Background

Alexander Jones was born around 1802 in Rowan County, North Carolina, and was the son of Samuel Jones, a planter and schoolteacher who guided his son's early education.

Education

Little is known of his life prior to his graduation, with the degree of M. D. , at the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1822.

Career

After his father death, Alexander Jones aquired a modest estate, so he relinquished his share in favor of his two sisters and went to Mississippi, where he practiced his profession and at the same time became greatly interested in cotton culture. He also made improvements in the cotton gin. His repute as an authority on the Southern staple crop came to the notice of the British East India Company, which desired to retain him in building up an Indian cotton industry. Their negotiations came to a head about 1840.

Jones went to London, but on reflection declined the company's offer, since it involved aid to a foreign country in rivalry with his own. He returned to the United States, settling in New York, and began writing regularly for the Journal of Commerce, using the signature "Sandy Hook. " He also was correspondent for English newspapers.

After the first use of the electric telegraph between Washington and Baltimore, in 1844, several years elapsed before news could be transmitted on an important scale to and from New York. By the autumn of 1846, however, a telegraph line was in operation from New York to Washington, and under an arrangement between the newspapers of the two cities it fell to Jones to file the first news message by wire from the metropolis - an account of the launching of the United States sloop of war Albany at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He related the incident in his Historical Sketch of the Electric Telegraph, published in 1852.

After a few years Jones gave up the routine work as agent and from 1851 until his death served the New York Herald exclusively as commercial reporter. He seems to have continued the practice of medicine throughout his journalistic career. He was the author of Cuba in 1851 (1851) and The Cymry of '76; or Welshmen and Their Descendants of the American Revolution (1855).

In 1851 Jones published two books: Historical Sketch of the Electric Telegraph, a detailed account of the history of the telegraph from the discovery of electricity to the organization of the New York Associated Press; and Cuba in 1851, an exposition of the trade advantages to be gained by the annexation of Cuba.

Jones died in New York after a year's illness. Following funeral services in St. Alban's Episcopal Church, he was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn. A lengthy, front-page obituary in the New York Herald made no mention of a wife, children, or other family.

Achievements

• Alexander Jones is considered being a pioneer in organizing a practical cooperative press service among American cities. As first general agent of the New York Associated Press, which at that time included six newspapers, he was one of the earliest men to develop a scheme of market reporting by wire among the eastern cities. For the press service he devised a cipher system, which was employed as early as 1847. The prices of breadstuffs could be sent daily from Buffalo or Albany to New York in twenty words. Later the system was extended to Cincinnati, St. Louis, and New Orleans. In addition to his other accomplishments he invented a street-sweeping machine, which the city of New York refused to adopt - possibly for political reasons.

Works

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  • Historical Sketch of the Electric Telegraph: Including Its Rise and Progress in the United States

    (This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)

  • The Cymry of '76, Or, Welshmen and Their Descendants of the American Revolution: An Address with an Appendix, Containing Notes, Sketches, and Nomenclature of the Cymbri

    (This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)

Membership

Jones was a leading member of St. David's Society in New York.

Personality

While living in England, southern climate adversely affected Jones' health, so he had to return to the United States and settle in New York.

Connections

Father:

Samuel Jones

Brother:

Dabney Jones

References

• Who Was Who in America Historical Volume 1607-1896 Revised Edition 1967: Historical Volume/a Component Volume of Who's Who in American History