Joseph T. Jones was an American entrepreneur

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

 who built his fortune as an oil

Petroleum

Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...

 producer. He funded construction of the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad

Gulf and Ship Island Railroad

The Gulf and Ship Island Railroad was constructed in the state of Mississippi, USA, at the turn of the 20th century to open a vast expanse of southern yellow pine forests for commercial harvest. In spite of economic uncertainty, entrepreneurs William H. Hardy and Joseph T. Jones successfully...

 in Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

, co-founded the City of Gulfport

Gulfport, Mississippi

Gulfport is the second largest city in Mississippi after the state capital Jackson. It is the larger of the two principal cities of the Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, Mississippi Combined Statistical Area. As of the...

 and developed its seaport.

Joseph T. Jones was born to Albanus A. and Jane (Thomas) Jones in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

 on June 11, 1842.

Military service

In 1861, at age 19, Jones enlisted in the Union Army

Union Army

The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...

 during the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 and was assigned to Company H, 91st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry

Infantry

Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

. Jones served as Quartermaster Sergeant

Quartermaster Sergeant

Quartermaster Sergeant is a class of rank or appointment in some armed forces, especially those of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.-Ireland:Quartermaster Sergeant appointments in the Irish Defence Forces include:...

, Second Lieutenant

Second Lieutenant

Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...

, and First Lieutenant

First Lieutenant

First lieutenant is a military rank and, in some forces, an appointment.The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations , but the majority of cases it is common for it to be sub-divided into a senior and junior rank...

. At the Battle of the Wilderness

Battle of the Wilderness

The Battle of the Wilderness, fought May 5–7, 1864, was the first battle of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Virginia Overland Campaign against Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Both armies suffered heavy casualties, a harbinger of a bloody war of attrition by...

 in May 1864, Jones was appointed acting Captain.

In June 1864, at the Battle of Cold Harbor

Battle of Cold Harbor

The Battle of Cold Harbor was fought from May 31 to June 12, 1864 . It was one of the final battles of Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign during the American Civil War, and is remembered as one of American history's bloodiest, most lopsided battles...

, Jones was wounded in both feet. He was sent home to Philadelphia to recover from his wounds and was discharged in September 1864.

Oil ventures

Although crippled from war wounds, Jones used his war-time savings and bank loans to begin drilling for oil in western Pennsylvania in 1865. After 12 dry holes, Jones finally hit oil in 1867. Jones fortune began to change in the Bradford oil fields

Bradford, Pennsylvania

Bradford is a small city located in rural McKean County, Pennsylvania, in the United States 78 miles south of Buffalo, New York. Settled in 1823, Bradford was chartered as a city in 1879 and emerged as a wild oil boomtown in the Pennsylvanian oil rush in the late 19th century...

 with the development of more than 500 oil-producing wells and incorporation of the Bradford Oil Company. To move crude oil to railhead

Railhead

The word railhead is a railway term with two distinct meanings, depending upon its context.Sometimes, particularly in the context of modern freight terminals, the word is used to denote a terminus of a railway line, especially if the line is not yet finished, or if the terminus interfaces with...

s, Jones invested in oil pipeline

Pipeline transport

Pipeline transport is the transportation of goods through a pipe. Most commonly, liquids and gases are sent, but pneumatic tubes that transport solid capsules using compressed air are also used....

s which produced greater dividends than the oil wells. By 1883, Jones was known as the largest crude oil producer in the United States. In the 1890s, Jones began investing in oil ventures in West Virginia

West Virginia

West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...

, thereby increasing his wealth.

Mississippi investments

Through mutual friends, Jones heard of a potential investment in a railroad venture in south Mississippi, which included 63,000 acres (25,500 hectares) of southern yellow pine

Southern Yellow Pine

Southern Yellow Pine doesn't refer to any one species of tree, but rather a group of species which are classified as yellow pine , and are native to the Southern United States. They grow very well in the acidic red clay soil found in most of the region. The varieties include Loblolly, Longleaf,...

s that were ready for harvest. Although the unfinished Gulf and Ship Island Railroad (G&SIRR) was in bankruptcy

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

, Jones formed the Bradford Construction Company with other investors and bought the railroad. Using his fortune from oil production, Jones finished construction of the G&SIRR, bought out his partners in the Bradford Construction Company, and merged with the railroad to form the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad Company. Along with William H. Hardy

William H. Hardy

William H. Hardy founded the cities of Hattiesburg and Laurel, Mississippi, and co-founded the city of Gulfport, Mississippi.-Early years:Born to Robert W. and Temperance L...

, Jones co-founded the City of Gulfport as the railroad's southern-most terminal and had a deep-water channel dredged in the Gulf of Mexico

Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...

, creating a harbor

Harbor

A harbor or harbour , or haven, is a place where ships, boats, and barges can seek shelter from stormy weather, or else are stored for future use. Harbors can be natural or artificial...

 and the port

Port

A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....

 of Gulfport.

Although Jones' family resided in Buffalo, New York

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

, he spent much of his time in south Mississippi overseeing his investments in the railroad, timber, and shipping. He had the Great Southern Hotel constructed in Gulfport to serve as his Gulf Coast residence, and nearby, an office building was constructed for the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad Company.

Death and legacy

By 1910, Jones was living with his wife and children in Buffalo, New York. He developed health problems during the last 3 years of his life and died on December 6, 1916 at his home in Buffalo. He was buried in the Jones Family Mausoleum

Mausoleum

A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...

 at Forest Lawn Cemetery

Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo

Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York was founded in 1849 by Charles E. Clark. It covers over 250 acres and over 152,000 are buried there. Notable graves include U.S. President Millard Fillmore, singer Rick James, and inventor Lawrence Dale Bell...

. At the time of his death, his estate was estimated to be worth 15 million dollars.

In 1935, Grace Jones Stewart, heir of Joseph T. Jones, donated to the city of Gulfport a tract of land along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico to be used solely for recreational purposes. Despite efforts to develop the land for other objectives, it endures as the Joseph T. Jones Memorial Park.

On January 18, 1942, a life-sized bronze statue

Bronze sculpture

Bronze is the most popular metal for cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply a "bronze".Common bronze alloys have the unusual and desirable property of expanding slightly just before they set, thus filling the finest details of a mold. Then, as the bronze cools, it...

, atop a granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 monument

Monument

A monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, or simply as an example of historic architecture...

, was dedicated in Gulfport to "the city's greatest benefactor". The statue faces the harbor that Jones built.