USA > Missouri > A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III > Part 118
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John Donovan was born at Easton, Talbot County, Maryland, July 28, 1854, a son of John and Evelina M. (Robinson) Donovan. Both parents were born in Maryland, the father at Cambridge, Dorchester County, in February, 1828, and the mother was a daughter of a sub- stantial planter and honored citizen of Talbot County in the same state, where she was reared, and where her marriage to the senior John Donovan was celebrated on September 1, 1850. John Donovan, Sr., represented the fourth generation of the family in Maryland, and the original American progenitors of the name emigrated from Ireland during colonial history, settling in Virginia, from which colony representatives of the 'name served as patriot soldiers in the War of the Revolution. At an early day one branch of the family moved to Maryland, and from that branch is descended the St. Joseph family. John Donovan, Sr., was given a liberal education, and fitted himself for the bar. Though admitted to practice in Maryland, he gave little attention to his profes- sion, since his energies were better directed in other channels. In Maryland he built up a prosperous industry in the canning of oysters, fruits, vegetables, etc., and was one of the pioneers in what is now a great and valuable commercial enterprise. In the spring of 1861 he came to Missouri with St. Joseph as his destination, and his family joined him in that city in the following June. His attention here was especially paid to real estate, and he found a great field for his business acumen and energy in the rapidly developing city and county, and while he achieved for himself a large success, at the same time he aided greatly in the civic and industrial progress of his generation. John
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Donovan, Sr., was one of the best known and most honored citizens of St. Joseph until his death, which occurred in 1897. His wife passed away March 31, 1895. Both were communicants of Christ Episcopal Church, and he was a member of its vestry for many years.
John Donovan, Jr., acquired his first educational training in the public schools of his native town, and later in the City of Baltimore. His business career began in the winter of 1868, when he was fourteen years of age. He found employment as errand boy in the shoe store of William T. Stone, of St. Joseph, and was later employed as a clerk in the offices of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company. On leaving that work, and taking a position with the firm of Hastings & Saxton, contractors, he was employed in buying ties and other equipment for the construction of the St. Joseph & Denver City Railroad, now known as the St. Joseph & Grand Island. His next position was with the Kansas Land and Town Company, and his duties were such as were involved in the company's work in establishing and laying out towns along the route of the present St. Joseph & Grand Island Railroad. These different positions were a fine training school for the future capitalist and business builder, and his administrative and executive powers were rapidly matured.
It was in the spring of 1871 that his independent business career may be said to have begun. Buying cattle throughout Northwestern Missouri, he drove most of his stock to the vicinity of Maryville, and sold it to the farmers. On the 17th of May in the same year, after having had a varied experience for one of his years, and having profited by the practical test through which he had passed, he laid the foundation for the more substantial and lasting part of his business career by entering the State National Bank of St. Joseph in the capacity of a messenger. He remained with this institution exactly ten years, and resigned in May, 1881, to accept the management of the Hemphill County Cattle Company, in Hemphill County, Texas, an enterprise projected by St. Joseph capital. When the company disposed of its holdings and business in Texas in the fall of the same year, Mr. Donovan bought the land on which the South St. Joseph stock yards and packing houses now stand.
This land was level and in many parts swampy, and except for an industrial site, had little potential value. The new owner, with com- plete confidence in the outcome and with the courage of his convictions, first directed his attention to the ditching, draining and reclaiming of the land, which had previously been unavailable for practical uses. Through his sound arguments and earnest efforts, the representative men in packing house industry were induced to erect immense plants at St. Joseph, and Mr. Donovan's reclaimed land thus acquired a magnifi- cent value as an industrial location. On the original Donovan tract now stand the most modern of packing houses, as well as the fine Live Stock Exchange Building, which was considered at the time of its erection as the handsomest structure of its kind in the world. The grounds reclaimed by Mr. Donovan contain also many acres of sheds for the shelter of the thousands of cattle, hogs, sheep, etc., shipped annually to the great packing houses at St. Joseph from the grazing pastures and farms of the western states. To Mr. Donovan is thus due in large measure the development of the great industrial center, which more than any other one factor has brought about the great increase in population and economic wealth of his home city. Mr. Donovan was connected with the old St. Joseph Stock Yards as a director, from the date of its organization in 1884. On July 1, 1893, he took active charge of the affairs of the Stock Yards Company as vice president and general
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manager, and though several years ago he gave up the management because of numerous other responsibilities, he held the office of vice president until his death.
