San Diego County
Biographies
FREDERICK HERBERT JONES
The late Frederick Herbert Jones,
president and manager and one of the organizers of the Jones-Moore Paint
Company in San Diego, was for twenty-eight years one of the city’s foremost
businessmen and a civic leader as well.
He was born on a farm in Warren County, Missouri, March 11, 1868, his
parents being David G. and Marsena (Peters) Jones,
both of whom are deceased. The father
followed agricultural pursuits throughout his active career. Two sons and two daughters of the family
survive, namely: C. R. Jones, of
Oakland, California; Rev. Walter M. Jones, of Topeka, Kansas; Mrs. O. R.
Rutherford, of Los Angeles; and Mrs. H. B. Gustin, of
Los Angeles.
Frederick H. Jones was a lad of nine
years when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Topeka, Kansas, where
he acquired his education. When a youth
of seventeen he obtained employment in the paint department of the Atchison,
Topeka & Santa Fe Railway shops at Topeka, Kansas. In 1888 he came west to San Diego County,
California, and worked at the painting trade in Chula Vista. The following year he made a trip to the
Alamo mining district of Lower California and on returning to San Diego County
became connected with the paint department of the National City & Otay Railway at National City. He then made a trip to northern California,
there working at his trade until June, 1890, when he went to San Bernardino,
this state, where he was employed in the paint department of the Santa Fe
shops. Next he made his way to Los
Angeles, where he worked in the paint department of the shops of the Los
Angeles & Pacific Coast Electric Railway.
Mr. Jones painted the first house built in Hemet, California. Making another trip to northern California,
he worked for a firm of home builders in Alameda, San Leandro and Berkeley. In September, 1893, owing to the death of his
father, he went back to Topeka, Kansas, but in June, 1894, returned to Los
Angeles, California, and took a position in the paint department of the Los
Angeles Street Railway, with which he remained for a decade. On the expiration of that period, in 1904, he
came to San Diego as manager of the H. R. Tibbetts
Paint Company, continuing in that capacity until 1910, when the Tibbetts Company was taken over by the Acme Paint Company
of Detroit, Michigan, which retained Mr. Jones as manager for one year. In 1913 a corporation was formed by F. H.
Jones, J. A. Moore and H. T. Tibbetts, taking the
name of the Jones-Moore Paint Company and opening a store in San Diego. Mr. Jones served as president and manager of
this organization until February, 1930, when ill health compelled him to
retire, and on the 13th of October, 1931, he sold his interests in
the enterprise. His conservative
management and his thorough knowledge of the paint business, gained through
long experience, constituted important factors in the success of the
Jones-Moore Paint Company, which became one of the best known concerns of the
kind in San Diego.
On the 18th of December,
1915, Mr. Jones was united in marriage to Miss Viola Mae Spooner, a native of
Vermont and a daughter of Charles H. and Emma R. (Coyier)
Spooner, both of whom are deceased, the former passing away in 1873 and the
latter in July, 1931. Mrs. Viola Mae
Jones was but a year old when her father died, and her mother subsequently
became the wife of A. A. Butterworth, of New Hampshire, who now resides with
his daughter, Mrs. C. B. Hansen, of San Bernardino, California. Mrs. Jones has two sisters and one
brother: Mrs. Florence E. Dreyfus, of
Los Angeles; Mrs. C. B. Hansen, of San Bernardino, California; and Charles H.
Spooner of Boston, Massachusetts. Mr.
Jones had a daughter, Mrs. R. W. Bell, who is a graduate of Pomona College of
Claremont, California, and who now resides in South Gate, Los Angeles County,
and is the mother of a son, John Frederick, born in August, 1932. Mrs. Viola Mae Jones is an active member of
the San Diego Woman’s Club and the National Society of New England Women. She resides in the beautiful home at 818 West
Nutmeg Street in San Diego which was designed and built by her husband and
herself.
Never seeking public office, yet
always working for the best interests of San Diego, Mr. Jones became one of the
city’s most widely known civic leaders.
He was a prominent member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Merchants
Association and was active in the organization of the San Diego Athletic Club,
serving on the board of directors and as chairman of the building
committee. A strong and active man, he
first suffered illness at the time of the opening of the handsome home of the
San Diego Athletic Club on the 22nd of February, 1928. Through a long period of impaired health he
remained cheerful to the end, which came on the 27th of May, 1932,
when he was sixty-four years of age. He
belonged to the Knights of Pythias, the Junior Order
of United American Mechanics and the Sons and Daughters of Liberty and was an honorary
member of the Kiwanis Club and the Executives’ Association. His death was the occasion of deep and
widespread regret and his memory will ever be cherished in the hearts of those
who knew him best.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South Vol.
IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 447-449, Clarke Publ.,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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NUGGET'S SAN DIEGO BIOGRAPHIES