Regional History

Less than a decade after Mississippi became the country’s 20th state, settlers carved out a 700-square mile of pine forests and streams for a new county in 1826. They named it Jones County, after John Paul Jones, the early American Naval hero who rose from humble Scottish origins to military success during the American Revolution.

Those early years weren’t easy for the settlers and farmers who pushed their way west during America’s continental expansion. Economic hard times during the 1830s and 1840s thinned their ranks as many left for greener pastures elsewhere. The Civil War brought a new set of difficulties, not only from threatening Union forces, but from Jones County’s fellow confederates – the hard years before the war had bred an independent-minded people in the region, many of them not in step with the Southern cause.

Timber is King

Following the war and Reconstruction, industrialists from the north came south to seek their fortunes through one of Mississippi’s most abundant resources – timber. Jones County, rich in this natural resource, began to flourish with this new economic activity.

Three families, the Eastmans, Gardiners and Rogers, moved from Iowa to find new stands of uncut timber. They settled in a small town emerging from one of the early lumber camps, and named for a lovely flower that once inundated the region’s virgin forests: Laurel. They brought more than their business acumen; they inculcated their belief in the blending of economic, social, educational and aesthetic progress in the fabric of the growing city. Their influence is preserved today in the schools and tree-lined streets of Laurel, and the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art.

New Industries and Innovations Breathe Fresh Economic Life

Unfortunately, the myriad timber interests depleted the forests, and timber production fell dramatically in the early Twentieth Century. Jones County once again found itself at an economic nadir. But innovation and adaptation soon arose to ease the loss. Emerging industries of oil and poultry, particularly Sanderson Farms, began to rise at mid-century. The wood product industry itself received a needed boost when William Mason invented a new process for steam pressing wood chips into sheets – known the world over as Masonite. Masonite remains to this day a strong economic force in Jones County.

After World War II, Jones County saw the growth of a strong industrial manufacturing base that more than equaled the agricultural industries that had flourished before. One such success story began in 1968 when a young Jones Countian named Billy Howard returned home to begin a business building electrical transformers.

Today, Howard Industries enjoys forty-percent market share of the $1.2 Billion U.S. electrical transformer industry. Howard is also leading the way in the newest wave of economic development in Jones County – the rise of high technology research, development and industry, epitomized in the new Howard Technology Park in Ellisville.

This steady growth of industry, education and culture has given rise to an ethnically-diverse population of over 68,000 inhabitants. One hundred and eighty years of progress has produced a people proud of their heritage and eager to go further.

Innovation is the heart of a dynamic economy. And, the best innovators are the risk-takers of the business world – entrepreneurs.

Jones County has had a long-term love affair with entrepreneurism. In the past, we were a magnet for individuals who left home and family to find their fortunes in our pine forests and oil fields. When things tightened economically, though, some left – but others with vision and grit determined to stick it out, believing there was something about this place that would make the difference.

One such individual was William Mason. When the timber industry went flat in the early Twentieth Century, Mason still believed in Jones County, and he sought tirelessly for new ways to make better use of the available timber in the area. By accident, he developed a process that took wood chips – essentially scrap – and turn them into sheets of wood. Masonite revolutionized the wood product industry and continues to provide vital products in the Twenty-First Century.

In 1968, a young Jones County native believed he could start a company that could do a better job of manufacturing electrical transformers. After stints in the military and other jobs across the country, he decided to start his new company where he believed it would thrive – his home county. The company Billy Howard began nearly forty years ago in Jones County is one of the largest producers of transformers, ballasts and other electrical equipment in the country. These and other successful ventures in transportation and technology have made Billy Howard a symbol of the Jones County entrepreneurial spirit.

That spirit certainly isn’t relegated to the past. Today’s entrepreneur is just as tenacious and committed to their enterprises as William Mason and Billy Howard. There’s one big difference – the economic environment today provides more help, more incentive and more opportunity than the risk-takers of the past enjoyed.

With help from a thriving economy, the aid of our valued partners and new “seedbed” resources like those found at The Howard Technology Park, the outlook for entrepreneurial activity in Jones County is greater than it’s ever been.

If you’re looking for a home for that new idea or innovation – or simply a place where your business can take flight – then Jones County is worth a look.