The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 1047 

THOMAS L. JONES.

Thomas L. Jones, who since 1912 has occupied the position of superintendent with
the Roslyn Fuel Company at Roslyn, Washington, was born in Connellsville,
Pennsylvania, on the 24th of August, 1853. His father, William Jones, entered
the coke business there in 1835, taking his coke on flatboats down the Ohio
river. He was one of the pioneer coke manufacturers and throughout his entire
life engaged in the coke and coal trade, remaining a resident of Connellsville,
Pennsylvania, to the time of his death. As early as 1836 he engaged in making
coke for the old Overholt distillery in Pennsylvania, was the pioneer coke maker
of the United States and a very prominent mining man. His wife bore the maiden
name of Mary White.

Thomas L. Jones started work in the coal mines when but ten years of age and for
a quarter of a century remained in the employ of one firm, becoming manager of
a coal mine at Carnegie, Pennsylvania, when but twenty-three years of age. he
was connected with the Summerhill Coal & Coke Company during the period of the
great riot at Pittsburgh. Later he went to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where he
opened a mine for the Argyle Coal Company, which he operated for three years. He
next went to Greensburg, Pennsylvania, where he opened a mine for the Keystone
Coal & Coke Company and continued as superintendent thereof until 1900. He was
afterward with the National Steel Company and assisted in building three large
coke plants in Fayette county, Pennsylvania. Subsequently he spent ten years in
expert work in examining coal fields in Virginia, Ohio and Illinois, and in 1912
he came to Roslyn, Washington, as superintendent of the Roslyn Fuel Company.
Since 1917 he has also been superintendent of the Queen mine of the Independent
Coal & Coke Company at Roslyn. He is a typical mining man, thoroughly
successful, and he has gained expert knowledge and ability as a mining and
electrical engineer through his wide experience and study. During the past few
years he has also assisted in installing twenty-five or more dry kiln plants for
drying lumber at various points in the northwest. He has a nephew, Charles E.
Jones, who, coming to the northwest, established the Beekman mine at Jonesville,
the town being named in his honor.

In the year 1882 Mr. Jones of this review was married to Clarissa Baker, of
Greensburg, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Simon Baker, a contractor and builder.
The children of this marriage are: Mary Martha, the wife of J. C. Seanor, living
in Seattle; Harry, who is engineer for the Roslyn Fuel Company; Clarissa, who is
with her mother in Seattle; and three children who died in infancy. The family
home is maintained in Seattle, from which point Mr. Jones makes trips to the
mine at Roslyn.

He is a member of the German Reformed church and in politics is a democrat. His
time and attention, however, have been mostly given to his business affairs and,
entering upon his present line of work when a lad of only ten years, he has had
broad and varied experience that has brought him to the front as a mining and
electrical engineer. His position at the present time is one of large
responsibility and the duties thereof are most efficiently discharged.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in January 2008 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.