Cusop History Group
Letters From America
Foreword by Roddy Williams traces, in outline, the incredible story of this branch of the Jones family. Roddy, a member of CHG, has spent decades tracing the Cusop connections with the Jones family, and has a wealth of knowledge upon which to draw.
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Mary Ann Jones, mother of J.P.Jones
JONES is the name, the 19th century is the time, and CUSOP, OHIO and SANTA MONICA are the places.
Thomas Jones, stone mason and quarryman of Cusop
INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
Thomas Jones was born in Clyro, Radnorshire, in 1793, now part of Powys. He married Mary Ann Jones (nee Pugh) of New Forest Farm about two miles from the town of Hay. Mary had been born in Greater London on the 31st May 1802. Thomas moved to Redlay Farm in Cusop, Herefordshire with his bride, where he had access to quality stone for his work. It would seem he was a tenant of Sir George Cornewall, a landowner who lived at Moccas Court. Sir George Cornewall allowed Thomas to quarry stone on Cusop Hill as part of the tenancy agreement. Whilst living in Cusop the family had grown to six children and research suggests he had a brother living with him and also his mother-in-law.
Thomas became involved in the early 19th Century with the fruitless search for coal in Cusop Hill after money had been raised from at least two and possibly three local well-off landowners, as no doubt Thomas’s landlord was also involved. There would also have been smaller investments of cash from the people of the town of Hay. Similar schemes were also afoot in the hills of North Radnorshire by others. All attempts to find coal were total failures and the Jones family, who were hard working thrifty people, lost almost everything.
After these events, in 1831 the family made arrangements to sail to the USA from Liverpool to start a new life as stone and monumental masons in Cleveland Ohio, on the shores of the Great Lakes. The business did extremely well as Cleveland expanded. The Jones family meanwhile had swollen to 13 children. Many of the family did well but sadly two died as young adults. However, one child who was born in Cusop in 1829, named John Percival Jones (JPJ), was to become one of the richest men in the world.
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Roddy Williams
In the Autumn of 2018, David Charles, a member of Cusop History Group, offered to research the legacy left by Senator JP Jones at the Santa Monica Museum as he was on business there. David made the time to visit and gathered much invaluable information. From time to time the History group will publish: Letters from America
Each letter will be one chapter related to findings about this incredible story.
In this section Roddy Williams, a member of Cusop History Group, who has initiated the research into the Jones family continues the story of Thomas Jones and family from Cusop who set up business as a Monumental Stone Mason in Cleveland, Ohio 1831.
WATCH THIS SPACE...
Coming up in Part 2 we will learn what happened to JPJ when he headed East and why Santa Monica is so important to this story.
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LETTERS FROM AMERICA
PART ONE
On the 7th November 2018, while on a business trip in California, I was able to visit the Santa Monica History Museum on behalf of the Cusop History Group. My mission on that day was two-fold; to discover what material the museum held about JP Jones (JPJ) and to find out how the Cusop History Group could work with the museum to build the story of JPJ’s life.
Tucked away on a quiet street off Santa Monica Boulevard, close to the city’s busy shopping district and iconic beachfront, the museum was officially founded in 1975 and was made possible through fundraising efforts by local residents. With a research library, exhibitions, and a dedicated team of professional archivists, it is a treasure trove of information relating to the history, art, and culture of the Santa Monica Bay Area.
During my visit I met with the museum’s lead archivist, Sara Crowne, and local historian Ricardo Bandini-Johnson. Ricardo is the grand-nephew of Arcadia Bandini de Baker, a wealthy landowner and philanthropist who married JPJ’s business partner, Colonel Robert S. Baker, in 1875.
During an informative and lively discussion, I learnt that Ricardo had spent five years reading and cataloguing one hundred and forty boxes of material donated by JPJ’s family to the museum. These boxes contained over seventy-five thousand letters, photographs and artefacts, all produced by JPJ’s family. In Ricardo’s words, “they kept everything”. He had also devoted time to documenting the genealogy of the eminent Californian families who had built the city of Santa Monica.
After our discussion I was guided by Sara into the museum’s archive which contained much of the Jones family material. I was shown original letters written by JPJ to his second wife, Georgina Sullivan, who he wrote to daily while undertaking his senatorial duties in Washington D.C. I was also delighted to learn of a large collection of JPJ’s political correspondence stored by the library of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
Due to the tireless work of Ricardo, Sara and the museum’s staff, all of JPJ’s family material is catalogued and can be researched by the public using the museum’s computer system. Sadly, I had a short time for my visit and I was unable to fully immerse myself in the digital catalogue. However, it was evident that there is a wealth of material in the museum related to JPJ’s life in America.
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Having visited the Santa Monica Museum, I feel that the Cusop History Group can be instrumental in connecting the story of JPJ’s family life in Herefordshire to his years as a successful businessman and politician in America – if only in outline and with the Cusop connection foremost in mind.
The research team for this particular project is already discussing the next steps, and I’m pleased that I can contribute to bring the story of JPJ to life.
Please look out for Part Two in due course!
David Charles
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FROM CUSOP TO AMERICA....
Thomas passed away in 1870 and his son, also named Thomas Jones, took over the business. He died in 1890. As far as we know that was also the end of their successful stone mason business. These hard working people from CUSOP were truly pioneers of the U.S.A. The daughters married into good families, the sons were enterprising and did well. However, one son stands out above all others – his name was JOHN PERCIVAL JONES.
John Pervical Jones (known as JPJ) was born in January 1829 in Cusop and travelled to Cleveland Ohio with his family, as a baby. He worked for his father as soon as he was old enough, but in 1849, with the lure of gold in California, John and brother Henry set off for California.
We can speculate at this point. Was he encouraged by his father and family stories about the futile search for coal in CUSOP? Did he remember the family tales about prospecting for silver in the Black Mountains of Wales? Did this heighten a sense of adventure?
America was full of challenges. And the pair faced the challenge of sailing around Cape Horn at the tip of South America in a small boat named Eureka, and then northwards into the Pacific Ocean to California. This was probably an expensive option compared to going overland in those pre-railroad days but perhaps regarded as the safer route apart from the rough seas around the Cape.
They arrived safely in San Francisco in 1850 but John and Henry’s exploits in the gold fields were no easy pickings – so they tried their hands at cattle ranching. But this was not as lucrative as they had hoped.
It was to Nevada that John eventually turned. He headed East to the gold and silver mines. We do not know what happened, at this juncture, to Henry. For the moment, we leave JPJ heading east looking to make his fortune.
Roddy Williams
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David Charles will bring this into the 21st century at a later date, when we re-visit the Santa Monica library containing papers, including letters, from the Cusop lad, J.P. Jones and we visit a rather fine Santa Monican hotel which J.P. Jones was instrumental in building.
It is thought that the J.P. Jones library might contain letters from Ohio, at the very least, to acquaintances in Cusop, describing the emigration, etc. We hope to find out more about such records and assess whether or not it is worth pursuing such sources. Our goal throughout has been to highlight the Cusop angle to this story.
David will try to clarify what might be available specifically regarding the Cusop connection – especially any details about the coal mining project in the hills of Herefordshire that failed … and the family’s subsequent emigration. Did J.P. Jones ever commit his thoughts to paper on this, recounting his family’s trials and tribulations linked to Cusop coal?
What will be interesting to note is what one son of Cusop managed to achieve despite financial ruin for the family in Cusop.