USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume V > Part 48
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84
His earliest business experience was obtained in the insurance office of J. P. Standard of Cleveland, where he spent a year and a half immediately after leaving school. He resigned this position to take a place with the Merchants' Dispatch Transportation Company under O. B. Skinner, general manager; later was for a time in the employ of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company, and in 1881 took a position in the secretary's office of the Standard Oil Company, under Colonel W. P. Thompson, afterward vice president (1885). In 1887 Colonel Thomp- son removed to New York city, taking Mr. Hatfield with him as his private secretary. Colonel Thompson was one of the closest advisors of President Rockefeller, and as chairman of one of the most important committees and associate member of several others was one of the most potential factors in perfecting the organization of the Standard Oil Trust and making it the most successful corporation in the United States. In the spring of 1889 Colonel Thompson was elected president of the National Lead Trust, and Mr. Hatfield continued to act as his secretary until August, 1889, when his health broke down as a result of the strain to which he had been subjected in the performance of his duties, the sickness of Colonel Thomp- son and his acceptancy of the presidency of the National Lead Trust having added greatly to the labors of his secretary. A change of climate being deemed essential to the restoration of his health Mr. Hatfield accepted an offer of several months' standing made by President H. Clay Pierce, of St. Louis, to become identified with the Waters-Pierce Oil Company, which at that time represented the Standard Oil Company in the southwest. He occupied a position of confidence and responsibility with this corporation for ever fourteen years where he was regarded as a good business man by those who knew him. The fact that he was handling over a million dollars' worth of freight annually and that the claim department, of which he was also manager, for many years averaged a collection between ninety-eight and ninety- nine per cent, is sufficient evidence of his ability in that direction, bringing into play the early training he had in the railroad business in Cleveland.
During all these years, back as far as 1885, he had been active in fraternal circles, his first love having been the Knights of the Maccabees into which he was initiated in 1886 in Cleveland, and on the same evening was elected record keeper of Cleveland tent. He continued his activities in the Maccabees in New York and
436
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI
afterwards in St. Louis and was the principal factor in building this organization up from a very few members until there were over fifteen thousand. He was in- strumental in organizing St. Louis Camp, the central organization of this city; was for several years its record keeper, and in 1898 was made its commander and chair- man of its executive committee. At the supreme tent review of the Knights of the Maccabees in 1897 he was elected supreme master-at-arms, that being the highest official position ever given to a member of the order west of the Mississippi river. He always stood high in the confidence of the supreme officers of the organization, and much of the progress and growth of the order in Missouri for many years was due to his efforts. He was secretary and treasurer of the Missouri Fraternal Con- gress, which position he retained for eleven years and it was in this position that he assisted the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in securing legislation at Jefferson City through his fraternal affiliations throughout the state, and which later on gave him the idea of organizing the World's Fair Fraternity Building Association, a movement which united fifty-six fraternal societies with an aggregate membership of eight million, one hundred and thirty-two thousand, and the erection of the temple of fraternity on the World's Fair grounds at which forty-two conventions of frater- nal societies were held.during the exposition period, and the bringing to St. Louis of more visitors than any other movement in connection with the Louisiana Pur- chase exposition and for which Mr. Hatfield received the gold medal in recognition of his service. At this time he belonged to nearly all of the fraternal beneficiary societies, like the Knights of Maccabees, Royal Arcanum, National Union, Modern Later on he was
Woodmen of America, Woodmen of the World, Ben Hur, etc. secretary of the National Fraternal Sanitarium for Tuberculosis which was an out- growth of the temple of fraternity (Louisiana Purchase Exposition) movement and as a result of this assisted in erecting the largest sanitarium for the treatment of tuberculosis in the country and started the movement in a big way for the outdoor treatment for tuberculosis, which was then in its infancy, securing over one million dollars' worth of publicity without a dollar's compensation, because no salaries were paid in any of these exposition movements. He gave to the city of St. Louis in the organization and publicity of this movement three of the best years of his life, but in doing so he found himself as an organizer along publicity lines and becoming tired of being a cog in a big wheel, notwithstanding his nearly twenty-five years' connection with the Standard Oil Company interests, he resigned his business con- nections in 1904 and went into the publishing and publicity work, specializing in banks, hotels and fraternal societies. He was secretary and business manager for many years of the Western Review, an independent fraternal publication, which he first started in St. Louis and in 1906 moved to Chicago where it is still being published and in which Mr. Hatfield retains an interest, although he has not given it any of his personal attention for the last ten years. He was father of the fraternal department idea which he installed in several banks and particularly in the Amer- ican Trust & Savings Bank of Chicago which afterwards became a part of the Continental & Commercial Bank of that city, and it was one of the principal assets in creating a new business for the bank. While in Chicago he had charge of various publicity campaigns, but early in 1913 was appointed by President Moore of the Panama Pacific Exposition as its eastern representative, and in this position was the principal factor in listing over one thousand conventions for San Francisco, nine hundred and thirty-seven of which met in San Francisco during the exposition period, notwithstanding the war, leaving over thirty-four million of convention visitor dollars in San Francisco during that period, for which he received highest award medals of the Panama Pacific Exposition.
