USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume V > Part 34
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REV. CHARLES L. SOUVAY, C. M.
Rev. Charles L. Souvay, vice president of the Kenrick Seminary at Webster Groves and professor of Holy Scripture and Oriental languages, was born in Saulxures sur Moselotte, Department Vosges, France, December 15, 1870. He acquired his early education in the public schools of his native country and attended the Christian Brothers School prior to 1884, when he entered Petit Seminaire de St. Nicolas due Chardonnet in Paris in which he pursued a classical course, spending six years as a student in that institution. From 1890 until 1893 he attended the Seminary of St. Sulpice at Issy, Paris, where he pursued his theological studies and from 1893 until 1896 he was at the Mother House of the Congregation of the Mission in Paris, having joined the congregation in 1893. On the 30th of May, 1896, he was ordained to the priesthood in Paris and later pursued post-graduate work in philosophy and theology at St. Thomas College in Rome where he remained a student from 1896 until 1898. In the latter year the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Divinity were conferred upon him. He taught Hebrew, scripture and church history in the theological seminary of St. Flour in France from 1898 until 1903.
It was in the latter year that Mr. Souvay came to the United States and through the intervening years has been connected with Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis. In 1911 and 1912, however, he was in Rome where he took before the Pontifical Biblical Com- mission the degree of Doctor in Sacred Scriptures. Since 1916 he has been vice presi- dent of Kenrick Seminary and has contributed much to the development of the institu- tion. He is also a member of the Missouri Historical Society, of the St. Louis Catholic Historical Society, and editor of the St. Louis Catholic Historical Review.
CRAIG MACQUAID.
Craig MacQuaid, president of the United States Bank of St. Louis, whose progres- sive spirit is tempered hy a safe conservatism that has won confidence and support for the institution of which he is the head, was born in Illinois, July 21, 1870, a son of James P. and Mintia (Craig) MacQuaid, natives of Pennsylvania and Kentucky, respectively. The father, who was a representative of one of the old families of the Keystone state, devoted his life to the occupation of farming and became a prominent agriculturist and man of affairs in Fulton county, Illinois, where he passed away in 1911, while his wife is still living.
Liberal educational opportunities were accorded Craig MacQuaid who supple- mented his early training by study in Knox College at Galesburg, Illinois, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1893. Early in his business career he was associated with ex-Governor David R. Francis in financial activities for a period of ten years. He then entered the United States Bank as vice president and in October, 1919, was elected to the office of president. This substantial financial institution occupies beautiful quarters in the Missouri Athletic Association building at the corner of Washington and Fourth streets and is capitalized for a million dollars while its surplus amounts to seven hundred thousand dollars. The bank is a member of the federal reserve system. The personnel of the directors insures a safe and conservative policy that does not, however, restrain that progressiveness which is so necessary an asset in the business life of the present day.
In 1911 Mr. MacQuaid was married to Miss Ada Glenn and they have one son, Craig, Jr., now five years of age. The religious faith of the parents is that of the
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Episcopal church. Mr. MacQuaid belongs to the St. Louis Club and is a very promi- nent and well known Mason. He is a member of Tuscan Lodge, A. F. & A. M .; a past high priest of Rabboni Chapter, R. A. M .; a past commander of Ascalon Com- mandery, K. T., and a past potentate of Moolah Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is likewise a past wise master of St. Louis Chapter of Rose Croix, Scottish Rite Masonry, and in 1913 in recognition of his efficient service in behalf of this order the honorary thirty-third degree was conferred upon him. He stands very high in financial circles and is recognized as a man of the soundest judgment and of notably keen sagacity. Since his college days he has been connected with financial interests and has made steady progress, each forward step bringing him a broader outlook and wider oppor- tunities which he has utilized for the benefit of business conditions in general as well as for the promotion of his individual success. His personal qualities, too, make for popularity among those who know him.
LESLIE DANA.
