B. F. JONES [Steel Engraved Portrait]

Chicago: A. Warner Co.. Very Good. 1889. Print. 1 pages; A steel engraved portrait of B. F. Jones extracted from Cushing's History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Including its Early Settlement... also Portraits of Some of its Prominent Men. Chicago: A. Warner & Co., 1889. The portrait measures 10" by 7" with the image and facsimile autograph centered; protective tissue guard in place. Benjamin Franklin Jones, Sr. (1824 - 1903) was a pioneer of the iron and steel industry in Pittsburgh and was elected President of the American Iron and Steel Association in 1885. Originally involved in the river barge industry, in the employ of Samuel M. Kier of the Mechanics' Line of boats on the Pennsylvania Canal, Jones became a partner in 1847 in the newly formed firm of Kier & Jones. That partnership lasted until 1854 when the Pennsylvania Railroad supplanted the canal boats as the primary form of commercial transport.In 1851, Jones purchased an interest in American Iron Works, in partnership with Bernard Lauth. Ny 1852 Mr. Jones was in charge of the business of the firm of Jones & Lauth, which eventually evolved to Jones and Laughlin Steel Company, a steel mill heavily dependent on river transportation. Jones was an early director of the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad, the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad, the Allegheny Valley Railroad and the Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railway Company. .