Jesse H. Jones, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Jesse H. Jones

American politician and entrepreneur

Date of Birth: 05-Apr-1874

Place of Birth: Robertson County, Tennessee, United States

Date of Death: 01-Jun-1956

Profession: businessperson, politician, entrepreneur, banker, publisher

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Aries


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About Jesse H. Jones

  • Jesse Holman Jones (April 5, 1874 – June 1, 1956) was a Democratic politician and entrepreneur from Houston, Texas.
  • He served as United States Secretary of Commerce from 1940 to 1945. Jones managed a Tennessee tobacco factory at age fourteen, and at nineteen, he was put in charge of his uncle's lumberyards.
  • Five years later, after his uncle, M.
  • T.
  • Jones, died, Jones moved to Houston to manage his uncle's estate and opened a lumberyard company, which grew quickly.
  • During this period, Jesse opened his own business, the South Texas Lumber Company.
  • He also began to expand into real estate, commercial building, and banking.
  • His commercial building activities in Houston included mid-rise and skyscraper office buildings, hotels and apartments, and movie theaters.
  • He constructed the Foster Building, home to the Houston Chronicle, in exchange for a fifty percent share in the newspaper, which he acquired control of in 1926. Jones's participation in civic life and politics began with the Port of Houston and the Houston Ship Channel.
  • He led a group of local bankers in buying public finance bonds and was later appointed to serve as the Chair of the Houston Harbor Board.
  • He led a local fundraising effort on behalf of the American Red Cross in support of servicemen in World War I.
  • President Wilson tapped Jones to head a division of American Red Cross, a duty he fulfilled between 1917 and 1919.
  • In 1928, he initiated and organized Houston's bid for the 1928 Democratic National Convention. His most important role was on the board of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), (1932–1939), a federal agency originally created in the Herbert Hoover administration that played a major role in combating the Great Depression and financing industrial expansion during World War II.
  • President Roosevelt elevated Jones to the Chairmanship of the RFC in 1933.
  • Jones was in charge of spending US$50 billion, especially in financing railways and building munitions factories.
  • He served as the United States Secretary of Commerce from 1940–1945, a post he held concurrently with his chairmanship of the RFC.
  • After leaving Washington, Jesse and Mary Jones focused on philanthropy, working through the Houston Endowment, a non-profit corporation they founded in 1937.

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