10 Minutes With … Charlie Jones


The Waterways Journal
August 2009
By Tom Gladders

Born June 4, 1918, Charlie Jones recently celebrated his 91st birthday. He remains active on a daily basis as chairman of Port Amherst Ltd. parent company of Amherst Industries and Madison Coal & Supply on the Upper Ohio River. His education included attendance at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, the Hun School in Princeton, N.J. and a degree in business from the Babson Institute in Massachusetts. During World War II, Jones served with the Navy Seabees in Guadalcanal and then served on a Navy minesweeper as engineering officer sweeping magnetic mines around Japan. For many years he has been active in industry groups, including The American Waterways Operators, Ohio Valley Improvement Association, DINAMO, Sons & Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen and the Seamen’s Church Institute, from which he received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. In 2001, Jones received the National Rivers Hall of Fame Achievement Award. He also served as chairman for three years of the Inland Waterways User Board and was given chairman emeritus status. In 2008 he received the Distinguished West Virginian Award and induction into the Coal Mining Hall of Fame. Also active in his community, he is scheduled to receive the “Spirit of the Valley” award August 12, presented annually by the YMCA of Kanawha Valley, for his long support of the organization’s youth programs. Jones holds a Master of Towing Vessels, Western Rivers, license issued by the U.S. Coast Guard. He’s been married to Mary Ellen for 37 years and they reside in Charleston. Mr. Jones has four children: Laura Jones Pray, C. Tandy Jones, Jennifer Jones and O. Nelson Jones, who is president of Madison Coal & Supply Company.

WJ: You’ve been blessed with a long life span and good health. To what do you attribute this great fortune?

Jones: To good genes, good luck, a great wife and very supportive family, associates and friends.

WJ: What recollections come to mind regarding your service in the Seabees and aboard a minesweeper during World War II in the South Pacific? Was this a great life experience for you as a young man? Were there lifetime lessons learned?

Jones: I was in the service over three years. The two longest periods were operating heavy equipment on the island of Guadalcanal, building roads and air fields, and aboard the minesweeper YMS248 in the waters around Japan, particularly the Inland Sea sweeping magnetic mines. It was a great experience; I did learn a lot from it and feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity.

WJ: Could you describe the various markets and activities of Amherst and Madison Coal? Which activities are most important?

Jones: Amherst and Madison operate primarily in two fields: towing on the Ohio River and all its tributaries, and marine and land construction over that same area.

WJ: What was your first exposure to the river industry?
Jones: My first exposure to the river industry occurred in 1948 when we bought 10 barges under the name of Amherst Barge Company.

WJ: What factors led to your purchase of barges in the early years? Were they purchased strictly as an investment or for a specific piece of business? What type of barges were purchased? How many boats and barges are in your current fleet and how many people are employed in each of the transportation side and the construction side?

Jones: Amherst Coal Company, which was a successor to Star Coal & Coke, always produced coal that could be turned into high-grade foundry coke. Foundry coke is much more expensive than met coke, which goes to make steel and consequently needs coal with better coking characteristics.

In 1948, the production of coal in the United States was approximately 620 million tons. By 1953, the production had fallen by almost 50 percent, to 350 million tons. However, in 1948, the demand for barges was quite tight and the Amherst management decided to get in the river transportation business. We employed Albert Converse Ingersoll Sr. to advise us how this could be done. In the 1920s, Ingersoll owned a coal company called The Pittsburgh & Cleveland Coal Company. This was the company that founded the Ohio River Company. He suggested that we buy barges, so we tacked 10 barges on a 40-barge order of semi-integrated standard barges that Jeffboat was building for Jones & Laughlin Steel Company. Ingersoll said the double raked standard barges were obsolete and the future would be semi-integrated barges.

In 1951 Amherst Coal Company purchased the Hatfield Campbell Creek Coal Company in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hatfield had 30 riveted steel standard barges and two 600 hp. coal-fired sternwheel towboats, the J.T. Hatfield and the Ellen Hatfield. In addition, they had a 300 hp. harbor boat, the Iron Duke.

In 1951 Amherst Coal Company had a contract to supply coal to Shenango Furnace on Neville Island on the Ohio River downstream from Pittsburgh. We were having a great deal of trouble in getting barges from the Ohio River Company to move this coal upstream to Shenango Furnace. At that time Shenango was controlled by the Henry Hillman family interest. They also owned Hillman Barge & Construction Company located in Brownsville, Pa. When we told the Shenango people about our problem, the answer was obvious.
My father, Herbert E. Jones Sr., told me to go to Pittsburgh and see Mr. Hillman and buy 10 barges. I went to Pittsburgh and promptly went to Mr. Hillmans’ office building (which he had leased, as I remember, to Semet Solvay at that time for 10 years with nine renewals). I told Mr. Hillman what we were looking for and he said he would have no problem arranging for the construction, but wondered what would be our method of payment. I told him my father never borrowed any money so we would send him a check for them as they were completed.

After that he gave me some maps of his coal holdings in the Uniontown area extending along the Monongahela River. He asked me to come home with him for dinner that night, which I did, and we discussed the barges briefly and I told him we wanted fairly steep slope sheets and we wanted 5/8-inch steel inner bottoms instead of the usual three-inch wood decking. The barges were constructed at a cost of $30,000 each.

A couple of weeks after I returned to Charleston, I ran into Capt. Oliver Shearer, whom I had known for some time. The O.F. Shearer & Sons Barge Line had their main office at Mile Branch on the Kanawha River located just downstream from Cedar Grove. Capt. Shearer, who was a longtime friend of mine, said he thought it was great to get welded barges as they were a lot better than riveted barges, but he thought the steel deck was bad. He said when you sunk them there was no way to shovel out the mud.

With our 50-barge fleet and two steamboats, we found out quickly that we needed to get another barge line to move loads upstream to Pittsburgh. The steamboats did a far better job moving loads downstream to Cincinnati. At that time the steam coal to Cincinnati went to our Cincinnati terminal originating from the Amherst mines on the Kanawha River and the coal to Pittsburgh was loaded in Huntington.
We currently operate more than 30 towboats between 800 and 5,600 horsepower; 10 floating cranes between 90 and 250 ton capacity and a fleet of 50 large deck barges, 10 hopper barges and all sorts of auxiliary barges plus a 250-ton A-frame.

As to where the river business is going—it has probably, at least for the moment, reached a plateau. Until the Congress of the United States can give us an energy bill that will address the economics of transportation, it is going to be hard to develop additional growth using our inland waterway transportation system.

Trucks are destroying the interstate system and their license fees don’t come close to covering the cost of repairing the damage they do to the roadways. Recently we had a group of transportation people out on the mv. J.S. Lewis who came from 13 states. Their figures on highway damage from trucks varied from a high of 9,600 automobiles to one truck to a low of 6,600 automobiles to one truck. The federal government will either have to provide tax incentives for use of waterway transportation or directives to get traffic off the interstates to the waterway.

The river industry has used approximately 500 million gallons of diesel fuel per year for propulsion. This figure is probably lower at the moment. There is no question that higher-cost diesel fuel will accelerate the trend toward the use of river transportation.

WJ: What was life like for an entry-level riverman 60 years ago? Were there opportunities for advancement as there are today?

Jones: Sixty years ago there were many small companies in the river industry, which presented the opportunity for advancement to the entry level riverman. Steam sternwheel boats were pretty much out of the picture and diesel boats were taking over all the towing.

WJ: Madison still operates a sternwheeler for shallow-draft operations and you’ve owned the sternwheeler Laura J as a personal vessel since 1956. Do you still get “between the sticks” on occasion?

Jones: Madison still operates three sternwheeler towboats and I still own the sternwheeler Laura J as a personal vessel. In addition, Nelson Jones and I acquired an Army tug three years ago named the Onward. This tug came down from Greenland. I still spend a lot of time on these boats although not as many overnights.

WJ: Your son, Nelson Jones, serves as chief executive officer of your several companies. How was the transition as he assumed a more important role? Do you ever disagree with him?

Jones: Nelson is president of Port Amherst Ltd., which owns Madison Coal & Supply and Amherst Industries Inc. These companies were started in 1983 and are successor companies to Star Coal & Coke which started in 1893 by my grandfather, Charles T. Jones. Nelson and I have been running the business since 1983. We haven’t always agreed on everything but it has been a great relationship.

WJ: How was the transition from sternwheel to diesel towboats? Did some rivermen resist that change?

Jones: The transition from sternwheel to diesel towboats was pretty much a done deal by the end of World War II. I am sure some rivermen did resist the change, however the economics were dramatically in favor of diesel operation plus the fact that there was no Coast Guard regulation.

WJ: You’ve seen revolutionary change in regulations affecting the river industry. Did you ever envision the regulatory climate becoming such an important element in running a business?

Jones: There have been substantial changes in the amount of regulations affecting the river industry. The foreseeable one was the resurgence of the United States Coast Guard as it resumed its original status as a regulator of steam towboats. The real non-predictable regulator was all the agencies that are concerned with the environment who monitor spills, leaks and conditions aboard the vessels and barges. Of course, in addition to that, we have fuel taxes and all sorts of safety regulations brought on by various agencies, and communication regulations.

WJ: You have some significant farming and cattle interests, with roots going back to 1858. How do you divide your time between the river side and farming side? Is one more challenging than the other?

Jones: I have always had farming and cattle interests and continue to operate farms. Operating towboats, barges and cranes is really a round-the-clock operation, and farming is also a round-the-clock operation, particularly when you are raising animals. By living in West Virginia, where things are fairly close in proximity, it has always been fairly easy to handle both of these without one interfering with the other.

WJ: It’s reported that you really enjoy splitting firewood, baling hay and working with your horses. Do you feel this has contributed significantly to your longevity?

Jones: All my life I have enjoyed working with my hands, which probably accounts for my hobbies which included splitting and hauling firewood for the two wood stoves I have at home, baling hay and hauling it to wherever I had my horses. All the things connected with this outdoor life have probably contributed significantly to my lifestyle.

WJ: What would most surprise people about you that they are unlikely to know?

Jones: That I once started writing a book during World War II about the value of women to our society because they are the ones who have historically instilled all the virtues that we cherish in our children. The title was The Empty Nest. Also, prior to going into service I was a federally licensed explosive handler and shot firer for Amherst Coal Company.

WJ: What would you like to have placed on your tombstone?

Jones: Have a lovely day. I’ll see you in the morning.