Keeping Up with the Joneses

Gossips' attention earlier this week to Morgan A. Jones and the early automobiles being sold in Hudson at the beginning of the 20th century inspired Melanie Basner to share some of the extensive research she has done on the man who built the extraordinary house that is now the Inn at Hudson. This post is based on Basner's research.

Morgan A. Jones lived at 317 Allen Street with his wife, Clarice, the "belle of Honolulu" whom he married in 1911, his mother, Mary E. Jones, and his sister, Mary E. Jones 2nd. The Hudson Evening Register for July 8, 1913, in its "Personal Notes and Jottings" column, reported this about the Joneses:

Mr. and Mrs. Morgan A. Jones and Mrs. Mary E. Jones and daughter, of this city, are enjoying an auto tour through New England for two weeks. Daniel Farrell is chauffeur, the party being in Mrs. M. E. Jones' car, for whom Mr. Farrell works.

The automobile in which the Joneses were traveling was a Lozier, registered, according to the 1914 Official Automobile Directory of the State of New York, not to Jones' mother but to his sister, Mary E. Jones 2nd. 

The Lozier Motor Company was founded in Plattsburgh, New York, by Henry Abraham Lozier, a sewing machine and bicycle manufacturer originally from Indiana. From 1900 to 1915, the company produced luxury automobiles in a factory located at 3703 Mack Avenue in Detroit. In its time, the Lozier was the most expensive automobile in the United States, and its price gives some insight into the wealth of the Joneses. In 1910, a Lozier could cost anywhere from $4,600 to $7,750. In the same year, a Cadillac could be purchased for about $1,600, a Packard for about $3,200, and the average annual salary in the United States was about $750.