A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 49

Author: Johnson, E. Polk, 1844-; Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 860

USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III > Part 49

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A. John Craig was born in the north of Ire- land, on the 15th of June, 1847, and is a son of William and Ann (Fairbanks) Craig, who likewise were born in that section of the fair Emerald Isle, where they passed their entire lives and where the father followed the trades of carpenter and wheelwright, with each of which he served a thorough apprenticeship. The Craig family lineage is traced back to staunch Scottish origin and representatives of the name early removed from Scotland to the north of Ireland, and the same is true con- cerning the Fairbanks family, members of which were prominently identified with the military history in generations past. William and Ann (Fairbanks) Craig became the par- ents of eleven children, all of whom attained to years of maturity except one, and of the

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number two sons and two daughters came to the United States, the subject of this review being the third in order of birth. Mr. Craig was reared to the age of sixteen years in his native land, where he was afforded the advan- tages of the common schools and when but thirteen years of age he began a practical ap- prenticeship at the carpenter's trade under the direction of his father. As a boy of six- teen he came to the United States in company with an uncle, who had previously established his home here and- who had served ten years in the regular army of the United States. The uncle and nephew landed in New York city and thence proceeded directly to Cincin- nati, where they arrived on the Ist of January, 1863, one of the coldest days on record, as there had been a drop of sixty-four degrees in temperature within a period of twelve hours. Mr. Craig continued to reside in Cin- cinnati for a number of years and there fol- lowed the carpenter's trade. In 1872 lie es- tablished his home in Covington, where he has since resided and where he has done a large amount of important work as a contractor and builder, with which independent line of enter- prise he has been actively identified since 1884. He has controlled an extensive business and in addition to his work in this section he has had large contracts in various other states in the Union, including those in connection with the erection of the government building at Fort Smith, Arkansas, the Hemingray Glass Works at Muncie, Indiana, and many other contracts. He is a staunch Republican in pol- itics but has never been a seeker of public of- fice, though he has at all times shown a loyal interest in the support of all measures and en- terprises tending to advance the general wel- fare of his home city, where he served two years as a member of the board of aldermen. Mr. Craig was one of the organizers of the Central Savings Bank & Trust Company of Covington, was a member of its first board of directors and is vice-president of this substan- tial and important institution at the present time. He also was concerned in the organi- zation of the Hignite Coal Company, of which he has been a director from the start. He is president of the Highland Cemetery Associa- tion and for nearly a quarter of a century he has been a stockholder of the Citizens' Per- petual Building Association, of which he has served as vice-president for the past several years. He and his wife hold membership in the Shinkle Methodist Episcopal church, are most zealous in various departments of its work and he is at the present time the valued superintendent of its Sunday-school.

In the year 1872 was solemnized the mar-

riage of Mr. Craig to Miss Ann J. Davis, who was born and reared in the city of Cincinnati, and of their eight children three are now liv- ing, John J., Elizabeth and Martha. John J. Craig is now the able and popular mayor of Covington and he formerly served four years as city clerk, having been an active and influ- ential factor in public affairs of a local order.

SLADE CARR .- Far from uneventful has been the life history of this honored and rep- resentative business man of Covington. A man of great energy, activity and force of character, his perceptions are wonderfully quick and he has a broad grasp of the scope and bearing of the many important business propositions which he is called upon to con- sider.

Slade Carr was born in Port Washing- ton, Tuscarawas county, Ohio, in November, 1867, the son of John H. and Lavinia ( Stock- er) Carr, also natives of the same county. The father was a merchant who carried on his business successfully in Port Washington for a number of years, dying there on the 25th of December, 1881, at the age of thirty-eight. His widow survived him for some years, un- til 1889, when she died at the age of forty- four. The father served with marked gal- lantry as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war, a member of Company "E," Fifty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was taken pris- oner, endured the horrors of confinement in the noted Libby prison for several months, and where, from the results of deprivations and suffering, he contracted typhoid fever, from the effect of which he never recovered and never was a well man again. He and his wife were the parents of five children, all of whom are living and of which our subject is the eldest.

