James A. Fones

James A. Fones was a leading merchant in Little Rock, Arkansas, in the late nineteenth century.

Fones was born to Alvan T. and Adelia Ann (Cone) Fones in Decatur, Georgia, on November 6, 1839. He married M. Elizabeth (Rison) Fones on March 26, 1872. Fones worked as a store clerk and country teacher before moving to Little Rock in 1859. After the Civil War he formed a partnership with his brother Daniel G. Fones, and later with younger brother Alvan T. Fones, in the Fones Brothers Hardware Company. James served as vice president of the hardware company.

James Fones was the first president of the Little Rock Board of Trade, president of the Little Rock Electric Light Company, president of the Pulaski Gas Light Company, and president of the Little Rock Building and Loan Association.

References

• "James A. Fones," The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic ... (J. T. White, 1897), 77.