Page 70

" 11
Eastern Money for Winnebago Rapids
Three family groups played an important role in the early development of
Neenah and Menasha, the Reeds, the Dotys and the Joneses. The early history
of Neenah was shaped to a great degree by the fates and fortunes of the Jones
family. Colonel Harvey Jones' initial role in the founding of Neenah was to
provide financing for the purchase of the abandoned Winnebago Rapids Indian
Mission. His ultimate fate would be to seriously retard development in Neenah
for more than a decade.
In 1805, Thomas Jefferson was President of the United States. Lewis and
Clark's Corp of Discovery was blazing a trail across the unexplored western
wilderness to the Pacific Ocean. Also in that year, on June 22, Harvey Jones
was born in the Village of Kingsborough, New York (another historian lists his
birthday as June 23, 1805, and the birthplace as Johnstown, New York). He was
the fourth son of Asa and Lucy Jones, farmers of Connecticut parentage. Harvey
would be one of nine siblings, seven of whom would attain adulthood. Young
Jones obtained his education at the district school. He began his career as a
poor boy clerking in a country store. Upon completion of his schooling, at age
16, he taught school for two years. For the next two years, Harvey clerked in the
store of W.A. Wells in Mayfield, New York.
After purchasing a quantity of lumber with money from his savings, Harvey,
now 20 years old, went to New York City. There he clerked for a dry goods
merchant named Vorhees for one year. During this time he had his lumber
forwarded to New York where he sold it for a large profit. When his year had
expired, he left Mr. Vorhees' employ and, using the capital from the lumber sale,
started his own dry goods store on Maiden Lane near Broadway. He also
speculated in real estate. In 1828, Harvey, along with his brother Asa, effected
a trade with a Mr. Root and Mr. Leonard, merchants from Johnstown. In
exchange for his store, other city property and some Canadian land belonging
to Asa, Harvey took possession of Root and Leonard's Johnstown store and
70