Leslie Dana, president of the Charter Oak Stove & Range Company of St. Louis, in which city he was born April 16, 1873, is a son of George Davis and Virginia (Lord) Dana, both of whom were natives of Cincinnati, Ohio. In the acquirement of his education Leslie Dana attended Smith Academy of St. Louis and afterward the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology. He started upon his business career with the Ex- celsior Manufacturing Company, thoroughly learning the business and when the firm went out of existence he assisted his father in forming and promoting the Charter Oak Stove & Range Company in 1895. Later he became president of this company and still remains the executive officer. The business has steadily grown and developed until it is now one of the extensive and important productive interests of St. Louis. Mr. Dana is also a director of the Ludlow-Saylor Wire Company and a director of the La Fayette Mutual Building Association.
At Kirkwood, Missouri, in 1901, Mr. Dana was married to Miss Judith B. Brown, a daughter of B. Gratz Brown, of Kirkwood, and they have become parents of three children: Judith Virginia, George Davis (III), and Mary Leslie. Mr. Dana finds his recreation in golf, fishing, hunting, tennis and horseback riding. In fact he greatly enjoys all manly outdoor sports. His political endorsement is given to the republican party and he is well known in fraternal and club circles. He belongs to the Chi Phi, a college fraternity, to the St. Louis Country Club, the Racquet Club, the Noonday Club, the Wianna Club, the Ochtowan Club of Canada, the Cuivre Island Club, the Marais Tempe Claire Club of Missouri and is also a member of several societies for the extension of knowledge and scientific research. He belongs to the Academy of Science and is one of the executive committee of the St. Louis branch of the Archaeo- logical Institute. He is 'also vice president of the St. Louis Numismatic Society and a member of the board of directors of the Zoo Society and the Natural History Museum of St. Louis. He also belongs to the National Society for the Promotion of Science and is a fellow of the American Geological Society. He has membership with the Porto Rican Association, Battery A, and belongs to the Contemporary and Classical Clubs. His interests are thus broad and varied, and while a successful. resourceful and efficient business man he is at the same time one whose labors and reading have covered a wide field, keeping him at all times in touch with the world's work and progress.
EMIL H. DONK.
Emil H. Donk, manager of sales for the firm of S. A. Weisenborn & Son, coal operators, with offices in the Boatman's Bank building in St. Louis, was born in this city, February 11, 1875. His father Emil W. Donk, who passed away in 1891, was born in Germany, and came to America when twelve years of age. He was one of the founders of the Donk Brothers Coal Company of St. Louis which has now been in existence for fifty-nine years. The mother, who bore the maiden name of Erika' Mohr, was a representative of an old American family.
Emil H. Donk, the only child of this marriage, was educated in the public schools
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of St. Louis, in the Smith Academy and in the Manual Training school from which he was graduated with the class of 1891. He afterward studied architecture for two years and then worked for a year for Albert Swasey. On the expiration of that period he entered the employ of Donk Brothers, coal and coke company, being at the time a young man of twenty years. He occupied a clerical position and remained with the firm for a quarter of a century rising to the position of credit manager. He left that concern on the 31st of March, 1919, to become connected with S. A. Weisenborn & Son, coal operators, in the position of sales manager, in which capacity he has since capably and successfully served. His previous long experience with the Donk Company well qualifies him for the onerous duties which he took upon himself in this connection.
Mr. Donk was united in marriage to. Miss Nellie Bennett, a daughter of August and Martha (Lynn) Bennett, both now deceased. This marriage, which was celebrated in St. Louis January 25, 1898, has been blessed with one son and one daughter: Earl A., who married Loretta Keegan and is living in St. Louis; and Dorothy Marjorie.
During the World war period Mr. Donk not only subscribed liberally to all Liberty loans but was active in promoting the sale of government bonds and he was ready to go to the front in the service of his country when the armistice was signed. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and his religious faith is manifest in his membership in the Third Baptist church. He belongs to the City Club, the Coal Club, the Railway Club and to the St. Louis Association of Credit. He is likewise a member of the Traveler's Protective Association of America and is serving as one of its directors. Along still more strictly social lines he is connected with the Missouri Athletic Association. He has a very wide acquaintance in this city, in which he has spent his entire life and the sterling worth of his character is recognized by all with whom he has come in contact through business or social connections.
WILLIAM BUTTS ITTNER.
