Multnomah-Statewide County OR Archives Biographies.....Jones, Captain Francis Bedford November 20, 1838 - 
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Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com January 18, 2011, 2:08 pm

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 704 - 708
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     CAPTAIN FRANCIS BEDFORD JONES, one of Portland's venerable citizens and 
prominent business men, occupies the presidency of the Willamette & Columbia 
River Towing Company, which he organized in 1890 and which has become one of 
the largest maritime enterprises connected with the Pacific northwest. A 
contemporary biographer, in a review of the career of Captain Jones, 
said: "With the possible exception of the founders of the republic there is no 
class of men to whom the people of America are under deeper obligations than 
the pioneers. The men who opened the way to the comforts and conveniences of 
the twentith century, whether as inventors, discoverers, pathfinders, Indian 
fighters, frontier settlers, navigators or founders of great business and 
commercial enterprises, deserve the imperishable gratitude of present and 
future generations. Without such men America would have remained a howling 
wilderness; with them, our country is the garden of the world and the hope of 
the oppressed in every clime. The sense of gratitude to the pioneers can 
scarcely be expressed in words, but it is witnessed in monuments of art in all 
the great cities, in the museums all over the land and in countless histories, 
handing down the deeds of the fathers to remotest generations. Captain Francis 
Bedford Jones is a son of a pioneer and was himself one of the indomitable 
adventurers who made easy the paths leading to the present widespread 
prosperity in the northwest. Crossing the mountains to Oregon in 1853, the 
principal energies of his life have been devoted in subduing the difficulties 
inseparable from settlement in any new country. As the evening of his career 
draws apace, he looks back upon a long life of activity, upon the shadowy 
forms of many who yielded in the struggle, upon the advance and the retreat, 
and at last the final victory in the permanent settlement of a vast region, 
insuring continued peace and prosperity."

     Captain Jones was born at Detroit, Michigan, November 20, 1838. He is a 
son of Francis and Annie (Welch) Jones and on his father's side is a 
descendant of French ancestors, who settled at Detroit at an early day when 
the present beautiful city was a trading post. His grandfather was a brick 
manufacturer, being one of the first in that line of business at Detroit. 
Francis Jones, father of Captain Jones, was a native of Detroit and was a 
pioneer farmer of Jackson county, Iowa. Eleven children were born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Jones, eight of whom were born in Iowa, Francis being the fourth in order 
of birth. The California gold discoveries had attracted many fortune hunters 
and the stories of returning gold hunters as to the almost unexplored region 
of the northwest aroused great anticipations in the minds of many farmers and 
frontiersmen. Grave difficulties were in the way and hostile Indians 
threatened death to all comers; but the caravans began heading toward the 
Columbia and the movement has never ceased, even in the face of the most 
serious obstacles. Joining a party bound for the northwest, Francis Jones and 
his family entered upon the long wagon journey across plains, mountains and 
rivers to a new home in Oregon. Captain Jones was then a boy of sixteen years 
of age and he traveled a large part of the way on foot, driving the oxen and 
assisting in many ways in making the hardships as easy as possible to his 
mother and younger members of the family. An older son had traveled to 
California on the overland trail and later joined the family in Oregon. The 
caravan followed the old Oregon trail, which led through Fort Laramie to Snake 
river in Idaho. Here disaster overtook the party. The Indians swooped down in 
such numbers as to threaten to obliterate the entire caravan. It required a 
desperate fight in which men, women and even children participated before the 
savages were driven off. One member of the party lost his life in the attack 
and twenty head of cattle were killed or driven off. Arriving at their 
destination, after many adventures, in the fall of 1853, Francis Jones spent 
two years at Oregon City and then settled on a farm in Clackamas county, where 
he continued to reside until his death, about 1878, at the age of sixty-five 
years. He was a man of strong will and determination, a good farmer and one 
who looked well to the interests of his family. The type which he represented 
has almost disappeared, as the conditions no longer exist under which the 
hardy pioneers of mountain and plain were reared.

