The name of the exhibit sums it up -- Nothing by Halves: The Life of Frank Jones. “Frank Jones lived life to the fullest,” says exhibit curator Richard Adams. “Everything he did was at full throttle.” The full story of robber baron, ale tycoon, Portsmouth mayor, NH congressman, and much more runs through Nov 20 at the Portsmouth Athenaeum. (See more) 

Born in Barrington, NH in 1832, Jones came to Portsmouth at 17 to peddle pots, pans and tinware from a wagon. Within a decade, he purchased a local brewery and was on his way to becoming the largest producer of ale in the United States.  

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At its peak, the Frank Jones Brewery in Portsmouth employed over 500 people and produced 250,000 barrels of beer per year. Jones bought hotels, started a water company, owned the largest shoe factory in the world in the 1880s, and was president of the Boston & Maine Railroad. He was elected mayor of Portsmouth in 1868 and 1869 and served in Congress from 1875 to 1879.  

“He was a man of many dimensions and phenomenal energy who succeeded at virtually everything he undertook,” Adams says.  

Jones was a man who enjoyed his wealth. His 1,000-acre farm on Maplewood Avenue in Portsmouth. The estate extended from the current intersection of Market Street Extension and Woodbury Avenue all the way to the modern Interstate 95 rotary and west into Pease International Tradeport.  

“He had ponds, gazebos and bridges over streams, all carefully manicured,” Adams says. “At the peak of the summer season, he had 200 people working there. He welcomed people from Portsmouth to come and walk the grounds and visit. He had greenhouses where he grew exotic plants. He loved to have people see that.”  

Frank Jones purchased and expanded the Rockingham and Wentworth-by-the-Sea hotels. He owned race horses and opened the Granite State Trotting Park in Dover. He owned a yacht, the Navis, and spent his summers in Sorrento, Maine, a posh retreat he developed.  

“Many of the houses are still there,” Adams says of the Sorrento area on Frenchman's Bay, across from Bar Harbor.  

Half a mile from the house Jones shared with his wife Martha, he built another home for his mistress Delana B. Curtis. Jones met Curtis in Washington, DC when he was serving in Congress. The two began a relationship that spanned three decades. Jones died in 1902; Curtis sued his estate for $400,000 the following year.  

“She came to the courthouse in Portsmouth and caused quite a stir,” Adams said. “The day of the hearing, the courthouse was packed with women dying for a chance to look at her. She was dressed in black, as if in mourning.”  

The Manchester Daily Mirror and American reported that Curtis settled in December 1904 for $140,000 in cash, legal fees and $35,000 for the house in Sorrento. 

“When I went to court the other day, the way in which people looked at me was something dreadful,” Curtis told a female reporter who visited her house on Manchester's Elm Street after the case was settled. “I never thought a woman could go through so much and live.” 

The Athenaeum exhibit includes photos of Curtis, Jones, his wife Martha, and adopted daughter Emma, as well as pictures of his vast estate and the brewery buildings off Portsmouth's Islington Street.  

Portsmouth restaurateur Rusty Hammer has loaned the exhibit bottles and kegs produced in Jones' time. One advertisement shows a beautiful young women drinking beer “to convey the message that beer was a genteel beverage that anyone could drink,” Adams said.  

SPECIAL EXHIBIT TALKS

Adams will give a lecture on Oct. 6 at 7 pm, “Frank Jones: The Man Behind the Myths.” Another lecture -- on the son of the man who founded the Sidis Psychotherapeutic Institute at the Frank Jones estate in 1911 -- is set for Nov. 3. That talk “William Sidis: Genius Without Equal,” is scheduled for 7 pm.  

Both lectures are at the Athenaeum Research Library. For reservations, call 603-431-2538. The exhibit is in the Randall Room at the private membership museum and library at 9 Market Square. The exhibit runs through Nov. 20, 2010 and is open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 1 to 4 pm.