| Arthur R. Jones was superintendent of TKWM from 1943-1955. He was hired by the Kay family to replace Wilbur F. Berry. Jones was an experienced textile man having served as superintendent for the American Woolen Company in their mills in various New England cities including Skowhegan and Dexter, Maine and Dover and Keene, New Hampshire.
Arthur Rothwell Jones was born 30 May 1882 in Trumbull, Nebraska to William E. and Rachel Jones. His parents were immigrants from Great Britain, with a textile manufacturing background. They took advantage of land offered out west and homesteaded in Nebraska for a short time. Arthur was the fourth of seven children born to the couple. When he was 10 years old the family moved to Dover, New Hampshire for work in the textile mills.
Arthur attended school first in the west and later in Dover, New Hampshire where he took a special course in business college. In 1900 census records indicate that Arthur and family lived in Dover, New Hampshire. Arthur was 18 years old and a weaver at the Dover mill. The majority of his family members down to his 15 year old sister, worked at the same mill.
In 1903, Arthur accepted a job with the American Woolen Mills Co. in Skowhegan, Maine. He worked for this company for fourteen years, seven as superintendent and seven as agent and manager.
In Skowhegan he met Mabel Witham. They married on 23 Sep 1907 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Both bride and groom were 25 years old. An account of their return to Skowhegan after their marriage appeared in the local paper:
Mr. and Mrs. Jones were met at the station, on arrival here, Monday evening, by a party of friends, who greeted them in a most cordial and friendly manner and then insisted on escorting them to their hotel, the Oxford, strewing their path with rice and confetti.
Mr. Jones came here from Dover, N.H. about three years since to accept the position of designer at the Anderson Mills, where he is at present employed. Miss Witham is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Manley Witham of this place, and the proprietor of the millinery parlors over the shoe store of A.E. Bisson & Son. Both are deservedly popular and will be the subject of abundant good wishes at the outset of their married life. They are to make their home at Hotel Oxford for the present.
Two years later their daughter Ruth Elaine was born on 7 Oct 1909 in Skowhegan. They lived in a house on Elm St. Arthur worked for American Woolen Mills and did well enough that they were able to employ a servant.
In 1917 the family moved to Dexter, Maine and purchased the Wassookeag Woolen Company. The following year they moved to Keene, New Hampshire and started a branch plant of the Dexter mill under the same name. Arthur served as president-manager of the interests.
They sold the Dexter, Maine plant in 1925 and Arthur focused solely on his New Hampshire interests. At the time the Wassookeag Woolen Company plant employed 150 people in manufacturing woolen cloth which they sold to the garment making industry.
In 1926 he served as the mayor of Keene and a write-up appeared in a local publication:
Prominently identified with the business and civic life of Keene, New Hampshire. Mayor Jones is the owner of the Wassookeag Woolen Company and identified with a number of other local business enterprises. Although he has been a resident of Keene only since 1918, he has whole-heartedly thrown his energies into the promoting of civic welfare and won for himself a unique place in the regard of his fellow-citizens.
In the eight years he has made his home in Keene (1920s), Mr. Jones has thoroughly identified himself with the life of the city. He is a director of the Keene Chamber of Commerce and was its president for one year and through his activity in that organization has been a vital force in making Keene one of the best towns in the state. A Republican in politics, he has served on the City Council, and in January, 1926, was elected to the office of mayor of the city of Keene, which office he now holds. He is a member of the Keene Country Club Association, and in the Keene Young Men’s Christian Association, a member of the Rotary Club and a member and vestryman in the Episcopal Church. Mr. Jones joined the Masonic Order in Maine and is a member of Somerset Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Skowhegan, Maine, a York rite Mason, member of the Royal Arch Masons and Knights Templar. He is, however, a member of the Keene Masonic Association and a director in that organization, and took an active part in the building of the Masonic Temple in Keene. He has brought untiring energy and public spirit to bear in the numberless ways he has found to be of service to the city of Keene, and has won the confidence and warm regard of the entire community, who look upon him as one of their most valued citizens.
He served as the mayor of Keene for three years. The 1930 census recorded the family residence on 228 Court St. in Keene. Daughter Ruth is 20 years old and still lives at home. Arthur and Mabel are 47. From 1930-33 Arthur served as president of the New Hampshire senate, also as president of the New Hampshire Manufacturer’s Association, as an agent at Dover for the American Woolen Company, and managed his own business interests.
When the 1940 census was taken, family circumstances had changed dramatically. They had moved to Dover, New Hampshire where they rented a home. Mabel and Arthur live alone with no servants. Arthur is employed as an assistant superintendent of the Northfield Woolen Mill owned by the American Woolen Co. Additional details captured by the census are that he only worked 28 weeks in 1939 and had been looking for work in 1940. In 1943 he and Mabel left the East Coast for a job with the Thomas Kay Woolen Mill in Salem, OR. Kay family members hired him to replace superintendent Wilbur F. Berry. The couple rented a home at 960 Belmont St. in Salem.
In 1955, Arthur retired and the couple moved to Menlo Park, California. Two years later, on 31 Dec 1957, Arthur died unexpectedly in his home at Menlo Park. He was 75 years old. Burial took place in Rest Haven Memorial Park, Evendale, Ohio. His wife Mabel died 18 Mar 1963, at the age of 80. She was buried with him in Ohio. |
