Butte County
Biographies
MAJOR ALBERT
FOSTER JONES
MAJOR
A. F. JONES.--Decidedly a leader with the leading men of Oroville, and
therefore both prominent and popular among the worthiest citizens of Butte
County, Major A. F. Jones has the further honor of having been born a native
son--in Antelope Valley, Colusa County, on February 14, 1858. His grandfather
was Foster Jones, of Welsh-English descent, who married a Miss Adams, the
daughter of Captain John Adams, a farmer of Chebecco,
later Salem, Mass. His father was named George F. Jones, and was a native of
Hillsboro, N. H.; he became a merchant and later rounded the Horn, in 1849, in
a sailing vessel, arriving in San Francisco in 1850. Once landed, his first
experience was in mining, then he became proprietor of
the Canyon Hotel near Redding, on the San Francisco-Portland stage road, and
after that was a cattleman in the Antelope Valley, Colusa County, in 1854.
Three years later, he was elected Sheriff of Colusa County, when he moved to
Colusa; and having served his term, he set himself up as a merchant there, and
remained until 1864. He then located in Chico, at that time a very small place,
where he conducted a general merchandise business, and there, in 1873, he died.
Mrs. George F. Jones had been Miss Sidnea McIntosh, a native of Cynthiana, Ky., and the
daughter of Jacob and Rebecca McIntosh, who came in 1851 across the plains to
California with the usual ox teams and wagons, in company with her parents. Her
father was a farmer who settled in Colusa County and became proprietor of the
Lone Tree Ranch; and it was at that ranch that Miss McIntosh was married, near
what is now Hamilton City, in Glenn County.
Grandfather Jones died in 1852, and
his wife died on the home ranch in the seventies. Mrs. George F. Jones makes
her home at Chico; she is mother of eight children, of whom seven are living.
The eldest is Mrs. John R. Robinson of Chico; the third in order of birth is
the subject of this sketch; the next is Mrs. J. H. Wheeler of St. Helena, Napa
County; another daughter is Mrs. Isabelle William Howard of Preston, Sonoma
County; still another is Mrs. C. E. Tinkham of
Berkeley; and James H. and Alice, of Chico.
Educated at the public schools of
Chico and at the Golden Gate Academy at Oakland, A. F. Jones next attended the
Sheffield Scientific School, and at the end of a year at which he entered the
Yale Law School, and graduated in 1879 with the degree of Bachelor of Law. The
same year he was admitted to practice in the superior courts in California, and
since January, 1880, has practiced at Oroville. After that he was associated
with John Gale, for three years, in the practice of law, but the partnership
was mutually dissolved when Mr. Gale removed from the state.
In 1882, Mr. Jones was elected
district attorney for a couple of years, and in 1886 he was elected to the
state senate for two years, and reelected for a second term. His influence was
instant and wide, and among other important posts, he held that of the chairman
of the judiciary committee of the senate. A loyal Californian, he did duty by
the whole state; but he was particularly alert in all matters that especially
interested his constituents. It was his bill that created the Chico State
Normal School; and it was he who originated and inserted the clause in the
county government bill which provided a small tax to be applied to the
foundation of a county law library for Butte County. At first, this was a
measure for the entire state.
Since his public life as a state
senator, he has been active in the practice of law, and in attending to his
varied private interests. He was a pioneer in dredger-mining, and as such was a
partner with Wendell P. Hammon. They built the first
dredger on Feather River, four miles below Oroville, in 1890, assuming all the
responsibility of the undertaking themselves, but later, with other investors,
forming a company known as the Boston and Oroville Dredging Company. About
1904, Mr. Hammon interested considerable foreign
capital and consolidated several dredgers and their companies, and incorporated
the Boston and California Dredging Company, of which Major Jones was the
attorney, while Messrs. Hammon and Jones continued as
the largest stockholders. In 1906, however, they sold their interest in the
concern. When first they operated, they used steam, but later installed
electricity. The first boat was designed by an Australian, Mr. Postlethwaite, and the Risdon
Iron Works built it after his plans. Next came the
Bucyrus Dredger, made by the Bucyrus Company of Indiana.
Major Jones has been very much
interested in horticulture, and was one of the original twenty who founded the
Oroville Citrus Association, and established the citrus business as a
commercial success. They launched the orange industry in Butte County, and won
for the local products wide and favorable recognition. He formed the Thermalito Colony Company, and with Maj. Frank McLaughlin
and E. W. Fogg, he was head of that proposition to
subdivide lands and colonize the Thermalito Tract and
there develop orange-growing. The association planted twenty acres of oranges
and lemons, also some Pomelo and Shaddock about 1887.
This was the first commercial grove in Northern California or north of
Tehachapi. Before that, there were only a few orange trees in yards, and now
there are six or more packing-houses to handle the citrus fruits. In this
connection, Major Jones points out the very interesting historical fact that
the first raisins produced in the United States were grown and packed by C. L.
Durbin, in Messila Valley, in this county, twelve
miles from Oroville, and were marketed by Hon. George C. Perkins, in his store
at Oroville, back in the late fifties.
Major Jones owns the Jones Block,
one of the substantial business structures in Oroville. Always a Democrat and a
state elector on the Judge Parker ticket, he has developed, of late years,
decidedly independent tendencies, and in any case is in favor of all that upbuilds his own community. He is active in the chamber of
commerce, and is much interested in the development of the public schools, to
further which he has given liberally of his time and influence, and for the
past fourteen years he has been president of the Board of Trustees of Oroville
Union High School District, while for ten years he has been a member of the
Board of Education. The grammar school building and more especially the new
Union District High School building in Oroville are both monuments to his
untiring efforts for better educational facilities.
At Oakland, in 1880, occurred the
marriage of Major Jones to Miss May S. Evans, a native of Marysville, and the
daughter of O. M. and Jane H. (Baldwin) Evans, natives of Maine and
Connecticut, respectively, and early settlers of Marysville, Cal. Mr. Evans
crossed the plains in 1850 and was pioneer miner and builder. Mrs. Jones was
educated at the San Jose Normal and was a school teacher in Butte County for
two years. Since her marriage she has been prominent in women's club work, and
in circles of Federated Clubs of California is vice-president of the California
Federation. Three children blessed this marriage: George F., an attorney at
law, ex-district attorney and ex-superior judge of Butte County; Grace, Mrs. W.
S. Hall of Chico; and Lesle, Mrs. R. H. Butler, of
Fresno.
Major Jones was made a Mason in
Oroville Lodge, No. 103, F. & A. M.; belongs to Franklin Chapter, No. 20,
R. A. M.; and to Oroville Commandery, No. 5, K. T.,
in which he is a Past Commander; to Islam Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., in San
Francisco. He belongs to Chico Lodge, No. 423, B. P. O. Elks; to the Knights of
Pythias, the Odd Fellows, the
Native Sons (Argonaut Parlor No. 8), in which he was the first president, and
is Past President of the order in California. Mr. Jones was a private in
Company A, National Guard of California, located at
Chico, was later made a Major on the Staff of Brigadier-General Cadwallader. He was also Lieutenant Colonel on the Staff of
Governors Bartlett and Waterman, and retired with the rank of Lieutenant
Colonel.
Transcribed by Sande Beach.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 441-443, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2006 Sande Beach.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies