M.T. Jones Lumber Co. records and business ledgers

Martin Tilford Jones, brother of William Hasque Jones/father of Jesse H. Jones, was born in 1841 in Robertson County, Tennessee, and died June 22, 1898 in Houston, TX. He was the fifth of six siblings. He enlisted in the Union Army in 1861 and was mustered out in 1865. After the war he married Louisa Woolard (1849-1934) and had three children: Augusta (1867-1960), Wiliam Eli (1871-1937), and Adiliene Jeanette (1877- ). After farming in Illinois, he moved to Terrell, Texas in 1875 to open a small lumber yard. He moved to Houston in 1883 and two years later organized the M.T. Jones Lumber Company and began acquiring property and timber rights and built saw mills, mostly in east Texas. He built a hugely successful business with an estimated six-five lumber yards mainly in Texas, but also in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Oklahoma. M.T.'s nephew, Jesse H. Jones worked for the Dallas lumberyard, and when M.T. died, Jesse Jones moved to Houston to manage his estate.