In Houston, Jones -- an imposing figure at 6 feet 2 inches and 200 plus pounds -- made an immediate impact. Through the creative use of credit, he established his own chain of lumberyards, then expanded into building houses and, eventually, the skyscrapers that gave Houston a skyline unprecedented in Texas and the South. He also became a media power through his ownership of the city's major newspaper, the Houston Chronicle. A driving force in turning Houston from a quiet town into the bustling metropolis that would one day be America's fourth largest city, Jones quickly gained regional and national attention for his many ventures.

One of the most striking was the 1914 dredging of the Houston Ship Channel. A project longer than the Panama Canal, the ship channel internationalized Houston by connecting the city to the sea. At the same time, it gave a much-needed economic boost to the entire South, which was still struggling with the poverty that had lingered since the Civil War.

Such successes caught the attention of President Woodrow Wilson, who saw in Jones a man with a zeal to equal his own. Wilson, who became something of a mentor to Jones, tried to lure his fellow Southerner into public service. Jones, though, turned down ambassadorships and cabinet positions, preferring the challenges of business to those of politics. But in 1917, when the U.S. entered World War I, he changed his mind and agreed to head military relief for the American Red Cross. He recruited nurses and doctors and organized ambulance services, canteens and hospitals to serve the wounded on European battlefields. After the war, he transformed the Red Cross from a loose coalition of independent societies into the international relief agency it is today. It was quintessential Jesse Jones.

Upon his return to Houston, Jones began to enlarge his financial empire, expanding in the 1920s out from Houston to include enterprises in Dallas, Fort Worth and New York. As the nation sank into the Great Depression, it became apparent that two failing Houston banks were about to bring down all the others in the region. Jones called the city's leading businessmen to his office to work out a rescue plan. As a result of his leadership, no banks in Houston failed during the Great Depression. His work did not go unnoticed.