My Genealogy Hound

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN JONES, of Pittsburgh, whose influence upon the progress not only of his native state but of the country, has been none the less marked and determining because, in the main, it has been quietly exerted, was born at Claysville, Washington county, Pa., Aug. 8, 1826. His ancestors for several generations were also of Pennsylvania birth. On his father’s side he is of Welsh descent, his great-great-grandfather having emigrated to this country from London near the close of the seventeenth century, landing in Philadelphia the same year as Penn. His mother was from those sturdy people that have impressed themselves so decidedly upon the fortunes of this state—the Pennsylvania Dutch and the Scotch. His father, Jacob A. Jones, who died at Rochester, Pa., at the age of ninety-six, was born in Philadelphia in the same year that gave birth to the Declaration of Independence, and was by profession a surveyor. His mother, Elizabeth Goshorn was born in Franklin county, Pa., and married there in 1813. In 1837, when eleven years old, the subject of this sketch removed with his father’s family to New Brighton, Pa., where he remained until his seventeenth year, securing in the meantime a good academic education at the New Brighton Academy, much better, in fact, than boys at that date not specially designed for one of the so-called learned professions usually received. Young Jones was indeed offered a liberal education, and such are some of his mental characteristics that, had he chosen a professional career, he would have been eminently successful, but with a knowledge of his own abilities and possibilities he wisely chose the life in which he has been so successful, a success due to no sudden freak of fortune following speculative ventures, but wrought out by the strength of his brain, the industry of his hands and his steady clearness of vision. In 1843, when but seventeen years old, Mr. Jones left his home and came to Pittsburgh to begin life on his own account. Pittsburgh was then, as it has been ever since the adventurous French descended the Allegheny to establish trade with the Indians and to secure control of the wonderful region that forms the great Mississippi valley, on the trail along which the commerce between the east and west came and went. The pack-train, the Conestoga wagon, the canal-boat and the railway-train have all in turn climbed the mountains and descended again into the valley, and deposited at Pittsburgh in ever-increasing amount and ever-growing value their burden of freight, either to be transformed into higher forms by that magic we call production, or to be passed onward to meet the demands of that magnificent empire that stretches westward.

When young Jones, full of ambition, energy and determination, came to Pittsburgh, it was the era of canal-boat transportation. The entire line of the Pennsylvania canal had been opened from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh nine years before, in 1834. The era of the railroad had not come, though even then it was fast approaching, and some of the pressing problems of that day concerned the relation of the canal-boat and the railway-car. Mr. Jones’ first employment was as assistant shipping-clerk, or perhaps better as receiving-clerk, at no salary, in the Pittsburgh office of the Mechanics’ line of boats, which ran on the canal between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, with a tidewater branch to Havre de Grace, Md. Mr. Samuel M. Kier, the chief owner in this line, took a great interest in the young shipping-clerk, and encouraged him in every way. The agitation at this time in favor of a continuous line of railroad between the east and west was widespread, and April 13, 1846, the Pennsylvania railroad was chartered, and the problem of the relation of the canal and railway became a present one to those who, through the canal, controlled the traffic between the east and west. Mr. Kier, nothing daunted, set about devising plans for utilizing both methods of internal communication, and established the Independent Line of section-boats, one of the first of this class to be run between Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Baltimore, and so constructed as to be adapted to both rail and canal. Within three years of his first appointment Mr. Jones, not yet twenty-one years of age, became manager of both lines of boats, at a salary at that time almost unprecedented. The canal boat business also included a general commission and forwarding business. In 1847, shortly after the purchase of the furnace-property referred to below, Mr. Jones became a partner with Mr. Kier in the Independent Line and operated it until 1854, when the Pennsylvania railroad superseded the old system of state canals and railroads. Mr. Jones has never ceased to be connected with the transportation interest which furnished his first employment. For many years he has been identified with the railroad interests of Western Pennsylvania, and relative to railroad matters his advice is frequently sought and his judgment relied upon. At its first inception he was made a director of the Pittsburgh & Connellsville railroad. He has for many years (twenty at least) been a director of the Cleveland & Pittsburgh, and for a long period held a similar relation to the Allegheny Valley railroad. For some time, also, he was the president of what was formerly known as the Pittsburgh, Virginia & Charleston railroad, now styled the Monongahela division of the Pennsylvania railroad.