In his native place Slade Carr was reared until he was seventeen years of age, attend- ing the public schools. When seventeen years old he removed to Louisville, Ken- tucky, where he became employed by the Lou- isville & Nashville Railroad Company as a fireman, which work he continued for about four years, when, having qualified for the po- sition of engineer, he engaged as one and con- tinued as such for twelve years. Mr. Carr then located at Latonia, now a part of Lexing- ton, and engaged in business on his own ac- count, in which he was successful. He is one of the original stockholders and incorporators of the Latonia Deposit Bank and also one of the organizers of the Model Building & Sav- ings Association and has been a director and the treasurer since the first. The very energy of his will, his far-seeing perception of the pub- lic necessities, his capacity for directing large

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enterprises and his integrity, makes all asso- ciated with him co-operate with unfailing re- liance in his good judgment and his honor. Absorbed in his business affairs he has re- frained from taking an active part in politics or public movements, but in a quiet way has contributed his share toward securing good government and to promote charitable, re- formatory and church work. He is a staunch Republican, a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, No. 314, of Coving- ton, Kentucky, and a charter member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, No. 329, at Cov- ington.

Mr. Carr married, on February 19, 1896, Amelia Leucht, a native of Milldale, Ken- lucky, now a part of Covington, where she was reared and educated, a daughter of Louis Leucht, a native of Germany and a well known citizen and business man of Milldale and Latonia, a part of Covington, for a num- ber of years, and where he died in January, 1898. Mrs. Carr is a member of St. Marks Evangelical Lutheran church.

ROBERT A. LONG .- Kentucky has reason to be proud of many of her native sons who have attained to success and prestige in connection with affairs of broad scope and importance outside of her own gracious borders, and a noteworthy instance of such worthy achieve- ment is afforded in the career of Robert A. Long, who went forth from his native state to become eventually one of the veritable cap- tains of industry in the nation. He maintains his home in Kansas City, Missouri, and there lie is a valued and influential citizen. In this history of Kentucky and Kentuckians there is all of consistency in according to him special recognition, and the sketch at hand will offer a resumé of the career of one whose character and achievements have honored the man and also the state of his nativity.

A magnificent residence, the costliest in Kansas City, and probably in the entire middle west, situated on a beautiful eminence in the midst of grounds covering a whole city block ; a thoroughly modern office building, the first steel "sky-scraper" built in the state of Mis- souri outside of the city of St. Louis, with all the conveniences and elegant appointments of the very best structures of its class in any of the largest metropolitan centers; a system of more than ninety retail lumber yards, distrib- uted throughout Oklahoma, Texas, New Mex- ico and southern Kansas; seven saw mills of the largest and most modern type, located in the timbered sections of Louisiana and Texas and with a capacity for the output of more than four hundred million feet of lumber an- nually ; six deep-shaft mines in southeastern

Kansas and Arkansas, with an aggregate an- nual production of fifteen thousand cars of bituminous and semi-anthracite coal; a rail- way system of one hundred and thirty-eight miles; and a general merchandise business, with stores established at the various mines and mills for the convenience of the employes but also devoted to the general trade of the several communities in which they are estab- lished-these stand to-day as the tangible, ma- terial monuments to the commercial, financial and industrial energy and · success of Robert Alexander Long. Although seized upon by the resistless tide of emigration that ever west- ward takes its way, and though carried from within the borders of his native state, Mr. Long is a representative Kentuckian and one of the most typical of all the self-made men of the fine old Blue Grass state.

