Article published May 31, 2010
Antique tells tale of a former owner of The Blade
J.P. Jones was with paper from 1867-76

By CLAUDIA BOYD-BARRETT
BLADE STAFF WRITER

One man's trash is another man's treasure. It can also be a window into a forgotten past.
 

That's certainly true of a 134-year-old beverage server that turned up recently at a Habitat for Humanity store in Youngstown.
 

The server, an elaborate silver-plated receptacle that swings back and forth on a stand, appears to have belonged to a pro-minent 19th century Toledoan named John Paul Jones.

Although Mr. Jones is barely mentioned in history books about Toledo, during his time he was a well-known politician and news-paperman, and was at one point owner of The Blade.

The server was inscribed to "J.P. Jones, from the employees of the BLADE," and was dated May 10, 1876, the date Mr. Jones left the newspaper.

David Evans, a volunteer at the Habitat for Humanity store, said he had no idea what to do with the beverage server when he first saw it.

His colleagues, who found the server while sorting through donated materials, took it to Mr. Evans to sell on the online auction site E-Bay, where he has sold other antique pieces.

Like most people, Mr. Evans didn't know who Mr. Jones was, and he doubted the server had much intrinsic value, given that most of the silver plating has been worn away. But he was sure the piece had some historical worth.

So Mr. Evans contacted Donna Christian, president of  the Toledo History Museum, a nonprofit organization that is trying to establish a museum in the city.

Despite her standing as a local history buff, Ms. Christian had never heard of Mr. Jones either. She began looking up information about Mr. Jones at Toledo's main library, where she also works, and was surprised to find he had been quite a big name in the area.

"It looks like he was very important and prominent in Toledo in his day," Ms. Christian said. "But he's one of those individuals who just hasn't survived that much in terms of name recognition."

Born in 1839 in the tiny community of Dungannon, Ohio, about 30 miles east of Canton, Mr. Jones moved with his parents to Youngs-town as a child. He initially began his career in the railway business, moving to Chicago at age 17 to work for the Galena & Chicago Union railroad. In 1864, at age 25, Mr. Jones relocated to Toledo where he served as treasurer for the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railway. He married his wife, Rosa Bell, in 1863 in Rock Island, Ill., and the two lived in Toledo's Oliver House, which was then a hotel. The pair had two daughters.

In 1867, Mr. Jones entered the newspaper business, buying partial ownership of The Blade - at that time a 32-year-old newspaper - with David Ross Locke. He served as partner and business manager at the company for seven years before becoming the sole owner in 1874. Two years later, Mr. Jones gave up his stake in the paper when he was elected Lucas County auditor, a position he was re-elected to in 1878.

Mr. Jones oscillated between news-papers and politics. He served as editor of The Toledo Evening Bee, a Blade competitor, in 1884 and also spent a few years in Atlanta as the publisher of the Atlanta Journal, now the Atlanta Journal-Consti-tution. He returned to Toledo in 1887.
 

In 1908, Mr. Jones, a Republican, was elected an Ohio state representative, where he served on the finance, library, and tem-perance committees. The temperance com-mittee concerned itself with anti-alcohol legislation.

Mr. Jones died of heart disease on April 24, 1909, at age 69. He is buried in Toledo's Woodlawn cemetery, now known as the "Historic Woodlawn Cemetery" on West Central Avenue, where many of Toledo's most prominent families are buried.

Ms. Christian said the server helps shed light on a little-known chapter in Toledo history and gives insight into an era when the use of silver for household items was more common than it is today.

"It gives us a glimpse into the kinds of objects that people would have used," Ms. Christian said. "For me it's the type of thing that also gives us the opportunity to say: This was given to J.P. Jones, this is who he was, this is the role he played in Toledo history."

Because Ms. Christian's group has limited funds, Mr. Evans purchased the server himself for $50 and donated it to the history museum. The server is just the second item to come into the possession of the history museum - the other is a sash that belonged to Civil War hero Gen. James B. Steedman - but Ms. Christian said it's a step toward the eventual goal of having enough pieces to start a museum.

Meanwhile, the server and the sash will be on display at the Milmine-Stewart house as part of Toledo's Historic Old West End festival Saturday and Sunday.

Contact Claudia Boyd-Barrett at:
cbarrett@theblade.com
or 419-724-6272.