Jones, Samuel Milton (1846-1904)

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Samuel M. Jones to Jane Addams, March 31, 1902

Samuel Milton Jones to Jane Addams, April 25, 1902

Samuel Milton Jones to Jane Addams, August 15, 1902

Samuel M. Jones to Jane Addams, January 29, 1903

Samuel Milton Jones to Jane Addams, October 12, 1903

Jane Addams to Samuel M. Jones, April 8, 1901

Jane Addams and Edward F. Dunne to Samuel M. Jones, October 8, 1903

Jane Addams to Samuel Milton Jones, October 20, 1903

Jane Addams to Vida Dutton Scudder, April 25, 1900

Patrick Geddes to Jane Addams, October 23, 1903

Jenkin Lloyd Jones to Jane Addams, February 3, 1904

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Birth Date

1846-08-03

Death Date

1904-07-12

Birthplace

Caernarvonshire, Wales

Biographical Text

Samuel Milton Jones was born in Wales to an impoverished family. When Jones was three years old, his family immigrated to New York state. He did not receive a formal education, instead working on his family farm. After he turned sixteen he began working summers on a steamship. When he was eighteen, he moved to Titusville, PA, to work in the oil industry, though he failed in finding employment and returned to New York. He tried to invest in the oil industry again when he was 22, and was more successful. In 1886, Jones went to Ohio and founded the Ohio Oil Company, which was bought by Standard Oil Company, leaving Jones with a fortune. In 1892 he moved to Toledo, and in 1894 he obtained a patent for a new variety of iron pumping rod for deep well drilling, prompting him to open a manufacturing plant, the Acme Sucker Rod Company. Jones was a progressive employer; his one rule, in both his life and company, was the golden rule: "Do unto others as you would do unto yourself." In 1897 he became the mayor of Toledo, where he worked on improving conditions for the working class by opening free kindergartens, developing parks and playgrounds, reforming the government, implementing the eight-hour workday, and so forth.

Jones was married to Alma B. Curtis. They had three children together. One child died young, and Alma died in 1885. He then remarried to Helen Beach in 1893. They had one child together. Jones died in 1904 during his second term as mayor.

Occupation

Business owner

Mayor

Politician

Source

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. "Samuel Milton Jones." New York Public Library Digital Collections.