BIOGRAPHIES Source:
History of Hancock County, Ohio
Publ: Chicago - Warner, Beers & Co.
1886
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Findlay Twp. -
ELIJAH P. JONES, banker, Findlay, was born
Mar. 6, 1820, at Rochester, N. Y. The family came
originally from England. His grandfather on the paternal
side conducted a very large business in the tanning and
manufacturing of leather in Connecticut. His father,
Eliljah Jones, was born in New Milford, Conn., but
immigrated to central Pennsylvania, where he engaged in shipping
lumber to Baltimore and other points; thence he went to
Rochester, N. Y., where he engaged in general merchandising and
in the manufacture of pearl ash for foreign shipment.
Hannah (Pelton) Jones, subject's mother, though of Scotch
ancestry, was a native of Connecticut. Three Pelton
brothers immigrated to America - one settled in Boston, one
in Connecticut and one in Long Island, N. Y. From the
Connecticut branch the mother of Mr. Jones sprang.
The Peltons were a family of considerable distinction in
Connecticut. Ebenezer Pelton served in the
commissary department of the Revolutionary Army. In 1826
the family of the subject of our sketch came to Ohio and settled
in Willoughby, seventeen miles east of Cleveland, at which place
Elijah P., Jr. remained until the age of fourteen years,
when he spent four years on a farm. In the meantime he
improved his mind by private study, and in the winter engaged in
teaching. When eighteen he secured a situation in the
Cleveland postoffice as clerk, and remained there three years.
He afterward attended the academy at Norwalk, under the tuition
of Dr. Thompson (who eventually became bishop). He
spent one summer as general agent for the Sandusky & Mansfield
(now Baltimore & Ohio Railroad). When twenty three years
old he went to Sandusky City and entered the service as general
agent for the Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad (afterward the
Cincinnati, Sandusky & Cleveland). In the fall of 1849,
the branch from Carey to Findlay having been completed, Mr.
Jones leased it for two and a half years, the company
furnishing the motive power and cars. When this contract
expired he renewed the lease for five years. In 1852 he
formed a copartnership with E. N. Cook and George H.
Jones, of Salem, Oreg., to carry on a general merchandise
and trading business. This partnership continued five
years, and was then dissolved, after which Mr. Jones
spent five years in New York engaged in the money brokerage
business between New York and the Pacific Coast. In the
spring of 1863, upon the passage of the National Bank act, Mr.
Jones applied in person for a national bank charter, the
bank to be established at Findlay, Ohio; but he was informed by
Secretary Chase that his the first application, and that
the Treasury Department was not prepared to receive and receipt
for the bonds as the Bank Department of the Treasury was not
fully organized. Thereupon, depositing his bonds in the
Park Bank, New York, he proceeded to Findlay, and on his return
to Washington, subsequently, he found a number of banks
chartered before him and he had to take a lower number.
The bank was immediately organized at Findlay and he became its
president and principal stockholder. He still acts as
president and is owner of more than two-thirds of its capital
stock. He is conservative in his ideas of banking, as he
believes the banker should hold himself aloof from speculation.
Mr. Jones owns considerable real estate both in Findlay and
vicinity. He has always been a prominent citizen; is
public spirited and has ever been in advance in forwarding
measures that would benefit the town. Careful in his
business affairs he does not lack that boldness which frequently
insures success. He married, Jan. 9, 1862, Miss Mellie
E. Johnston of Piqua, Ohio, a graduate of the Ohio Wesleyan
Female College, and they have three children: Cornelia
Frances, Mary Gertrude and George Pelton, and the
daughters are graduates of Vassar College. In politics
Mr. Jones is a Republican.
Source: History of Hancock County, Ohio - Publ: Chicago - Warner, Beers & Co., 1886
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