     Captain Jones received the rudiments of an education in the district 
schools of Iowa. Contact with men and affairs has been the principal school in 
which he learned the lessons that finally brought him to his present 
responsible position. Soon after reaching Oregon he became interested in river 
matters. He assisted in the construction of a bridge over the Clackamas river. 
He served in the Indian war of 1855 and 1856, later working on farms in 
Clackamas county and engaging in farming on his own account in Polk county. 
There he remained until 1863. For two or three years he acted as contractor, 
freighting to the mines with jack trains, carrying flour, bacon and other 
provisions. At the close of this contract he returned to farming, conducting 
operations on Sauvie's island for four years. The longing for the water, 
perhaps on account of his early days at Detroit, never entirely left his mind 
and the year 1872 marked the beginning of his career as a navigator, in which 
he has ever since con-tinued. He acquired an interest in a barge and began 
transporting cord wood from points on the Columbia and Willamette rivers to 
Portland, also carrying cottonwood to St. Johns. About the same time he bought 
his first steamboat, the old side-wheeler Clatsop Chief, and also a scow, 
which was utilized in the transportation of wood. In 1878 the Clatsop Chief 
was struck amidships by a boat belonging to the Oregon Railroad & Navigation 
Company and sunk. This was quite a loss to Captain Jones, as he was unable to 
collect any damages, but he succeeded in raising the wreck, rebuilt the boat 
and made use of her for years afterward. About 1887 he built the steamer Maria 
and as time passed acquired possession of the Vulcan, the Gamecock, the F. B. 
Jones and the Eugene. He has owned twenty steamships during his lifetime and 
now operates five boats on the Willamette and Columbia rivers, namely: 
Gamecock, Umatilla, F. B. Jones, Simons and Skokum. He organized the 
Willamette & Columbia River Towing Company in 1890 and has since been 
president of the company, of which William E. Jones, his son, is secretary and 
treasurer. The offices of the company are at 1751/2 East Water street in 
Portland.

     Captain Jones is a member of the Veteran Steamboat Men's Association. 
Beginning as a pilot on the river, he was granted a master's license in 1877. 
He continued as master until 1905, when he retired but is still actively 
identified with the company of which he is the head. His son, William E. 
Jones, also holds a master's license and is one of the navigators whose 
operations are constantly being extended. Captain Jones takes a lively 
interest in all maritime matters and is recognized as one of the best informed 
men on the northwest coast in matters pertaining to water craft. He has been a 
witness of vast strides in commerce, and his sound judgment and active 
participation in business affairs has brought wealth and influence. A man of 
great energy, he has accomplished much important work that one of lesser 
capacity would have found impossible. It is men of intelligent comprehension 
and broad calibre that have built up the great business projects in the west 
and laid the foundations of successful enterprises on the shore of the 
Pacific. Among them prominently stands Captain F. B. Jones.

     By his first marriage Captain Jones has a son and a daughter. William E., 
who was born in Columbia county, Oregon, and has always been associated with 
his father in business, married Maude Lowrey. Etta M. is the wife of E. L. 
Politte, of Sunnyside, Oregon, who is chief engineer on one of her father's 
boats. Mr. and Mrs. Politte are the parents of three children: Mrs. Olive 
Robins; Mrs. Bernice Kayo, residing in Portland; and Kenneth. In 1909 Captain 
Jones married Mrs. Laura (Wood) Felger, who was born in Linn county, Oregon. 
By her two previous marriages she had three children, namely: Mrs. Bertha 
(Herron) Held, who is the mother of three children — Thelma, Wilda and Wayne; 
Archie Herron, who is married and resides in Portland, Oregon, and has four 
children — Jack, Robert, Richard and Patricia Ann; and Ben Felger, by her 
second husband. He resides in Portland, Oregon. He is married and has one 
child, James Felger. Mrs. Jones mother, Mrs. Sena Wood, who resides with her 
in Portland, is now eighty-two years of age. She was born in Salem, Oregon, 
and is a daughter of Alda and Elmira Neal, being a representative of one of 
Oregon's honored pioneer families. Four generations of Oregon's daughters make 
their homes with Captain Jones, who is himself a nonagenarian, namely: Mrs. 
Sena Wood; Mrs. Laura Jones; Mrs. Bertha (Herron) Held and her three children —
 Thelma, Wilda and Wayne. All are proud of being native Oregonians and all are 
highly respected members of the community.

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