Of course the residence previously men- tioned belongs to Mr. Long and his family, and the R. A. Long building likewise is their own private investment. The saw mills, to- gethier with two hundred and eighty-one thou- sand acres of timber land, the retail yards, the mines and coal lands, the mercantile business and other investments, are the holdings of the Long-Bell Lumber Company, of which Mr. Long is president, general manager and prin- cipal stockholder, the while he is also president of each of its subsidiary corporations, some twenty-five in number. A considerable por- tion of the stock of all these corporations is held by the heads of departments and others holding the more responsible positions, each individual usually owning stock in the partic- ular company by which he is employed. Other investments of the parent company consist of a third interest in the Weed Lumber Company, of California, owning an extensive tract of sugar-pine and white-pine timber land and a large, modern mill at the foot of Mount Shasta ; a large interest in the Kansas Natural Gas Company ; a large number of shares in the National Bank of Commerce, of Kansas City, besides other and smaller investments in lum- ber companies, banks and cement companies. Mr. Long is a member of the directorates of the Kansas Natural Gas Company, the Weed Lumber Company, the National Bank of Commerce, the Commerce Trust Company, the Kansas City Life Insurance Company and the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railway Company, and he is also president of the Christian Publishing Company of St. Louis. A large, well established wholesale organiza- tion, formed for the purchase and distribution of lumber, shingles and other forest products of the Pacific coast, is another expression of the initiative and tireless energies of Mr. Long

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and his associates. The business of this cor- poration is rapidly expanding from year to year as the resources of the far northwest are increasingly drawn upon for lumber supply, owing to the depletion of forests in the older timber sections of the north and east. The general offices of the Long-Bell Lumber Com- pany and its subsidiary corporations are on the eighth and ninth floors of the R. A. Long building, in quarters specially planned and constructed for their accommodation. Mr. Long's private office, with bath and barber shop attached, is a marvel of beauty, and the directors' room, with its superb furnishings, matched mahogany finish and artistic mural decorations, is visited almost daily by sight- seers desirous of inspecting the most beautiful and elegant in modern office appointments. Much of the context of this sketch is substan- tially an appreciative estimate given by one thoroughly familiar with the career of Mr. Long, and thus its significance and emphasis are especially pronounced.

While so unusually successful in a material way, Mr. Long has not used all his energies and talents in the accumulation of wealth and the upbuilding of great commercial and indus- trial organizations to the neglect of the spirit- ual and religious verities of life. While won- derfully successful in temporal affairs, he has not forgotten to give praise and adoration to the Ruler of all human destinies, and he has shown a high appreciation of his stewardship. He is a Christian man, orthodox in faith and consistent in practice. His local church mem- bership is in the Independent Boulevard Christian church, or Disciples of Christ. He is the largest individual contributor to the various missionary, educational and benevolent activities of his denomination, and at the pres- ent time probably devotes as much time, thought and energy to the church and the vari- ous departments of its work, together with his own charitable and philanthropic work in a personal way, as to his business affairs. He has often said in late years that his church work and the giving of his largess to such in- stitutions and benevolences as he considers worthy have constituted his greatest pleasure and satisfaction.

When a young man without capital and without any special training or any knowledge of the business in which he embarks goes to a small town in a new country, almost on the frontier, and begins the battle of life, the re- sult of which is the creation of probably the largest concern in the whole country actively engaged in the lumber business, with an in- vestment of twenty-eight million dollars; and when the development of personal worth and

ability are such as to make that man commonly acknowledged the most conspicuous repre- sentative of the fourth most important indus- try in the United States,-in such a man's career there must be material for useful and profitable study.

Like so many men who have become cele- brated in our national history, Robert A. Long was born in the country and reared on a farm. The place of his nativity was near Shelbyville, in Shelby county, Kentucky, where he was ushered into the world on the 17th of Decem- ber. 1850. He is a son of Samuel M. and Margaret K. (White) Long, the latter having been a cousin of Senator Blackburn and of former Governor Luke P. P. Blackburn, whose names have been conspicuous in the annals of Kentucky. As a boy Mr. Long worked on his father's farm and in the meanwhile availed himself of the advantages of the local schools, in which he gained his rudimentary education. He later attended for a period of about fifteen months a well conducted school for boys at Shelbyville. This was the extent of his early schooling. Although receiving no degree from college or university, Mr. Long is an educated man, largely through close observation and the varied experiences of a long and successful business career. In conversation he speaks with the cohesion, clarity and continuity that indicate the well disciplined mind. His ad- dresses reveal a breadth of general knowledge and a wide range of reading and investigation. His command of English is marked by clear- ness and force. In social intercourse he is polished and gracious. In correspondence his diction is a marvel of brevity, conciseness and succinctness of statement. If he is ever prolix it is when he is giving examples or illustra- tions in order to make sure that his meaning is made clear. His ability to state his thought briefly, clearly and in words impossible of misinterpretation is a gift which he has devel- oped to an unusual degree.

