Los Angeles County

Biographies

 

 

 

PHILO JONES

 

 

     JONES, PHILO, Real Estate Owner and Operator, Brawley, Imperial County, California, is a native of Davis, Macomb County, Michigan.  He was born January 22, 1874, and, like many boys of what was then the great Northwest, was reared on a farm.  His father was David T. Jones, a native of Wales, England, and his mother was Lavina Sutliff Jones.  On August 4, 1909, Mr. Jones married Myrtle Hillen Nance at Santa Maria, California.

     As a boy he attended the public schools of Macomb County, Michigan, and of Ontario, California, where the family had moved during Jones’ boyhood.  He prepared for college at the Chaffey Collegiate Institute, Ontario, California, where he graduated in June, 1893.  In 1894 he entered the University of Southern California, which he attended for one year.  During the years 1895-1896 Mr. Jones was interested in business, but returned to college in September, 1896.  He left college at the end of his junior year to enter business.

     As a student he was among the leaders of his classes; was president of the class of ’93 at Chaffey for four years and held the same office in the freshman class at the University of Southern California.  He was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity while in attendance there.

     He worked his way in college by owning the college printing office and the university paper, “The Courier,” of which he was alternately editor and business manager until June, 1898.

     Mr. Jones as a young man was in business with his father at Ontario, California, up to the time when he left for college, 1894, and he himself owned a bicycle and sporting goods store. 

     Upon leaving college in June, 1898, he was given the management of the Union Iron Works of Los Angeles, which plant was in litigation at that time and was sold the following year.  He spent the next two years as inside manager and buyer for Nicklin’s Southwest Printers’ Supply and American Type Founders Company of Los Angeles.  In 1901 he was offered the position as superintendent of the Salinas Water, Light and Power Company, in Monterey County.  This position he held for three years, resigning on a change of ownership.

     Mr. Jones next entered the field of construction work, being variously engaged during the following three years in installing water plants and reinforced concrete work for the Los Angeles Pacific Railway, rebuilding an electric plant for the Valley Electric Company at Santa Maria and latterly assistant superintendent of the Los Angeles Investment Company.

     While employed with the latter firm Mr. Jones was invited to join an association of capitalists interested in the newly awakened Imperial Valley, and particularly in the organization of the Brawley Town and Improvement Company.  He thereupon turned all his energies in this direction, and in the purchasing of the townsite of Brawley he bought a sixth interest, as did his father, David T. Jones.

     The organization of the new corporation was completed in May, 1907, and on June 1 of the same year he took charge of the enterprise as Secretary and General Manager.  In June, 1910, the company, desiring to enlarge its field of operation, took over the Imperial Investment Company, capitalized at $200,000, merging it with the Brawley Town and Improvement Company.  Six months later he, with his father, secured the controlling interest in the company and he was elected President, which position he still holds together with the general management.  Immediately after this the corporation purchased nearly one thousand acres of additional lands and laid out the new townsite of Westmoreland, with several small farm subdivisions, which properties are now being developed and sold.

     In June, 1911, with Los Angeles capitalists, he purchased a controlling interest in the Southern California Land Company, owning a half million dollars’ worth of Imperial Valley realty, and was elected President of that corporation, after which its interests were consolidated with those of the Imperial Investment Company.  The combined companies own and operate ten tracts of land, including six townsites, in the Imperial Valley.

     While in Imperial Valley his career has been linked with numerous notable enterprises that tend for the advancement of that district.  He has taken a leading part there, in both business and politics.  When he had been in the valley but thirty days he was appointed chairman of the “Brawley for County Seat” Committee in 1907 on the organization of Imperial County.  He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Brawley Chamber of Commerce, which position he has held with distinction since 1907.  He was a member of the Executive Committee and Acting Secretary of the Imperial County Chambers of Commerce during the years 1909-1910.  He was appointed member of the Republican County Central Committee in 1910.

     Mr. Jones is interested largely in many of the progressive corporations and organizations of that district, among which are the following: President and General Manager of the Imperial Investment Company and Southern California Land Company; President of the People’s Abstract and Trust Company of El Centro, Imperial Valley; Vice President of the Brawley Co-Operative Building Company; Vice President of the Imperial Valley Milk Company, and Secretary of the Westmoreland Water Company.

     He is a member of the Brawley Lodge, 402, F. and A. M., and the Santa Maria Chapter of the Royal Arch Masons.  He is a member of the Hancock Council of Los Angeles, Junior O. U. A. M., and of the Brawley Club.  He is also President of the Board of Trustees of the First Methodist Episcopal Church at Brawley.

 

 

 

Transcribed by Bill Simpkins.

Source: Press Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I,  Page 899, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta.  1913.

© 2012  Bill Simpkins.

 

 

 

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