OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 320 Today's Topics: #1 THOMAS CLIVE JONES - DELAWARE COUN [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] #2 OLERY WHIPPLE - DELAWARE COUNTY [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] ------------------------------ X-Message: #1 Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 08:27:03, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) Subject: THOMAS CLIVE JONES - DELAWARE COUNTY HISTORY OF OHIO The American Historical Society, Inc., 195 Volume IV - Page 43-44 THOMAS CLIVE JONES, president of the Delaware Gas Company, has had an experience of more than a third of a century in the commercial production and distribution of both artificial and natural gas. For many years he has been an official of numerous state and national bodies connected with the gas business, and his practical and technical knowledge have been made available not only through these official services but through many addresses and other contributions to the literature on the subject. In a business career that has made him one of Ohio's successful men Thomas Clive Jones has been in Delaware County for a century. Mr. Jones was born on his father's farm in Troy Township, November 17, 1867, son of Thomas C. and Harriet (Williams) Jones, his mother a native of Ohio and his father of North Wales. His grandfather, Robert Jones, brought his family to the United States from Wales in 1822, and after many hardships on sea and after landing he and his brother Davis arrived at the little frontier Village of Delaware. Robert developed a farm a few miles east of the town, and there reared his family. His son, Thomas C. Jones, was six years of age when the family settled in Delaware County. He acquired a district school education, learned the routine of farm life, also became a carpenter, and later studied law with an older brother. In 1838 he was delegated with the responsibility of going to England to look after an estate in which his father had an entailed interest. He remained abroad eighteen months. Thomas C. Jones, was admitted to the bar in 1841, in 1859 was elected a member of the State Senate, serving two terms, and was chairman of the committee on public works and a member of the finance and judiciary committees. In 1861 he was elected judge of the first sub-division of the Sixth Judicial District of Ohio, and was on the bench ten years. Many of the best honors of the law, public affairs and politics came to him and he proved worthy of them all. He was chairman in 1868 of the Ohio State delegation to the Republican National Convention at Chicago which nominated Grant and Colfax, also held the same position in 1876 when the republican convention nominated Hayes and Wheeler in Cincinnati. In 1869 he was sent to Minnesota by President Grant to investigate the Indian affairs in that state, and in 1880 was sent by President Hayes on a mission to England relative to cattle raising in that country. He was a member and president of the State Board of Agriculture, was trustee of the Ohio Agricultural College, was chairman of the jury to award honors in the cattle department of the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, and in 1881 was appointed a member of a commission, under a special act of Congress, to report on the agricultural needs of the Pacific states. While an able lawyer, much of his time and thoughts were devoted to agricultural problems. His writings on farm subjects commanded national recognition. He was the first president of the Ohio Association of Breeders of Short Horn Cattle. The wife of Judge Thomas C. Jones, Harriet Williams, represented a family of not less prominence and distinction in Central Ohio. Her father was Hon. Hosea Williams. He was of Welsh descent. Several brothers of the name Williams came to new England in Colonial times. Charles Williams, ancestor of Hosea Williams, died at Colchester, Connecticut, April 14, 1740, at the age of ninety-four, and was survived by six sons. One of them, Nathan Williams, married, September 16, 1725, Elizabeth Lewis, also of Welsh ancestry. Their family consisted of four sons and five daughters. One of them, Abraham Williams, born July 21, 1726, married Vest Hunt. Their son, Abraham, Jr., born September 16, 1765, married Anna Chamberlain, and they became the parents of Hosea Williams. Their home was in Berkshire until after the marriage of their only child Hosea to Charlotte Elizabeth Avery on May 9, 1817. Charlotte Avery was a half sister of Governor E.D. Morgan of New York. After this event the family moved to the undeveloped region known as the Scioto Valley in Ohio, and stayed at Delaware until their home was built on a 300 acre farm. After getting Hosea and his wife comfortably settled his parents returned to Massachusetts, but in 1825 rejoined their son. Hosea had the education of the usual New England youth, a son of well-to-do parents. For a short time he clerked in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. From the farm in the Scioto Valley he moved to Delaware and became a merchant, a business he followed many years and with notable enterprise and success. He was able in business and had public spirit of a community builder. He did much for early churches and schools and the improvement of highways, and was also liberal in his donations to some of the pioneer Ohio railroads. While living on the farm he served as county commissioner, and at Delaware he became a village official, later judge of the Court of Common Pleas and in 1845 was elected first president of the Delaware County Branch of the State Bank of Ohio. He was a member of the State Board of Control of the institution until its charter expired. Upon the reorganization of the Delaware Bank he was chosen its first president, an office he filled until his death. Judge Williams was one of the first directors of the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad and was instrumental in causing this company to run all of its strains through Delaware which hertofore had used only the direct line about three miles east of town. In 1869 Judge Williams took over the Delaware Gas Company, and reorganized it in 1870, placing the corporation on a sound financial basis and installing the most practical and modern gas machinery of the day. This was really the beginning of the business now so ably carried on by his grandson, T.C. Jones, the subject of this sketch. Associated with Judge Howard in 1838, he erected a paper mill in what is now the village of Stratford. With the example of men like his father and grandfather before him, Thomas Clive Jones had a constant impetus to make the best of his time and abilities. He attended the public schools of Delaware, took the academic course of Kenyon College in Gambier, and the commercial course at the Spencerian Business College in Washington, D.C. On returning to Delaware he became a collector for the Delaware Gas Company, and with the exception of a few years has been identified almost continuously with this corporation. In 1886-1888 he was teller for the Columbus Gas Company, Columbus, Ohio. For two year he was engaged in the coal and feed business under the firm name of Baker & Jones, selling this business to resume his connection with the Delaware Gas Company. He was made its superintendent in 1891, and president in 1905. In 1902 the plant was reconstructed for the distribution of natural gas, which gave Mr. Jones the opportunity to put some of his matured ideas and aggressive policies into effect, and the business responded in a way to prove the value of his plans and justify his foresight in every improvement. Under his direction the Delaware Gas Company's properties have become a perfect system of their kind. There has always been a studied policy to keep the system thoroughly modern and its facilities adequate for all emergencies. This policy has been maintained by the laying of larger pipe lines, installing duplex district governors, and other facilities that promote efficiency of operation as well as economy. The company owns the finest modern fireproof office building in Delaware. Its facilities and service have made it one of the modern organizations of the kind in the state. In 1901 Mr. Jones bought a third interest in the Coshocton Gas Company, Coshocton, Ohio. This property, to which was extended the same business policy that proved so effective in Delaware, at once responded similarly. Mr. Jones' standing as an authority in the gas industry can best be understood by noting some of the larger honors and responsibilities that have come to him. He was made a member of the Ohio Gas Light Association in 1892, served for many years on its executive committee and for eight years was its secretary. In 1898 he was elected a member of the American Gas Association. In 1909, at the urgent solicitation of the board of directors, he was chosen acting secretary and treasurer of the Natural Gas Association, on account of the serious illness of the regular official, Mr. J.F. Owens of Tulsa, Oklahoma. At the next annual meeting Mr. Jones was persuaded to become the permanent secretary-treasurer. At that time the association had a membership of less that 150. Mr. Jones continued in office until 1919, and during that time built up the membership to over 1,500, and increased its power as an effective organization even more proportionately. As secretary of this and the old Ohio Association for nearly twenty years he edited and published all the annual volumes of their proceedings. He was a charter member of the American Gas Institute and became its first treasurer. Mr. Jones was one of the organizers and charter members of the Ohio Gas & Oil Association in 1918, and has since been on its board of directors and executive committee. In 1923 he was elected president of this flourishing organization of over 2,500 members, which position he now occupies. At the meetings and conventions of these various associations Mr. Jones has contributed many formal and technical papers and addresses, and his experience has constituted him a real expert engineer in the science and practical art of gas production, distribution and handling, and he has often been called on to act as an expert in matters pertaining to the gas industry as consulting engineer. He is a member of all the Masonic bodies of Delaware, Knights Templar of Marion, and the Mystic Shrine of Columbus. In 1889 Mr. Jones married Miss Sue E. Baker, daughter of Henry L. and Mary A. Baker, of Delaware. Mr. and Mrs. Jones are members of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, of which Mr. Jones was a vestryman for a number of years. The only son is Thomas Clive Jones, Jr. born November 18, 1895. He is a graduate of the Delaware High School, and from there entered Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland, where he was graduated mechanical engineer in 1917. In May, 1917, he was selected as one of the young men of Delaware to join the Field Hospital Unit being organized there, became a sergeant, and later was transferred to the Field Artillery and after attending the Officers' Training School at Camp Taylor, at Louisville, Kentucky, was commissioned a lieutenant. Until the armistice was signed he was on duty as instructor in the Motor School at Camp Taylor. In 1919 he became associated with the Aluminum Company of America, as assistant to the supervisor of plants, with headquarters at Cleveland, and later was transferred to St. Louis, Missouri, as assistant to the sales manager of the Southwest territory. ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 08:27:16, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) Subject: OLERY WHIPPLE - DELAWARE COUNTY BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL RECORD OF JAY AND BLACKFORD COUNTIES, INDIANA The Lewis Publishing Company, 1887 - Page 340 OLERY WHIPPLE, druggist and postmaster, Briant, was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, July 15, 1829, son of Jason and Eliza (Burse) Whipple. The family removed to Delaware County, Ohio, in September, 1829, and in August, 1838, came to this county and located in Wayne Township. The father entered 160 acres of Government land, and here our subject resided until 1848, when he removed to Randolph County and engaged in milling. In 1875 he removed to Ridgeville where he was engaged in milling three years, then took the contract for building an iron bridge at the place. In 1878 he engaged in the drug business at Portland, this county, where he remained until November 17, 1884. In January, 1887, he removed to Briant, where he has since been engaged in the drug business. January 31, 1887, he was appointed postmaster, and fills the office creditably. The store is well stocked with drugs and fancy articles, and everything usually kept in a first class drug store. Mr. Whipple was married June 5, 1856, to Miss Sally E. Steele, of Winchester, a daughter of James Steele of that place. Mr. and Mrs. Whipple have six children -Rose Ella, wife of I.G. Simms, of Portland; Cora L., Charles L., Clyde S., Ray C. and Elgie. Charles L. is a member of the firm, and a thorough business man. -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #320 *******************************************