His training in these early years was admirably adapted to develop those traits of character which have marked his whole business life. The successful prosecution of the canal business demanded a combination of gifts that are somewhat rare, and it has more than once been remarked that those who were successful transporters in the old Pennsylvania canal days have been among our most successful business men in later years. The canal business demanded great energy and push, prompt action, good judgment. The successful canal-transporter must be a merchant, a transporter, a good judge of men, wise to plan, quick to inspire his subordinates to action, and able to guide their acts. All of these traits Mr. Jones possesses in the highest decree, and has manifested all through his business-life.

It was in 1847, while still acting as manager of the canal-transportation line, that Mr. Jones became connected with the great industry to whose development he has devoted so large a portion of his life. In this year he purchased, in connection with Mr. Kier, an iron furnace and forges in the Alleghany mountains, near Armaugh, in Westmoreland county. The time was not propitious. Under the influence of the tariff of 1842, prosperity had become general throughout the United States, and Pennsylvania had shared it with others, but the fatal tariff of 1846, forced upon the country by the traitorous vote of a Pennsylvania vice-president, wrought disaster, and the furnace had shared the fate of so many others, and was idle at the time of its purchase by Mr. Jones and Mr. Kier. It is indicative of Mr. Jones’ business ability that the furnace operation while under his management was without loss. In 1851 he became connected with the works with which his name has since been identified, and to whose upbuilding and extension he has devoted more than thirty-five of the best years of his life. In that year he took an interest in the American Iron Works, which were being built by Mr. Bernard Lauth, the firm name being Jones, Lauth & Co. It was not until 1852, however, that Mr. Jones became actively engaged in the management of the works. In 1854 Mr. James Laughlin came into the firm. The firm name was changed to Jones & Laughlin in 1857, Mr. Lauth retiring. The interests in this firm remain today as at first, the only change having resulted from the death of partners. In 1853 the Monongahela Iron Works at Brownsville were purchased. These were run for a year and then dismantled, part of the machinery being removed to Pittsburgh.

In the forty years that have passed since his first connection with Pittsburgh’s iron trade, Mr. Jones has witnessed a marvelous growth. At that date there was not a blast furnace in Allegheny county, and consequently not a pound of pig-iron made, most of the pig-iron for the mills coming from the wooded regions of the Alleghany mountains and the banks of the Allegheny and Monongahela. In 1888 there were produced in Pittsburgh 890,569 tons, more than the entire product of the country in 1851. Indeed it was not until 1860 that the production of the United States reached 900,000 tons. In every other branch of the iron business there has been a corresponding increase. Rolling-mills turning out 4,000 tons a year have given place to those of 100,000 tons capacity, the blister-steel and small cast-steel works to the steel-mill turning out 1,000 tons a day. The coke product of the Connellsville region has grown from nothing to 5,000,000 tons annually, and the coal output from a small product to 500,000,000 bushels annually. In this growth Mr. Jones has had a notable part. The building of the Eliza Furnaces in 1860, at that time the best of their style, gave an impetus to the building of coke blast-furnaces in the west. These furnaces were among the first to use Lake Superior ores. His firm was also among the first, if not the actual, pioneers in buying coal lands and making coke in the Connellsville region. When coal was used as a fuel in the Pittsburgh mills they had one of the most extensive mining operations in the neighborhood of Pittsburgh, and when natural gas became the fuel of universal use they drilled their own wells and laid their own pipe lines.