While still connected with the Panama Pacific Exposition he had offers from many cities to take charge of their convention and publicity bureaus because of the eminent success he had made in connection with the San Francisco Exposition, but feeling that he could build a greater monument to himself and accomplish greater results in St. Louis where he had lived so many years, he accepted the offer of the St. Louis Convention Bureau and since January, 1916, has been in charge of this Bureau and has built it up year by year until it is recognized as the leading Bureau of its kind in the country, having the largest income of any similar bureau in the world and the largest staff of efficient people. The fact that he had made St. Louis the third convention city and that during the past year nearly four hundred con- ventions have met in St. Louis, bringing a quarter of a million visitors that have
437
ยท CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI
every one been a walking advertisement for St. Louis and that have spent twenty million of dollars in St. Louis, securing over two million dollars worth of publicity in press and house organs, is the best evidence of his organization ability. The Bureau now has a directorate of thirty of the leading men representing various important business interests and of which Mr. Hatfield is secretary and general manager.
The principal people on his staff are Capt. Francis E. Turin, director of mem- bership and publicity, Frederick H. Rein, director of conventions and tourists. Of course it would be impossible for Mr. Hatfield to manage his various interests with- out his wonderful ability as an organizer and efficient staff to handle details. The work goes on just the same when he is out of the city because he is in great demand as a speaker, addressing chambers of commerce in regard to conventions and com- munity advertising.
During the war, no matter how busy he was he was always ready to respond when called upon to act as chairman in charge of many activities in connection with war movements, such as Liberty Loan, Red Cross, etc. However, he is really better known outside of St. Louis than he is in his home town because of the national organizations with which he is connected, a few of which are as follows:
President, National Association of Convention Bureaus; national councillor, representing the National Association of Convention Bureaus, in the Chamber of Commerce of the United States; president, Community Advertising Department of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World; member of National Commission and of Exhibit and Educational Committees of National Commission of the Asso- ciated Advertising Clubs of the World; of Special Committee of the A. A. C. of W., known as the Book Publishing Committee, of which Mr. Herbert S. Houston is chairman, to prepare a standard authoritative book on the economics of advertising; first vice president, American Travel Development Association; officer, Universal Citizenship Training League; chairman, Publicity Committee of the Missouri Society Sons of American Revolution; secretary, St. Louis Committee, Missouri Centennial; member, National Association of Commercial Organization Secretaries; of the Na- tional Security League; the National Defense Society; the National Editorial Associa- tion; the Society of American Indians; the Young Men's National Republican Club; the Missouri Historical Society; the Missouri Association Commercial Organization Secretaries; the State Historical Society of Missouri; the Missouri Press Association; the Advertising Club of St. Louis; the Zoological Society of St. Louis; the St. Louis Optimists Club; the Old Colony Club; the Apollo Club; the Missouri Athletic Asso- ciation; the City Club of St. Louis, and was chairman of the membership committee when it made its greatest drive during the war and for the first time had a waiting list; the West End Business Men's Association; chairman, Staff of Advisory Board of Page, David Advertising School (Chicago); is a past supreme officer of the Knights of Maccabees; a thirty-second degree Mason; member of Occidental Lodge, 163, A. F. & A. M .; Missouri Consistory, Scottish Rite thirty-second degree; Medinah Temple, Mystic Shrine, Chicago; Alhambra Grotto, St. Louis; the Presbyterian Church; the National Civic Federation; and the American Association of Municipal Improvements.
