100 Years Ago, January 2nd

by Brandon Woolum
Huntington News Network Writer

Huntington (HNN) -- The John A. Jones Music Company of this city will celebrate its twenty-third anniversary in a rather unique manner. Twenty-three years ago Mr. Jones came to Huntington and started a small music store in a room on Second Avenue between Eighth and Ninth Streets, which was then the business part of the town. By fair dealing and honest methods Mr. Jones soon won the confidence of the people of this city and the result was that in a short time his business had grown to such an extent that he was compelled to seek larger and more commodious quarters and accordingly he rented a larger room on Third Avenue and increased his stock of goods.

Business continued to grow in the new quarters and in 1892 Mr. Jones purchased the building he now occupies and built and addition to it. In 1901 he formed The John A. Jones Music Company, which is chartered under the state laws of West Virginia, and the capital stock is now one hundred thousand dollars. This firm has over six hundred square feet of floor space and is beyond a doubt the largest music store in the state today.

The business of this house, like the city in which it is located, has had a phenomenal growth. Mr. Jones has not only seen Huntington grow from a small country town to a thriving city, but he has likewise witnessed the transformation of a small business into the one of the leading concerns of this section of the country.

During the celebration of the twenty-third anniversary of this concern, twenty-three pianos, and a like number of organs, will be placed on sale at special prices, the details which will be found in an advertisement in this issue of The Advertiser.

The old and reliable firm extends a cordial invitation to everybody to call and see their immense stock of sheet music, assuring everyone that the same policy which has placed this house in its present prosperous condition will be strictly adhered to in the future.

--- The coroner’s jury in the inquest held over the two victims of the suspension bridge disaster, Mamie Higgenbotham and Wray Humphreys arrived at a verdict late yesterday afternoon. The verdict is as follows:

"That they came to their death on the 15th day of December, 1904, in Charleston, Kanawha County, West Virginia, and while crossing over the old wire or suspension bridge over Elk River in said Kanawha County; that said bridge then fell and said Wray Humphrey’s and Mamie Higgenbotham were thrown into Elk River and drowned or killed; and the jury further finds room the testimony that said bridge was owned and controlled by and under the absolute supervision of the said city of Charleston that said bridge was in an unsafe condition and that there has been gross negligence on the part of the officers of said city in the care, maintenance and repairs of said bridge since January the 30th, 1896, through whose negligence said bridge fell on the said 15th day of December 1904, causing the deaths of Wray Humphrey’s and Mamie Higgenbotham as aforesaid, but the jury are unable from the testimony to fix the responsibility of the fall of said bridge upon any particular office of set officials of said city."

The members of the jury were George Ritter, Allen Spradling, William Fielder, A. W. Fritzwater, J. M. Cooling and J. K. Shepard,. Coroner F. I. Beardsley conducted the investigation.

New York – It is general talk in the financial district today that certain high officials not Standard Oil Company are planning to proceed against Thomas W. Lawson on charges that he formally circulated false rumors about the stock market.

The plan under which advisement is to bring criminal proceedings against Lawson, under section 435 of the penal code, which reads as follows: A person, who with intent to affect the market price of stocks, bonds or other evidences of debt of a corporation, or association, knowingly circulates any false statement, rumor or intelligence, Is punishable by a fine of not more than $5,000 or by imprisonment for not more than three years or both.

It was learned that Wall Street men had advised Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. Rogers to proceed against Mr. Lawson in the same way that the Brooklyn Road Transit company had persecuted Alfred R. Goslin, and that this advice was sustained by some of the counsel of the Standard Oil interests.