William Butts Ittner, formerly architect for the Board of Education of St. Louis, enjoys an international reputation as a designer of school buildings. He was born September 4, 1864, in St. Louis, and is a son of Anthony and Mary Isabella Ittner. Anthony Ittner, his father, was born October 8, 1837, in Lebanon, Ohio, his parents being John and Mary Ittner. John Ittner, born in Bavaria, Germany, came to America in 1832 and in 1833 became a resident of Cincinnati where he took out his first naturalization papers when William Henry Harrison was clerk of the court of common pleas of Hamilton county, Ohio, and who afterwards became President of the United States. He was married in Cincinnati, his wife being born on St. George, one of the Azores islands, in 1818. Her parents, however, were natives of Baden, Germany. From the Azores they sailed for America and became residents of Dayton, Ohio. John Ittner, following his marriage, removed to Lebanon, Ohio, and in 1844 became a resident of St. Louis, where he lived until 1853 and then went to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he died a few months later, survived by his wife and eight chil- dren, who returned to St. Louis.
Anthony Ittner began earning his own living when a lad of nine years and after starting in business for himself at the age of twenty-one, he attended night school for three months and a commercial school for about the same length of time, thus gaining an acquaintance with arithmetic and bookkeeping. While his educational opportunities were very limited he learned many valuable lessons in the school of experience, rubbing shoulder to shoulder with his fellowmen. For three years in his hoyhood he was employed in the Glasgow lead factory and after- ward secured employment in the brickyard of John Snyder. Later he entered upon a three-year apprenticeship at the bricklayer's trade and afterward worked as a journeyman for two years, while later he was made a foreman by Robert Davis. In February, 1859, on attaining his majority, he entered into partnership with his brother, Conrad S. Ittner, in the bricklaying and later in the brick manufacturing business. After 1888 he concentrated his attention entirely upon the manufacture of brick and the growth of his business made it necessary for him constantly to enlarge his facilities until he had become the owner of two extensive plants at Swansea, Illinois. He was a member of the Builders Exchange of St. Louis from its organization; was president for three terms and for one term was president of
ANTHONY ITTNER
WILLIAM B. ITTNER
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the National Association of Builders and also of the National Brick Manufacturers' Association, which he joined on its organization, being the seventh president of each body at one and the same time.
Anthony Ittner was a member of the Missouri Militia during the period of the Civil war and a stanch advocate of the Union cause. He became a stalwart republican and an influential factor in the local councils of the party, serving at one time as chairman of the republican city central committee. For two years, 1867 and 1868, he served in the city council and introduced a resolution for the appointment of a committee of five to investigate the character of material and workmanship used in the construction of streets and sewers. The resolution being adopted Mr. Ittner was made chairman of the committee and after an investigation of five months, a unanimous report was brought in condemning both workmanship and materials. While the city council did not adopt the report, time has proven its correctness and the reforms thus recommended have since been adopted by the board of public im- provements. In the fall of 1868 Mr. Ittner became a member of the general assembly and in 1870 of the state senate, to which he was reelected in 1874 and 1876. Later he was nominated and elected to the forty-fifth Congress, where he made a most creditable record by his support of many bills looking to the welfare of the nation.
In 1862 Anthony Ittner wedded Mary Isabella Butts and they became the parents of eight children, four sons and four daughters. Mr. and Mrs. Ittner held membership with the Church of the Unity of the Unitarian faith and were most active workers in its support. Mr. Ittner was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Missouri Historical Society and one of the promoters of the movement for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. In 1863 he became an Odd Fellow and several times represented his lodge in the Grand Lodge. He also had a membership with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Royal Arcanum, was chairman of the com- mittee on industrial education for the National Association of Manufacturers and chairman of a similar committee of the National Brick Manufacturers Association. He also served on the board of managers of the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education and his life work was ever broad in its scope and far-reaching and beneficial in its results.