The center of Mr. Jones’ iron operations is his American Iron Works, situated on the south bank of the Monongahela, a works of sufficient importance to receive special and very complimentary mention in the ninth edition of the “Encyclopedia Britannica.” These include not only one of the most extensive iron-rolling-mills and merchant Bessemer-steel works in the country, but in connection with these are extensive operations which are usually conducted as separate enterprises. Not only are there the necessary chemical and physical laboratories, as well as a mechanical engineering and mining staff, but machine-shops, brass-and iron-foundries, and various branches of business in which they re-work their own product. Their cold-rolled iron, especially shafting, is known throughout the world; their machine-shops and foundries are among the best appointed in the west. On the opposite side of the Monongahela from the rolling-mill, and connected with them by a railroad and railroad bridge of their own, are the four Eliza Furnaces, which are part of their plant, which also includes coke works in the Connellsville region and in Pittsburgh, iron-ore beds in Western Pennsylvania and Lake Superior, their natural gas wells and the coal works near the rolling-mills for fuel, and limestone quarries for the supply of the furnaces. In a word, from the mines to the rolls the raw material used is largely from their own mines and works. In connection with their business they also at an early date, 1857, established a large warehouse in Chicago, and the firm of Jones & Laughlins, as jobbers of heavy iron and hardware, is among the best known and most extensive in the northwest. In all of these enterprises some five thousand people are given employment, and there are no works in the country that run with greater regularity.

It is almost needless to say that the policy of protection to which this great growth is due has had in all of these years no more ardent supporter, no more intelligent and influential advocate, than Mr. Jones. His advocacy of this principle, however, is based on broader grounds than those of mere personal advantage. His belief is that the whole country and all classes are benefited by protective tariffs, the lawyer and the doctor equally with the manufacturer; the farmer as well as the laborer. He has no sympathy with those so called protectionists who desire protection for their products and low duties or free trade for their raw materials; and has always advocated and defended the interests and safety of the weakest as well as of those industries that have grown strong.

In personal appearance Mr. Jones is five feet eleven inches in height, somewhat inclined to embonpoint, but well knit, with a somewhat massive head, and with a brilliant, piercing eye. His whole appearance is that of quiet, reserved strength. As he comes of a long-lived race, preserving its vigor to the close of life, it may be taken for granted that he is in his prime. The combination of traits of character which have contributed so much to his success as a business man and manufacturer is remarkable. Though he has no mechanical education, either theoretical or practical, except such as he would naturally acquire in his business, he is a mechanician of no mean order. His organizing power—and it is upon a perfectly balanced organization, working without friction or waste, that the success of large manufacturing operations mainly depend—is of the highest, while his abilities as a merchant to dispose of his product, and as a financier to conserve his credit, all unite to form a combination of characteristics rarely met with. His chief mental characteristics are his saving common sense, and his rare judgment. He approaches a conclusion only after a careful consideration of all phases of the question before him. While deliberate, his mental processes are by no means sluggish, but on the other hand he is active, alert, and quick to grasp a subject presented. So well convinced are his associates of his good judgment and unswerving integrity and fairness, that he is often asked to serve as a referee or arbitrator in disputes involving immense interests, and is almost uniformly selected by both sides. While Mr. Jones has been all his life, except the first few months of his Pittsburgh experience, an employer of labor and not an employe, no Pittsburgh manufacturer stands higher in the esteem of all Pittsburgh work men, and there is no one whose words as to the present, and whose forecast as to the future, is more eagerly listened to by the iron-workers, than his. His remarkable foresight has made his opinion as to the future, at times, almost a prophecy. He has brought to the consideration of the relations of employer and employed a wealth of experience, a soundness of judgment and a broadness of view that few men possess It is to his far-seeing wisdom and initiative that Pittsburgh and the world owe the sliding-scale, a method of paying wages that recognizes the true basis of wages, viz.: that wages are paid out of product, and should bear a certain relation to selling price. It was Mr. Jones’ foresight that recognized this at a time when almost the entire world held to the wage-fund theory, viz., that wages were paid out of capital.

