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More Information...
Publisher: Peter E. Randall, 1976.
Hard Cover, 402 pages, 6.50 x 9.25.
Item #1711
A thorough and captivating history of Frank Jones, at one time the largest ale brewer in America.
FROM THE DUST JACKET:
During the last three decades of the 19th century Portsmouth, New Hampshire's Frank Jones was one of the most financially successful and politically powerful men in New England. This fascinating biography traces the career of the Barrington, New Hampshire farm boy who became his era's largest producer of ale and how he parlayed that fortune into resort hotels, railroads, utilities, banks, insurance companies, two terms in Congress and the friendship of United States Presidents.
Ever since Jones' death in 1902, people have wondered how he developed his breweries and became president of the Boston and Maine Railroad, why he married his brother's widow and why his executors had to pay off a woman who sued his estate.
Author Brighton first wrote about Jones in 1948 in a series of articles in the Portsmouth Herald. In this detailed book, Brighton traces the life of the multimillionaire industrialist and shows how he used the techniques made famous by nationally known "robber barons" to wheel and deal his way to financial and political power.
In addition to his breweries and hotels in Portsmouth, Jones also had hotel interests in Tavarez, Florida and Sorrento, Maine. After building the short Portsmouth and Dover Railroad, Jones parlayed that line into control of the Eastern Railroad and eventually presidency of the Boston and Maine Railroad. Following two checkered terms as Portsmouth's Democratic mayor, Jones was successful in running for Congress. He later shocked both parties by becoming a Republican following the presidential nomination of William Jennings Bryan by the Democrats in 1896. Here too in words and pictures is the story of Jones' Maplewood Avenue farm which became the showplace of the state and the home of the east's largest and most successful racing stables. With a detailed index and more than 80 illustrations, this volume is a vivid portrait of the man, his city and state in those wild get-rich-quick days before the turn-of-the-century.
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