Mr. Donovan was one of the founders of the German-American Bank of St. Joseph, and served as vice president from its organization early in 1887 until July 1, 1893. Mr. Donovan, since January 1, 1903, had held the office of president of the St. Joseph Railway, Light & Power Company, which owns and operates the street railway system of St. Joseph, besides supplying electricity and power for the general public. He held the executive position in the company since the St. Joseph Traction System was sold by E. H. Harriman to the Clarks of Philadelphia, who subsequently sold it to the present owners. He is said to have negotiated the sale to the Clarks, and at one time brought suit against the late Mr. Harriman for a large commission, that case having been dropped at Harriman's death. Mr. Donovan was a promoter of the Union Terminal Railway, which is closely allied with the live stock enterprises. He was a director of the St. Joseph and Savannah Interur- ban Railroad Company, was president of the South St. Joseph Town Company, and a stockholder in many other industrial and commercial corporations. He owns much valuable real estate in the vicinity and city. He was associated with William E. Spratt in the purchase of the Ballinger Building at Seventh and Edmond Street. He built the block on South Fourth Street occupied by the Horigan Supply Company, and owned a number of buildings in South St. Joseph. To the end of his life he never lost his keen interest in live stock, and owned the King Hill Stock Farm several miles northeast of the city, where he had many head of fine horses and cattle, and a handsome summer residence. His name merits enduring credit for his work in making St. Joseph an important center of the live stock and packing industry, and is not to be soon forgotten in the community for which he did so much. As a business man he had broad views and great initiative, and his success was the more gratifying because it represented the results of his own ability and efforts. As a citizen he was always liberal and progressive, ready to give his influence and cooperation to everything for the advancement of the social and material welfare of the community.
Mr. Donovan was active for a number of years in the state militia. He was one of the organizers of the Saxton Rifles, a fine military body, which he served as first lieutenant. Later a battalion was formed under the same title, and he was captain of Company A in that organization. From that position he was promoted to the rank of major, in command of the battalion, but resigned his commission when he went to Texas in connection with the business interests already mentioned. The mili- tary organization with which he was identified is still one of the most important in the Missouri National Guards. When the metropolitan police system was inaugurated in St. Joseph Mr. Donovan was appointed a member of the first board of police commissioners, an honor accorded him by Governor Marmaduke on April 28, 1887. He organized the police force of the city, for two years gave personal supervision to the drilling of its members, in military tactics, and other service work, and served altogether on the police commission for six years. He was always an earnest supporter of the democratic party, both in the county and state.
As a man the late John Donovan was direct, emphatic and positive in nature, placing true estimates on men and affairs, and never seeking public plaudits, being well content with that splendid reserve of re- sources and ability which made him master of every situation. There might be enumerated many other incidents of his career, showing how
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closely he was identified with his home city. In the fall of 1907 and 1908 it was his personal effort that made St. Joseph the scene of the big military tournaments, when about five thousand soldiers from ports all over the Middle West assembled and engaged in their maneuvers. So much had Mr. Donovan done for St. Joseph that the citizens decided that some special tribute should be paid him, and on December 28, 1908, he was presented with a handsome silver loving cup, the presenta- tion being made in the auditorium before thousands of his home people.
On October 5, 1875, John Donovan married Miss Emma C. Patee, granddaughter of the late John. Patee, whose part as a St. Joseph pioneer has familiar memorial in one of the city's streets. Mrs. Dono- van died December 7, 1909, and left one daughter, Emma. On December .30, 1910, Mr. Donovan married Mrs. Elizabeth A. Tracy, of Weymouth, Massachusetts. Mrs. Donovan presides over the beautiful home at 508 North Fifth Street. The daughter of Mr. Donovan is the wife of Douglas McCaskey, a captain in the United States army.
BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN W. S. DILLON
BIRTHPLACE
John William Sherman Dillon was born May 4, 1868, in Allen Town- ship, Worth County, Missouri, twelve miles southeast of Grant City. The place of his birth was a farm on which his father and mother set- tled in 1867. Here he grew to manhood and gained a country school education, proving himself an average student in most studies, excepting arithmetic, in which he excelled his fellow students. The first day he went to a country school was at what is called the Stormer Schoolhouse, 21/2 miles from his home. This was only a few days after he had passed his fifth birthday. His first teacher was F. A. Roche, who was a college student in the New England states before coming to Missouri. He continued to walk to and from this school until he was ten years of age, when the district was divided, and from thence on he went to what was called the Williams School, which was 11/2 miles from his home.
ENTERS HIGH SCHOOL
On account of being overheated in the harvest field when he was fifteen years of age, he suffered from a heart injury for a few years and did not go to school again until he was nineteen years of age, when he entered the high school at Albany, Missouri, under G. M. Castor as superintendent, and there, by hard study, brought up the various com- mon school studies in which he found himself considerably lacking. In practical and higher arithmetic he excelled all his fellow students here, as he had done in the country school. Following this he spent six months in the Stanberry Normal School, which was a private school managed by Allen Moore and John E. Fesler. Here he succeeded in bringing up his knowledge of English to a point that enabled him to pass an entrance examination to the Missouri State University covering two years of English in that institution.
The following fall and winter he spent largely in debating societies at the Williams Schoolhouse, the Dry Schoolhouse and the Pine Schoolhouse.
ENTERS STATE UNIVERSITY
In September, 1889, he entered the Missouri State University and pursued what was called the bachelor of letters course of study, and
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included the courses in military science and in pedagogy. In 1892 he graduated in the military course, which at that time was considered equal to one-half the military course at West Point. He also graduated in the junior course in pedagogy, which entitled him to a state certificate as teacher. During the last semester of his work at the university he was carrying thirty-seven hours of recitations per week, which was nearly double the regular course prescribed for students. Among the eminent teachers under whom he studied in the state university were Doctor Fisher and Doctor Jones in Latin ; Doctor Allen in English; Dr. William Benjamin Smith and Professor Tyndall in mathematics; Professor Broad- head in geology; Doctor Blackwell and Professor Hoffman in modern languages; Dr. J. P. Blanton in psychology and pedagogy. He attained first rank and distinction grades in most of his studies and led some of his classes with a one hundred grade on every examination. He was enabled to carry the large number of studies and attain the high grades only through the most constant and diligent application, utilizing all his spare hours during the summer, as well as every spare moment during the student year.
UNIVERSITY BUILDING BURNS
It was during his last year at the university that the large main building of the university burned, and as a result an extra session of the State Legislature was called by Governor Francis and a movement was set on foot to remove the state university to Sedalia, Missouri. Finally this matter was settled by the people of Columbia contributing $50,000 and a large appropriation being made by the Legislature, which, added to the insurance of $247,000 on the building, enabled the university curators to rebuild on a much more elaborate scale.
TEACHES PRAIRIE HOME SCHOOL
In September, 1892, he began teaching at the Prairie Home School, four miles north of Blackburn, in Saline County, Missouri, and continued teaching here through a second year, or until the spring of 1894. He . attained a very high degree of success at this place in teaching and brought away with him recommendations from members of the school board and others to the effect that he was the best disciplinarian and instructor the school had had. His salary the first year was $60 per month and the second year was $70 per month, and he was offered $80 per month to teach the school the third year, which at that time was an unprecedented wage for a country school anywhere in Missouri.