When about seventeen years of age Mr. Long clerked for several months in a store, after which he returned to the farm. His has been the nature or genius that crystallized dreams into deeds, and ambition of definite order was early manifested in the youth. The farm did not provide adequate scope for his expanding faculties. It did not promise suffi- cient returns for the labors put forth, nor did it furnish a spur for worthy ambition. At the age of twenty-two years, having accumulated less than seven hundred dollars, Mr. Long's dreams turned to the golden opportunities of the west, which was then rapidly receiving a large emigration from the older states. Leav- ing the farm, he went first to Kansas City,

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where he had a few relatives and acquaint- ances. Borrowing a few thousand dollars of a bank of which his uncle, Churchill J. White, was cashier, he went to Columbus, Kansas, where, in partnership with two other young men, Victor B. Bell and Robert A. White, he established a lumber yard, under the name of R. A. Long & Company. Within two years Robert White died and his interest was taken by the other two members of the firm. From the beginning Mr. Long was the active man- ager of the business, which prospered from the first. The west was undergoing rapid de- velopment. The broad prairies were being converted into productive and well improved farms. Railroads were pushing their way into the new territory, towns were springing up, growth and development were in evidence on every side. Business was good and lumber was in demand. From the profits of their business the firm of R. A. Long & Company opened new yards as rapidly as possible. The credit of the firm was good, and with the ac- cumulated profits, augmented by funds bor- rowed from the banks, the first single yard at Columbus soon proved to be the forerunner of a line of fifteen or twenty scattered around in the more promising towns of southern Kansas and southwestern Missouri. In 1884 the bus- iness was incorporated under the title of the Long-Bell Lumber Company, with a capital stock of three hundred thousand dollars. The capitalization has been increased from time to time, in consonance with the expansion of the business, and its operations are now based on a capital stock of ten million dollars, with a present surplus of approximately equal amount.

Only a few months after the opening of the yard at Columbus its manager was watching with eager and somewhat impatient interest the erection of a modest three-room house in proximity thereto. The surmisings and prog- nostications of the knowing ones were correct. The marriage was solemnized on the 16th of December, 1875, and Miss Ella Wilson be- came Mrs. Robert Alexander Long. She was in every way a worthy helpmeet to her hope- ful, energetic husband,-good-looking, as the quaint old expression has it, and also cultured, gracious, economical and industrious. The little home became the abode of love, peace, happiness and Christian serenity and faith. The ambitious husband worked early and late, and the old axiom that "Man's work is from sun to sun" was not exemplified in his daily labors, for his regular hours of application en- croached both on the dawn and the eventide clarkness. It was during this happy period of the early life of the devoted couple that their

two children were born,-Sallie America, who is now the wife of Lieutenant Hayes Ellis, of the United States navy, and Miss Loula, who is internationally known as the owner, driver and lover of fine horses, Later on a more pre- tentious residence, at that time the finest in Columbus, succeeded the little cottage, and soon afterward came the removal to Kansas City, but both Mr. and Mrs. Long often refer to the first years of their married life when they lived in their humble home and planned together, worked together, built air castles to- gether and dreamed of the future, as the time of their simplest, truest and fullest happiness, though the later years have also brought their gracious fruitage.

Having acquired a large grasp on the retail trade, it was but a natural step to engage in the wholesale lumber business, in 1889, and another logical step to remove the headquar- ters of the company, in 1891, to Kansas City, the great market center of the southwest. As business increased and profits accumulated, the company, with Mr. Long as its head and master spirit, saw another opportunity with a wide gateway inviting entrance. Without hes- itation Mr. Long effected the ingress and be- came a manufacturer of yellow pine as well as a dealer in that product. Thus it seems a nat- ural progress up from the little yard at Colum- bus through the various expansing phases of the lumber industry. At an early date large investments were made in timber lands, which, since about 1900, have advanced in value very rapidly, yielding extraordinary profits. The company, through its subsidiaries, now owns seven essentially modern mills, the last and largest having been constructed at Longville, Louisiana, in 1908. This mill controls timber of sufficient amount to permit active operation for more than fifteen years.

