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HARRISON COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@earthlink.net
July 16, 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 503-504
Harrison
J. RALPH JONES, president of the Bridgeport Bank and
one of the principals in the Bridgeport Lamp Chimney Com-
pany, has exemplified in his business career the initiative
ability and vital progressiveness that make for definite
success, and he is one of the leading business men of the
fine little City of Bridgeport, Harrison County.
Mr. Jones was born in Lewis County, West Virginia, on
the 20th of November, 1876, and is a son of Samuel C.
and Catherine (Peterson) Jones, both of whom likewise
were born in this state, where the respective families were
founded prior to the creation of the new commonwealth of
West Virginia from the mother state of Virginia. The
father gave his entire active career to productive farm
industry, and he and his wife now reside near Weston,
judicial center of Lewis County, where he is living virtually
retired. Their children are eight in number, three sons and
five daughters.
That J. Ralph Jones profited well from the early educa-
tional advantages that were his is evidenced by the success
which attended his efforts when he initiated his independent
career by becoming a teacher in a rural school in his native
county, his service in the pedagogic profession having con-
tinued four years. For fifteen years thereafter he was a
successful traveling salesman for a leading wholesale sad-
dlery and harness house in in the City of Louisville, Ken-
tucky, and in 1908 he established his residence at Bridge-
port, where he became one of the organizers of the Bridge-
port Lamp Chimney Company, a partnership concern in
which his associates are John and William F. Duncan. This
company now represents one of the important industrial
enterprises of this section of West Virginia, and when the
plant is running at full capacity a corps of 175 employes is
demanded. The company manufactures virtually all types
of lamp chimneys of the best grade, and the trade has been
extended not only into all parts of the United States but
also into South America and Cuba. Mr. Jones has im-
portant interests also in farm enterprise and natural-gas
production, besides which he is president of the Bridge-
port Bank, which was organized in 1904 and which bases
its operations on a capital stock of $25,000, its surplus
fund being now $50,000. This is one of the solid and
well ordered financial institutions of Harrison County.
Mr. Jones is affiliated with both the York and Scottish
Rite bodies of the Masonic fraternity, as is he also of
the adjunct organization, the Mystic Shrine, and he holds
membership also in the Benevolent and Protective Order
of Elks and the United Commercial Travelers. He and
his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South.
October 19, 1901, recorded the marriage of Mr. Jones
and Miss Mintie C. Horner, of Lewis County, her parents,
John and Lucy (Hammer) Horner, being deceased. Mr.
and Mrs. Jones have five children: J. Horner, Samuel C.,
W. Lyle, J. Ralph, Jr., and Pauline.
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