I had the pleasure of meeting with Larkin Simpson, the Chamber Director and Project Manager at the Jones County Economic Development Authority, today to hopefully gain some knowledge about our wonderful county in preparation for Miss Hospitality week in July. I thought I better have my facts straight in order to showcase our historically riveting and recently flourishing slice of the state to its fullest potential. I did, indeed, learn more than the ten items below; however, I decided to give you the instant, canned-soup version because all of the glorious details can be found at the Laurel Welcome Center, Lauren Rogers Art Museum, or Laurel-Jones County Library (or online if you're not up for a treasure hunt, I suppose.)
1.) Once upon a time, in the early 1820's that is, Ellisville was the epicenter of Jones County. The county is dual seated due to the burning of Ellisville's courthouse and the rebuilding of two courthouses, one in its original town and one in Laurel.
2.) If you are a Laurelite, the surnames- Gardiner, Eastman, and Green should sound familiar. Thanks to these folks, Jones County (specifically Laurel) became the largest pine exporter in the entire world at one point in time.
3.) Instead of having a central residential area wrapped around a street called "Main Street" or "Central Parkway," the Eastman's, Gardiner's, and Roger's modeled the street names of downtown Laurel to be just like the streets on which they lived in Clinton, Iowa. They lived on 5th Avenue.
4.) The timber industry was changed forever with John Lindsey's invention of the Lindsey Wagon in 1899. (On display in Laurel's Welcome Center at 401 Central Ave.)
5.) William Mason and his good buddy Thomas Alva Edison (I know, right?) got together with some wood materials one night in 1926, which turned into the global corporation- Masonite.
6.) Jones County is consistently in the top five-ten counties with the lowest unemployment rate in the entire state of Mississippi. That probably has to do with the our huge industrial range from Howard Industries (which is #1 in the nation in transformer production by the way) to one of the over two hundred oil industries that call our county home. (That was totally three facts in one. You're welcome.)
7.) Jones County has more paved roads the any other county. Hallelujah.
8.) We bear our namesake because of the admirable U.S. Naval officer during the Revolutionary War, John Paul Jones, not the Led Zeppelin musician.
9.) Newt Knight was just a farmer, y'all.
10.) The last thing that you need to know about Jones County is- despite all of the rich, eye-opening history, what makes our county still relevant to this day are the the men and women that stick around to make it that way. Sure we have Lance Bass, Leontyne Price, and Ralph Boston, but we need to realize we have the skills to reach our goals and attain global attention all over the county. We even have the paved roads to get from one end of it to the other.
1.) Once upon a time, in the early 1820's that is, Ellisville was the epicenter of Jones County. The county is dual seated due to the burning of Ellisville's courthouse and the rebuilding of two courthouses, one in its original town and one in Laurel.
2.) If you are a Laurelite, the surnames- Gardiner, Eastman, and Green should sound familiar. Thanks to these folks, Jones County (specifically Laurel) became the largest pine exporter in the entire world at one point in time.
3.) Instead of having a central residential area wrapped around a street called "Main Street" or "Central Parkway," the Eastman's, Gardiner's, and Roger's modeled the street names of downtown Laurel to be just like the streets on which they lived in Clinton, Iowa. They lived on 5th Avenue.
4.) The timber industry was changed forever with John Lindsey's invention of the Lindsey Wagon in 1899. (On display in Laurel's Welcome Center at 401 Central Ave.)
5.) William Mason and his good buddy Thomas Alva Edison (I know, right?) got together with some wood materials one night in 1926, which turned into the global corporation- Masonite.
6.) Jones County is consistently in the top five-ten counties with the lowest unemployment rate in the entire state of Mississippi. That probably has to do with the our huge industrial range from Howard Industries (which is #1 in the nation in transformer production by the way) to one of the over two hundred oil industries that call our county home. (That was totally three facts in one. You're welcome.)
7.) Jones County has more paved roads the any other county. Hallelujah.
8.) We bear our namesake because of the admirable U.S. Naval officer during the Revolutionary War, John Paul Jones, not the Led Zeppelin musician.
9.) Newt Knight was just a farmer, y'all.
10.) The last thing that you need to know about Jones County is- despite all of the rich, eye-opening history, what makes our county still relevant to this day are the the men and women that stick around to make it that way. Sure we have Lance Bass, Leontyne Price, and Ralph Boston, but we need to realize we have the skills to reach our goals and attain global attention all over the county. We even have the paved roads to get from one end of it to the other.