Jones, Herschel V. (Herschel Vespasian), 1861-1928

Herschel Vespasian Jones was born August 30, 1861, in Jefferson, New York, to William S. Jones and Helen ( née Merchant). Herschel married Lydia Augusta Wilcox in 1885 and had seven children: Tessie Wilcox (b. 1886), Carl Waring (1887), Florence Purrington (1889), Paul Merchant (b. 1890), Jefferson (b. 1891), Herschel V., Jr. (b. 1893), Moses Chase (b. 1894), and Frances Lois (b. 1895).

Herschel began working at a small Jefferson, New York newspaper when he was 15 years old, and purchased it three years later. He moved to Minneapolis in 1885, and in 1901 established Commercial West, a weekly grain and finance paper. He purchased the Minneapolis Journal in 1908. Over his lifetime, Herschel amassed a large library and art collection and made several large donations to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, where he served as a member of the board of trustees for several years.

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