M. T. Jones.—Few families have come to Chanute who have done more for the development and advancement of the city of Chanute than has the family of M. T. Jones. Mr. Jones came to Chanute in 1870, when the village of Chanute was born, and when there were very few inhabitants in that vicinity. He was a native of Oneida county, New York, where he was born, Nov. 11, 1837. He was reared to manhood on the same farm on which he was born and was the son of Hugh T. and Anne A. (Morris) Jones, the former born in England and the latter in New Jersey. Hugh T. Jones, the father of M. T. Jones, was a successful farmer and spent fifty years on the farm in Oneida county, where he died in 1880, at the age of seventy-nine. His wife survived him four years and died at the age of seventy-six.

M. T. Jones was the third child of Hugh T. and Anne A. (Morris) Jones. His education was acquired in the common schools of Oneida county and in Union College at Schenectady, N. Y., where he was graduated in the class of 1862. He also was a student at Harvard University. He came west and began freighting across "the plains" with ox teams. He continued freighting two years and then located in the town of Virginia City, Mont., where he was engaged in the mercantile business five years. The country there was very thinly populated and there were no cows in the vicinity. He made a trip to Utah, where he bought 400 head of cattle, drove them to Montana, and disposed of them to his neighbors at a nice profit. Other opportunities for investment came to him. He remained in Montana until 1869, when he moved to Kansas City, Mo., and there engaged in the mercantile business with his brother, T. C. Jones, under the firm name of Jones Brothers. In 1870 the firm discontinued business and Mr. Jones came to Chanute, Kan., where he engaged in the real estate business and was a very prominent factor in the building up of Chanute. He built the Jones Block and in 1882 founded the Chanute Lumber Company and began building residences, to be paid for on the installment plan. It may be stated in this connection that many a resident of Chanute would never have owned a home had it not been for Mr. Jones' generosity. He served as postmaster at New Chicago at the time of its municipal consolidation with the village of Chanute and was the first postmaster at the latter place, which office he held until 1878, when he resigned it to take charge of his large private business. He served eight years on the city council and, in 1878, was elected commissioner of Neosho county, in which office he served four years. He was elected to the state senate in 1880 and served four years. There he was one of the main factors in securing the passage of the prohibition laws of the state, and it was also during his service in the senate that the first railroad law was passed, he having given it his support. In 1897 and 1898 he represented Neosho county in the lower house, where he served with great credit to himself and to the people of his county.

In 1874 M. T. Jones married Miss Jennie Kramer, a native of Ohio, and daughter of Dr. D. T. Kramer, of that state. Of this union three children were born—Jennie, Milo T., and Hugh. Mr. Jones died Oct. 8, 1904. Milo T. Jones, the eldest son, was born in Chanute, Aug. 6, 1881. He was educated in the grades and high school at Chanute and entered the University of Kansas, where he remained until 1901, when he had to return to Chanute to take up his father's extensive business, owing to the latter's failing health. In 1904, after the father's death, he became the head of the Chanute Lumber Company and soon demonstrated that he had inherited his father's stability, integrity, and industry. The lumber business has steadily grown under his management and is one of the large industries of Chanute. In 1905 he married Mammie, a daughter of J. B. Chandler, a well known and highly respected citizen of Wichita. Of their union one child has been born, Jane, now five years old (1911). Mrs. Jones belongs to the Presbyterian church. Mr. Jones is a Knight Templar Mason and a Thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, his membership in the latter branch being in the Consistory of Wichita. He is president of the Chanute Portland Cement Company, and has large gas leases with Harry B. Scott. He is one of the leading young business men of Chanute and is very highly respected by all who know him.