William Butts Ittner attended the public schools of St. Louis and the manual training school of Washington University and afterward entered Cornell University at Ithaca, N. Y., where he was graduated as a special student with the class of 1887. He then took up the profession of architecture with the firm of Eames & Young in 1888, continuing there for a year and then establishing an office of his own. In 1897 he was elected commissioner of school buildings of St. Louis, and continued to serve in that capacity until March, 1910, when he was elected architect for the board of education, which position he filled until 1916. He has designed all the public school buildings of the city of St. Louis within this time, including the Mckinley, the F. Louis Soldan, James E. Yeatman, Sumner and Grover Cleveland high schools and the Harris Teachers College. His school architecture has brought him into national recognition and he has to his credit similar buildings in Indiana, Tennessee, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Ohio, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Texas, Illinois, North and South Dakota, New York, and in the national capital he was architect of the Central high school, costing one million two hundred fifty thousand dollars. He is at this time consulting architect for a ten million dollar school building program at Buffalo, New York, as well as consulting architect on a large school building program at Niagara Falls, New York, and at Birmingham, Alabama. He recently completed a large school building program at Jacksonville, Florida, and is also engaged on other extensive school building work in the south.
His work has brought him a fitting testimonial from his profession in a medal presented to him for marked and meritorious achievement in the design and con- struction of school buildings by the St. Louis chapter of the American Institute of Architects, of which he is a Fellow and of which he was president in 1895-6. He was also president of the St. Louis Architectural Club in 1897-8 and president of the Architectural League of America in 1903-4. At the present time he is a member of the board of directors of the American Institute of Architects.
In St. Louis in 1888, Mr. Ittner was married to Miss Lottie Crane Allan of St. Louis, and they have three children, Gladys Blanche, Helen May and William B., Jr. In his political views, Mr. Ittner is a republican where national questions and
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issues are involved but casts an independent local ballot. Hs is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and is keenly interested in all that has to do with the welfare and progress of the city and the maintenance of high civic standards. He belongs to the St. Louis Club, the University Club, the Glen Echo Club and the Missouri Athletic Association, He has a membership with the St. Louis Lodge No. 5, I. O. O. F., and with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has taken all of the Scottish Rite degrees, while the honorary thirty-third degree has been conferred upon him. He is also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He has membership with the Church of the Unity, of which he is a trustee. During the war he was retained as school expert by the United States Housing Bureau of the Department of Labor, to make surveys of munition centers of the country to determine their school needs. Mr. Ittner is at all times keenly interested in those forces which make for progress and improvement while his aid and influence are always given on the side of justice, truth and right.
CHARLES ERD.
Charles Erd, engaged in the practice of law in St. Louis, was born at Waterloo, Illinois, February 18, 1870. His father, William Erd, a native of Germany, was born in 1826 and following the death of his parents in 1838 came to the United States, a youth of twelve years, to live with relatives on a farm near Waterloo. When twenty-five years of age he was elected clerk of the circuit court of Monroe county, Illinois, and occupied that position for twenty years, retiring to become county judge, a position which he filled for another twenty years or until he retired from the bench because of physical disability. For thirty years he was the closest personal and political friend of the late William R. Morrison who represented that district in congress for a quarter of a century and who often besought Mr. Erd to become his law partner. The latter was a stanch democrat in politics and such was his popularity and recognized ability that he was only once opposed by an- other candidate when he was up for reelection. He was supported by all parties by common consent as the result of his high character, recognized ability and unfaltering devotion to duty. He wedded Mary Wesley, a daughter of John Wes- ley, who for many years was a well known captain on Mississippi river steamers. He was born at Wauseon, Ohio, and was descended from Sir Thomas Featherstone- Haugh, who while a page in the British parliament ran away, sailed for America and became a resident of Baltimore, Maryland, while this country was still num- bered among the colonial possessions of Great Britain. He married the daughter of a near-by farmer and reared a large family, some of whom settled in Pennsyl- vania while others went to Ohio. One of his ancestors was prime minister of England. It is from this family that Mrs. Mary Erd was descended. The death of William Erd occurred November 27, 1896, and his wife, surviving for a few years, passed away December 27, 1900.