On October 1, 1885, he married Miss Mary Williams, of Warren, Ohio, whose father, Henry A. Williams, died soon after the Civil war from wounds received in the service of his country.
EDMUND V. WILKINSON.
Edmund V. Wilkinson, president of the Nu-Back Manufacturing Company of St. Louis, was born in Winnetka, Illinois, January 27, 1877, his parents being Booker A. and Margaret (Van Wyek) Wilkinson. The father was born in Colum- bus, Mississippi, in 1840, and served in the Eighth Tennessee Cavalry during the Civil war. After the close of hostilities he removed to St. Paul, Minnesota, and later became a resident of Winnetka, Illinois, where he was engaged in the con- tracting and building business. His last days were passed in Philadelphia where
438
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI
he departed this life in March, 1920. His wife was born in the state of New York in 1843, and died in Chicago in January, 1919.
Edmund V. Wilkinson pursued his education in the public schools of Chicago and began learning the paint and varnish business with the Sherwin Williams Com- pany of Chicago. In 1902 he came to St. Louis as manager of the Eberson Paint Company and two years later was made secretary of the company remaining with the firm until August, 1912, when he became one of the organizers of the Nu-Back Manufacturing Company of which he was elected president. This company is engaged in the manufacture of paints and varnish and ships its products all over the United States and to various foreign countries as well. The business in the intervening period of eight years has become one of the substantial and productive industries of the city and through all the years which have passed since its organ- ization the trade has now grown until it is one of extensive proportions. Mr. Wil- kinson is also the president of the Coverall Varnish Manufacturing Company.
On September 10, 1920, Mr. Wilkinson was married to Mrs. Lillian B. (O'Sul- livan) Gillespie, a daughter of William and Mary O'Sullivan, of Farmington, Mis- souri, the former now retired. Mrs. Wilkinson was superintendent of music in the public schools for six years prior to her marriage.
In his political views Mr. Wilkinson is a democrat and has supported the party since attaining his majority. He belongs to the Normandie Country Club and is a representative of Masonry, having membership in Tuscan Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and in Missouri Commandery of the Knights Templars. He is also a member of the Baptist church and his has been a well spent life, gaining for him the respect, confidence and high regard of all with whom he has been brought into contact, while his business qualifications are manifest in the successful and growing enter- prise which he and his associate officers have built up.
AUGUSTE BERTHOLD EWING.
Auguste Berthold Ewing was born in St. Louis, April 6, 1839. He died at Casco, on Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota, on the 10th of July, 1910, after a long residence in St. Louis, during which time he had figured prominently in business and social circles. In the later years of his life he was retired, the activity of his former years having brought to him the measure of success that enabled him to put aside business cares.
At the time of his birth St. Louis was largely a French city. Mr. Ewing was of Scotch-Irish descent on his father's side. The family was originally founded in Scotland, whence representatives of the name went to Ireland and thence to America from Londonderry, first settling in Sisson county,' Maryland, in 1725. Some of the family remained in that state, while others went to Pennsylvania. His grand- father, Nathaniel Ewing, moved from Pennsylvania to Montclair, near Vincennes, Indiana, in 1807, where William L. Ewing, the father of A. B. Ewing, was born in 1809. He was only about ten or eleven years of age when he became a resident of St. Louis, making his home with his brother-in-law, William Carr Lane, the first mayor of the city. He afterward became connected with the wholesale grocery and commission business and was a leading figure in the commercial upbuilding and progress of the city through the middle portion of the nineteenth century. He died at St. Louis on the 22d of October, 1873. He married Claire Berthold on the 1st of February, 1838, she being a daughter of Bartholomew Berthold, born in 1780 near Trent in the Italian Tyrol, and Pelagie (Chouteau) Berthold, the latter a daughter of Pierre Chouteau, one of the founders of the city of St. Louis. Claire ( Berthold) Ewing died in 1900. To William L. Ewing and his wife were born eleven children, of whom Auguste Berthold was the eldest and the last of their surviving sons. The second son of the family was William +. Ewing, mayor of St. Louis from 1881 until 1885, after which he returned to the old family home- stead at Montclair, where he died in 1905. The third son of the family was Fred- erick B., who died in February, 1897.