ELECTED SUPERINTENDENT OF GRANT CITY SCHOOLS
However, owing to the death of his father the previous fall, he returned to his home in Worth County, where his mother and two sisters still resided on the home farm. He was then hired by the Grant City School Board as superintendent of the Grant City School, of which he took charge in the fall of 1894, having passed an examination for state teacher's certificate under State Superintendent Wolfe and Professor Muir at a state institute at Moberly, Missouri, where he was highly com- plimented by his instructors as having written the best papers on the examinations they had had in the same studies.
PREPARES SCHOOL FOR ARTICULATION WITH UNIVERSITY
Within the first two months of his teaching in Grant City he suc- ceeded in changing all the text books in the high school, and with the
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cooperation of the school board started the new course of study, fulfilling the requirements for articulation with the state university. It was at this time that Latin was first studied in the Grant City schools, and Mr. Dillon found much opposition to this study, even from the better classes of the city; some of the professional men argued that it was a dead language and that there was no practical use for it, but before he closed his work as a teacher in Grant City he saw Latin become very popular.
ELECTED TO UNIVERSITY CHAIRS
In the fall of 1896 he was elected to the chair of Latin and the chair of political economy in the Campbell University at Holton, Kansas, an institution which was said to stand next to the Kansas University in course of study, requirements and capabilities at that time. Mr. Dillon was not to take active charge of his duties in this university until the Grant City School closed, in May, 1897. During the winter intervening Mr. Dillon had due time to consider the ten year contract he had for the chairs in the Campbell University and decided that if he fulfilled that engagement it would make him a teacher for lifetime. as he would then be too old to adapt himself readily to a new profession, and for that reason he resigned the chairs of Latin and political economy in February, 1897, with the determination to give up teaching entirely, although he was very much in love with the work and closed his last year in the school at Grant City with a unanimous recommendation from the school board as one of the best instructors and disciplinarians that had ever occupied the position.
CONDUCTED FATHER'S FARM
During the three years that he was superintendent of the Grant City School he conducted and operated his father's farm, where his mother and two sisters lived, and put into cultivation considerable acreage of new land.
WAS COLUMBIAN GUARD AT WORLD'S FAIR
Reverting to the first years of teaching. in April, 1893, he went to Chicago and became a member of the Columbian Guards at the World's Fair held in commemoration of the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America by Columbus. He remained nearly four months at the World's Fair, serving about three months as a member of Com- pany No. 24 of the Columbian Guards. His duties engaged him at the Woman's Building, the entrance to the Midway Plaisance, the Children's Building, the Puck Building, and the White Star Line Steamship's Building. He proved himself capable and efficient in this position and still possesses recommendations from both the captain and the first sergeant of his company, testifying as to his ability and honesty and good character during his service at the World's Fair.
ELECTED COMMANDER MISSOURI DIVISION SONS OF VETERANS
In the latter part of 1896 he was elected captain of Shiloh Camp No. 48, Sons of Veterans, which was at that time organized in Grant City. In 1897 he attended the state encampment of the Sons of Veterans at Warrensburg, Missouri, where he was elected junior vice commander of the state division. This was the third official position of the order in
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the state. The next year, in 1898, at the annual encampment held at Carthage, Missouri, he was elected commander of the Missouri Division, Sons of Veterans, which included the states of Missouri, Arkansas and Texas. In this position he was quite active and devoted a large part of his time to the interest of his division. The annual encampment the next year, under his command, was held at Kirksville, Missouri. He still holds the rank of past commander in the order.
TOURS CANADA AND EASTERN UNITED STATES
Having given up the profession of teaching in 1897, he decided to take a vacation and also to give his two sisters some recreation and change after their long vigil at the bedside of their mother, who died the 27th day of March, 1897, and consequently, in July, the three started on a tour of the East, landing first at Buffalo, New York, where they spent a week with the Grand Army Encampment, and at Niagara Falls; thence to Hamilton, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec, Canada; thence to Mount Washington; Portland, Maine; Boston, Massachusetts; Albany, Newburg, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, District of Colum- bia, and numerous other points. On this trip Mr. Dillon made a special effort to become acquainted with the professions of law and journalism, and the opportunity for the study of each in the East. At the University of Cincinnati he heard two lectures on law by W. H. Taft. The next time he saw Mr. Taft was at the White House at Washington, District of Columbia, when Mr. Taft was President of the United States, and Mr. and Mrs. Dillon were on their wedding tour of the East.