Charles Erd attended the public schools of Waterloo, Illinois, and was grad- uated from the high school in 1883. He then entered the St. Louis University but later was appointed a cadet at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis through the influence of Colonel Morrison. After a year there spent he resigned and pursued a special course preparatory to entering upon the study of law at the Wyman institute, conducted by Edward Wyman. He then matriculated in the St. Louis Law School and won his LL. B. degree in 1889, in which year he was admitted to the bar. He next entered the office of Taylor & Pollard as general law clerk, continuing with that firm until its dissolution, after which he remained in the law office of one of the partners, Seneca N. Taylor, by whom he was admitted to a partnership on the 1st of June, 1893, under the firm style of Taylor & Erd. A son of Mr. Taylor afterward joined the firm under the name of Taylor, Erd & Taylor. Mr. Erd remained a partner until 1902, since which time he has prac- ticed alone save for the period when he suffered the loss of eyesight as the result of an accidental gunshot wound sustained in March, 1905. Later he resumed the active work of his profession and is now engaged in general law practice yet specializes in banking and corporation law and in these connections has an exten- sive and important clientage. He was general counsel for the Fourth National Bank until it was absorbed by the Bank of Commerce, was counsel for the Bankers
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World's Fair National Bank during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and of the Central National Bank under the presidency of the late Hamilton A. Forman. He was also counsel for the St. Louis, Alton & Terre Haute Railroad, known as the Cairo Short Line.
In 1909, while temporarily in Waterloo, Illinois, Mr. Erd organized the Waterloo Commercial Club of which he became president and he was the inspiration in the successful move to connect Waterloo with St. Louis by trolley. He started and conducted the necessary condemnation proceedings and brought them to a speedy and favorable termination. This movement resulted in building the road which is now in operation. The Commercial Club of Waterloo, largely through the efforts of Mr. Erd, has brought about the building of a new railroad station in Waterloo and many improvements in the city of a most substantial and valuable character.
On the 10th of September, 1910, Mr. Erd married Lilly Steele, of St. Louis, daughter of Thomas Eyre and Mary Steele. Her father was born in Dublin, Ire- land, and came to St. Louis with his bride in young manhood. Many members of the Steele family have displayed marked literary talent and several of the name are mentioned on the pages of the Encyclopedia Britannica as authors. Mr. Erd and his wife are communicants of St. Rita's Catholic church of St. Louis county and in politics he is a firm democrat, having always given stanch allegiance to the party, while at all times he has upheld every interest and measure which he has deemed of benefit and value to the community at large, political and otherwise.
IRWIN L. PAGE.
Irwin L. Page, editor of the Star-News-Register of Bonne Terre, Missouri, where he resides, was born in Olivet, Michigan, December 17, 1873, on the farm of his father. He is the son of Denoice C. Page, who lives in Severance, Colorado. The latter is a retired farmer and a former soldier in the Civil war, having been wounded hy a southern bullet. He is a native of New York state and came with his parents to Michigan. The first recorded member of the Page family came from Wales and was the grandfather of Denoice Page. The mother of Irwin L. Page is Elizabeth (Shoupe) Page, now living in Colorado. She was born in Michigan, the daughter of Simeon Shoupe, a native of Canada.
Irwin L. Page attended the public schools of Friend, Nebraska, until he was seventeen years of age, when he finished the course there. He had learned the printing trade while in school at Friend, working in an office after school hours and on Saturdays, and during the summer vacations, both at Friend and at Lin- coln, Nebraska. After several years he was promoted to the position of foreman of the office at Friend and he left school to accept it. He was foreman of several plants in Nebraska and in 1896 he went to Hanover, Kansas, as foreman of the Democrat office. He remained in this position until March, 1898, when he pur- chased the Bonne Terre Star and removed to Bonne Terre. In 1910 the Star was acquired hy a corporation of which Mr. Page became and continues to be president and general manager. In 1918 the opposition paper, the News-Register, died and the Star accepted their business rights, the News-Register plant being sold under mortgage and moved away. The paper is a weekly publication, occupies a splendid office and has the most up-to-date equipment of any newspaper office in Missouri of its size. It is entirely equipped with electricity and some of the presses are fed automatically. Mr. Page has encountered many difficulties in his work but they have only served as an impetus to his further effort and perseverance. For sev- eral years he had trouble with certain lead company officials over matters which were abated when the lead company was reorganized. In 1914 a number of busi- ness men organized the Quick Payment Old Line Life Insurance Company, of which Mr. Page hecame and continues to be secretary and one of the largest stock- holders. This company has its home office in St. Louis and has nearly five million dollars of insurance in force and had a premium income of nearly two hundred thousand dollars in 1920. . Mr. Page is also secretary of the American Silica Sand & Mining Company at Festus.
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