When Oklahoma was opened up for settle- ment, in 1892, the number of the company's retail yards was about doubled, and again in 1902 a system of about twenty yards was started in what was then the Indian Territory. In 1907 the panhandle country of Texas was being largely divided into small tracts for farms, thus offering an inviting field for both farmers and business men, and the Long-Bell Lumber Company established eight yards in that prosperous section, which had theretofore been looked upon as fit only for grazing pur- poses. As early as 1889 Mr. Long and liis as- sociates bought coal lands in Cherokee and Crawford counties, Kansas, but it was not un- til 1900 that active mining operation's were instituted. Two or three years later mines were opened in the semi-anthracite coal fields in Arkansas. These mines are equipped with the

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most improved machinery for the economical mining and handling of coal. The mining ope- rations in the two fields have been developed into an annual capacity of six hundred thou- sand tons. In 1904 a one-third interest was purchased in the Weed Lumber Company, of California. The Pacific coast sales depart- ment, with offices in Seattle and Kansas City, was established in 1897. Soon after the re- moval to Kansas City Mr. Bell retired from active connection with the company and Mr. Long was elected president. He has been general manager from the beginning.

For a great many years it was the policy of the company to have all the managers of the retail yards meet at Kansas City once a year with Mr. Long and other general officers for the purpose of instruction, consultation and mutual helpfulness. These meetings were eventually discontinued, but in February, 1905, Mr. Long, believing that knowledge is an asset, arranged for a special trip to the mills for all the retail yard managers and a large number of invited guests, many of whom were his competitors. The journey was made in a special train of eight Pullman coaches and two dining cars, and it consumed eight days. All who were so fortunate as to be members of this excursion, so happily combining pleas- ure with instruction, still refer to it as being one of their happiest experiences. The first trip was so successful that it was followed by a similar one in the succeeding year, but on this occasion the membership of the party did not include outside guests, being limited to the yard managers and officers and employes of the general office, who were accompanied by their wives. At Houston and Lake Charles banquets and receptions were given to Mr. Long and his party by the members of the commercial clubs and their wives, At New Orleans Mr. Long gave a great banquet, marked by toasts, speeches and a general good time. It was on this trip that the now well known expression, "the Long-Bell family," was first used. The phrase most happily ex- presses the unity, harmony and comradeship that exists among the employes, as well as their loyalty to the company and their undis- guised affection for him who, because of his genuine regard for each one personally and his solicitude for their moral as well as their material welfare, is regarded as the head of this great business family.

That there is a feeling of loyalty and a per- sonal attachment of unusual strength and genuineness on the part of its employes to the head of the company has been apparent for many years. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that 'Mr. Long has never regarded those

under him as so many fingers with which to gather money into his coffers, but as fellow human beings whose welfare he has at heart, whose business abilities he seeks to build up, to whom his sympathies reach out, and in whose progress and prosperity he finds pleas- ure. His sympathies go out in kindly spoken words, the hand extended in time of need, and in the tactful endeavors made to encourage the upbuilding of the moral character and the de- velopment of the better self. When his pres- ent magnificent residence was completed the first reception and social entertainment therein was given to the heads of departments and employes of the general office. Not once or twice has he held on to those who have lost their strength and courage to fight against the demon of inebriety, even to the extent of the Keeley cure, and the subsequent provision of an environment of social and religious influ- ences to preclude a relapse to the old habits. It is this practical sort of helpfulness, this most effective kind of charity, this extension of opportunity to those who are willing to help themselves, that has drawn to him those who are so closely and gratefully associated with him in business as to be appropriately termed a "family."

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A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume III, Part 49

Author: Johnson, E. Polk, 1844-; Lewis Publishing Company Publication date: 1912 Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 860

Author: Johnson, E. Polk, 1844-; Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 860