Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., Chicago, Ill., 1915 Page 1301 HON. FRANK JONES, born in Barrington, September 15, 1832, died at Portsmouth, October 2, 1902. The name of Frank Jones, for a third of a cenhtry, has been a familiar one in the state of New Hampshire, and has been synonymous with pluck, energy, and success. The fifth of seven children of Thomas Jones, a thrifty farmer of Barrington, himself the son of a Welsh immigrant--Capt. Peletiah Jones--he started out for himself early in life, leaving home on foot for Portsmouth at seventeen years of age, with his clothing in a bundle, and his hopes running high. He entered the service of his brother, Hiram, who was then engaged in the tin and stove business, and after three years, during most of which time he was on the road as a peddler, became a partner in the business, and a year later, when he was twenty-one years of age, his brother disposed of his interest to him on account of ill health, and he became sole proprietor, conducting the business with success until 1861, when he sold out so as to be able to devote his entire energies to the manage- ment of a brewery in which he had purchased an interest three years before and which had finally come into his possession. Putting all his great energies into the work, the business developed with wonderful rapidity and became a Page 1302 source of great profit, the plant being rebuilt and greatly enlarged from time to time. He also acquired, later, an extensive interest in the same line in South Boston, which was managed with similar profit, until, finally, some ten years ago or more, his entire brewing property was disposed of to an English syndicate, he retaining a large share in the stock and directing the management. Meanwhile he had acquired large interests in various business enterprises, particularly in railroads. He was a m0ving spirit in the construction of the Portsmouth & Dover road, of which he was president. He also became inter- ested in the old Eastern, and finally very largely in the Boston & Maine, with which that was consolidated, being for some time president of the latter, and a leader in the contest which resulted in the practical absorption of the Con- cord & Montreal by the latter. He was also the proprietor of the famous Rockingham House at Portsmouth, and of the Wentworth at Newcastle, which he built, and had large interests in many business enterprises in different parts of the state and country. Mr. Jones was the prime mover in the adoption of the "valued policy" law, as applied to insurance matters in this state, and was also largely instru- mental in the organization of home insurance companies, when the foreign companies in resentment left the state. He was president of the Granite State Company of Portsmouth, from its organization, and largely interested in other companies. Mr. Jones was active in politics, as a democrat, all through his active life. He served two years as mayor of Portsmouth, represented the First district in the forty-fourth and forty-fifth congresses; was subsequently his party's can- didate for governor, served as a member of the democratic national committee, and as a delegate from New Hampshire in several national conventions of that party--the last in 1896, when, dissatisfied with the action of the majority, he bolted the convention and soon allied himself with the republicans, who made him one of their own delegates in 1900. Mr. Jones had a large farm at "Gravelly Ridge," two or three miles oUt from Portsmouth--one of the largest and best in New England, where he generally made his home, and for pastime carried on extensive operations. His racing stable and his greenhouses were specially noted. Mr. Jones was united in marriage September 15, 1861, with the widow of his brother, Hiram Jones, who had died in July of the year previous, leaving a daughter, Emma L. Jones, whom he cared for as his own, and who subse- quently became the wife of the late Col. Charles A. Sinclair. Mrs. Jones, who was originally Martha S. Leavitt, daughter of William B. Leavitt of Spring- field, Mass., is now deceased.