MAKES GENEALOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS
It was on the return part of the trip in 1897, when Mr. Dillon and his sisters reached Lawrence County, Ohio, where their parents were both reared and where many of their relatives still lived, that Mr. Dillon spent considerable time in gathering all the genealogical data known to the living relatives. Acknowledgment of much valuable information is due to his great-uncle, John Dillon, and to his uncles, Peter H. Dillon and William Dillon, and to H. J. Dennison for the genealogical record of his grandparents, Vincent and Mrs. Hannah Dillon. Also acknowl- edgment is due to the step-grandmother, Mrs. Elizabeth Rapp; to his uncles, August and Abner Rapp, and to John Snyder, as well as to numerous others for much valuable information concerning his grand- parents, John Rapp and Catharine Rapp.
DILLON ANCESTRY-PATERNAL
His grandfather, Vincent Dillon, was born in Green County, Pennsyl- vania, on January 1, 1809. Vincent Dillon's father was John Dillon, who was born in the same county and on the same homestead, shortly after the close of the Revolutionary war of America. John Dillon's father was Thomas Dillon, who was born in the County of Mayo on the Shannon River in Ireland, and arrived in America in time to take part in the latter struggles in the Revolutionary war. He was a weaver by trade and followed this trade to the time of his death. His son, John Dillon, took part in the War of 1812.
NORTHMEN FROM DENMARK
The Dillon genealogy extends back almost indefinitely, but later writers confine themselves mainly to that part beginning with the year
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885 A. D., when Siegfried, a noted sea king of the Danish Vikings, ascended the Seine River with 40,000 Vikings, composed of Danish North- men, in 700 vessels, and besieged Paris for ten months. Many of these Vikings or Northmen remained in Southern France, and among them was one who was so strong and agile that the natives of France called him DeLion. Through the wear of years this was gradually shortened to Dillon. Two hundred years later, or in the year 1185, Chevalier Henry Dillon of Aquitiane, a descendant of the Northman who came over with Seigfried came to Ireland in the train of Henry II and acquired large possessions on the River Shannon, which were granted and confirmed to him by the king, and which became known as "Dillon's Country." This was the beginning of the race of Dillons in Ireland, and it was from this Dillon's Country that Thomas Dillon came to Green County, Penn- sylvania.
DILLONS IN MEDIEVAL WARS
Among the Dillons who attained distinction in the medieval wars was Viscount Theobald Dillon and his son, Count Arthur Dillon, Chevalier James de Dillon and Count Henry de Dillon. The last four named had the famous Dillon Regiment in France. Their living in France was due to the fact that their ancestors had been expatriated from Ireland at the time of Cromwell's usurpation, about 1649. A fifth brother became Archbishop of Toulouse and also Archbishop of Norborne, but at the time of the French revolution was beheaded. At the guillotine a court lady under sentence to be beheaded terrifiedly turned to Archbishop Dillon and asked him to go first, to which he replied, "Certainly; anything to favor the lady." Another one of the Dillons, a little later in the line, who attained distinction in the military service, was Col. Arthur Dillon, whose regiment was connected with that of Count D'Estaing in assisting the American revolutionists to defeat the British.
GRAND MATERNAL ANCESTRY ENGLISH
The wife of Vincent Dillon was Hannah Jackson. Her grandfather was Henry Jackson, who was of pure English descent. He was a man weighing over two hundred pounds and lived to be eighty or ninety years of age. Before the revolution he lived where Washington, District of Columbia, now stands, and often herded his horses on the "Old Poison Fields," which has since become the location of the capitol of the United States. During the Revolutionary war he and his family were at a fort near his farm. Afterward they removed to Green County, Pennsylvania, and then to Guernsy County, Ohio, where he died.
The above references to the Dillon genealogy show that J. W. S. Dillon was of Irish, French and English descent on his father's side.
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