While, as it has been stated, Mr. Jones did not secure a liberal education, he has a natural taste for literature, and in conversation displays a wide acquaintance with the best writers of the age. While not a writer or speaker in the sense these words are usually understood, he is by no means a tyro in these respects, as his article on “Protection” in the North American Review and his speech in calling to order the republican national convention of 1888 attest. His object in writing or speaking is not, however, beauty of expression or the graces of the rhetorician or orator, but to convince and convict, to secure results. His thoughts are expressed in terse, vigorous, lucid English, while his style is a model of clearness. This clearness of speech and word is the result of his habit of thought. In considering any question he examines it from all sides and thinks it out all through, so that when he begins to clothe in words his thoughts on any subject it is clearly before him in all its details.

The management of his business has been a most liberal one. He has not sought to build it up at the expense of rival works. He has always been ready, even at some sacrifice, to join with his fellow manufacturers in adopting plans that promised to benefit the trade at large, even though the methods suggested did not always commend themselves to his judgment. To his debtors he has been lenient, while there is no manufacturer in the country, certainly not in the iron trade, who has the respect and confidence of his employes in a higher degree than he. His work men look up to him as a friend and freely seek his advice, which is as freely given.

Prior to the war Mr. Jones was a democrat, but its first mutterings found him unflinchingly on the side, of the Union. His influence and his writings, which appeared as editorials and communications in certain Pittsburgh papers without a knowledge as to their authorship, did much to influence public sentiment at a vital formative period. In the organization and enrollment of troops he was especially active. The Pittsburgh Subsistence Committee, which gained such an enviable reputation during the war, was largely indebted to him for its early impetus and much of its success. He saw far more clearly than most of those in places of power, even, the great demand the war would make upon our resources, and had a clearer perception than most men of what those resources and the basis of credit were. In 1861 and early in 1862 he advocated, by formal letters to congressmen and anonymously through the press, the issuance of legal-tender treasury notes convertible into bonds. These letters on finance were admirable for their sensible practical suggestions, the outgrowth of his own business experience. The close of the national republican convention of 1884 found Mr. Jones the member of the national committee from Pennsylvania, and upon its formal organization, much against his own wishes, he was elected chairman. It is doubtful if any other incumbent of this trying position ever had a tithe of the complications to contend with that confronted Mr. Jones— the open defection of valued party leaders; the lukewarmness or indifference of others; a large popular majority in the previous state elections against the party he was expected to lead to victory; the candidate he was to defeat, the chief executive of the pivotal state, elected but a short time previous by nearly 200,000 majority—and yet so untiring was the energy, so wise the methods, so skillful the management Mr. Jones brought to this task that when the votes were counted, the magnificent majority of 193,000 given the governor had fallen to a paltry thousand given the president, which but for an accident for which he was in no way responsible and could not have averted, would have been changed into a triumphant majority for the candidate he favored. After the campaign was ended his position brought him no end of labor. There was much consideration to be given to the future, many delicate questions of party policy to decide. Largely by his tact and shrewdness during this period, animosities were allayed, breaches closed up, the issues at stake clearly defined and when the contest was again joined the victory that was denied him was assured.

In December, 1884, the American Iron and Steel Association elected Mr. Jones as its president, to succeed Hon. D. J. Morrell. This selection was pre-eminently a fit one. Not only had Mr. Jones come to be recognized as the leading iron-manufacturer of the country, but his efforts, sometimes known, more frequently not seen by the general public, in behalf of all measures that would inure to the benefit of the industry of which this association is the organized head, pointed him out as the one man to be its recognized leader. Mr. Jones was married on May 21, 1850, to Miss Mary McMaster, daughter of John McMaster, Sr., one of the best-known citizens of Allegheny county. In his domestic relations he has been as fortunate and happy as in his business career he has been successful. In his personal relations with men he has been approachable, helpful and kindly to all. His life is an inspiration, and at the same time an example to young men. Without any of the adventitious circumstances in early life that promise success, he has achieved a large measure of it, and with his fame and wealth has also come a reputation for honor and up rightness that, after all, is the highest attainment in any human career.