Auguste B. Ewing completed his education in the St. Louis University, pur- suing his studies to the year 1857, when he became connected with his father's busi- ness and was thus engaged until 1876. He and his brother, William L., succeeded
AUGUSTE B. EWING
441
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI
to the business upon their father's death and were prominent wholesale grocers and commission merchants until they closed out the business, at which time Auguste B. Ewing retired from active association with mercantile interests. His name was ever a synonym for integrity and enterprise in commercial affairs and he was , ever actuated by a progressive spirit in all that he undertook. In 1883 his brother, who was then mayor of the city, appointed him commissioner of supplies for St. Louis and he acted in that capacity throughout the remainder of his brother's mayoralty administration. He was one of the original subscribers to the stock of the Granite Mountain Mining Company and was the last survivor of them, which included many of the most distinguished citizens here. Mr. Ewing became connected with a number of financial and commercial concerns and of the Mississippi Valley Trust Company was one of the directors. He also made investment in property in St. Louis and was the owner of a beautiful home at No. 2740 Locust street. In all his investments and business affairs he displayed notably sound judgment and enter- prise, readily discriminating between the essential and the non-essential, so that desired results were certain.
Mr. Ewing was married on the 8th of September, 1869, in St. Louis, to Mary Scott McCausland, born in St. Louis, August 7, 1847, a daughter of Mark McCaus- land, who was born in 1801 at Hamiltonbawn Parish of Mullabrach, county of Armagh, Ireland, and came to the United States in 1829, and Sarah Scott Bran- ham, daughter of Harbin and Eleanor (Scott) Branham, of Bourbon county, Ken- tucky. To them were born eight children, seven of whom are now living: Mark, unmarried; Nathaniel W., who married Marian Rumsey, of St. Louis; Auguste B., who married Lily Day of St. Paul, Minnesota; Marie, who married Ira E. Wight, of New Orleans, Louisiana; Claire, who married Samuel Plant, of St. Louis; Frederick B., who married Mary Willis, of Baltimore; and Charles G., unmarried. Mrs. Ewing, the wife and mother, died at Casco, on Lake Minnetonka, August 20, 1897.
In his political views Mr. Ewing was a stalwart democrat from the time that he cast his first vote for Stephen A. Douglas for president, in 1860. He belonged to the Roman Catholic church and was a member of a number of the leading clubs of the city, including the St. Louis, Noonday, Racquet and Kinloch Country Clubs. He was ever a man of modest demeanor, free from ostentation and display, and he judged men by worth, not by wealth. Genuine regret was felt at his death. He had been a lifetime resident of St. Louis, so that his history was familiar to his fellow townsmen, and all who knew him bore testimony to his splendid character and his fidelity to principle.
AUGUSTE B. EWING, JR.
Auguste B. Ewing, Jr., bears an honored name and in his career has displayed many of the sterling qualities of his Scotch-Irish and French ancestry. He was born in St. Louis, August 13, 1873, and is a representative of a family that has been connected with the history of this city for more than a century. His father, Auguste Berthold Ewing, Sr., is mentioned at length on another page of this work.
The son was educated in the Stoddard school, which he attended for three years, in the Christian Brothers College, in which he was a student for three years, and in the Phillips Exeter Academy at Exeter, Massachusetts, where he pursued his studies for four years before entering Yale University. He was graduated within the classic walls of that institution in 1895 with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and while a student at Yale was a member of the Cloister.
