Jones, William A.

Born in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, in 1883, William A. Jones was educated at the Lawrenceville Preparatory School and Princeton University. He gained extensive industrial experience in executive roles with the New Jersey Zinc Company at Depue, Illinois, and Palmerton, Pennsylvania, before working as foreman for the Leonard Construction Company of Chicago. In 1916, he relocated to Fresno County and acquired the historic 620-acre Minnewawa Vineyard located four and a half miles east of Fresno.

Under Jones’s management, the Minnewawa Vineyard—originally established by Dr. Eshelman—became one of the premier agricultural showplaces of Fresno County, producing table and raisin grapes, prunes, navel oranges, and 87 acres of olives, supported by modern tractor equipment and five electric pumping plants. Married in Piedmont to University of California graduate Emily Chickering, daughter of prominent attorney W. H. Chickering, Jones resided in a grand Colonial-style home set amidst a seven-acre park, bringing highly disciplined business acumen and progressive methods to Fresno County’s viticultural industry.