Returning to St. Louis, Mr. Ewing started upon his business career as an employe of the National Bank of Commerce and was connected with that institution in various clerical and official capacities from 1895 until 1900. He afterward became a representative of the Ferguson-Mckinney Dry Goods Company, one of the leading commercial concerns of the city, there continuing for three years. He later became a member of the Ewing-Merkle Electric Company, jobbers in electrical supplies, and upon the dissolution of the firm in 1908 he continued in the same line of busi- ness on his own account as representative of the Bryan-Marsh division of the Gen- eral Electric Company, representing the National Lamp Works, manufacturers of
442
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI
incandescent lamps. Thus far in the twentieth century he has been connected with the electrical business in one way or another and is largely acquainted with the business in principle and detail.
In 1900 Mr. Ewing was married to Miss Lily W. Day, a daughter of Dr. David Day, of St. Paul, Minnesota. Mr. Ewing is fond of outdoor life and athletic sports and he is also well known in club circles of the city as a member of the University club, the Racquet Club and the St. Louis Country Club, which gives him opportunity to indulge his interest in and love for golf. Some one has charac- terized him as "a good business man, sensible, careful and likeable," and thus it is that he is sustaining the honored family name.
THOMAS FRANCIS STEPHENS.
Thomas Francis Stephens, purchasing agent for the American Trust Com- pany, also for the William R. Compton Company, and well known in the younger business circles of St. Louis, has made steady progress since taking his initial step in connection with the financial interests of the city. He was here born on the 4th of August, 1895, and is a son of Frank J. and Sarah (Radigan) Stephens, the latter now deceased. In the acquirement of his education the son attended St. Vincent's high school from which he was graduated on the 8th of June, 1910. He is now studying law at the St. Louis University, being a member of the Sophomore class of the night school. He started out upon his business career as office boy with the Title Guaranty Trust Company on the 1st of October, 1910, and served with that corporation in various clerical capacities until the time when he was ap- pointed manager of the insurance department of the Title Guarantee Trust Com- pany in 1917. He continued to act in that capacity until December 15, 1919, when he resigned to become purchasing agent for the American Trust Company, and purchasing agent for the William R. Compton Company. In addition to his service in that connection he was appointed manager of the Compton building on the 1st of September, 1920. Thus step by step he has made steady progress since he started out on his own account, and actuated by a laudable ambition, displaying marked persistency of purpose and unfaltering energy, his friends and his business associates feel no doubt as to the ultimate outcome, believing that his future career will be well worth watching.
OTTO H. BRUNS.
Otto H. Bruns, manufacturer of candies in St. Louis, was born at Harvester, St. Charles county, Missouri, June 11, 1881. His father, August Bruns, also a native of St. Charles county, was of German descent, his father having been the founder of the Missouri branch of the family. August Bruns was reared and edu- cated in his native county and there followed agricultural pursuits. He married Elizabeth Rossau, also a native of St. Charles county and of French descent. Mr. Bruns passed away in 1892 at the age of forty-two years while his widow long survived and departed this life in St. Louis December 2, 1919, at the age of sixty- three years. By her marriage she became the mother of four sons and a daughter, all of whom are living.
Otto H. Bruns, the second child and eldest son of the family, was educated in a Lutheran school in his native county and in the public schools of St. Charles. His early life to the age of eleven years was spent on the home farm and after reaching that age he aided in the support of the family by working on neighboring farms and in a tobacco factory. When seventeen years of age he came to St. Louis and secured employment with the Busy-Bee Candy Company with whom he continued for several years, learning much concerning candy manufacturing during that period. In 1916 he established his present business, having but little capital at the time and beginning in a modest way. Gradually, however, he has built up a trade of large proportions, his patronage coming to him from various states beyond the borders of Missouri. Something of the volume of his business is indicated in the
THOMAS F. STEPHENS
445
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSOURI
fact that he now employs twenty-five people in his establishment and has won a well deserved reputation for the excellent quality of his products.
On the 12th of July, 1914, in St. Louis, Mr. Bruns was married to Miss Portia May O'Brien, a native of St. Louis and a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James J. O'Brien, the former a prominent attorney and state senator, who both as lawyer and law- maker has left the impress of his individuality and ability upon the history of Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Bruns are parents of five children, the two youngest, a boy and a girl, being twins. Mr. Bruns gives his political endorsement to the republican party and his religious faith is that of the Lutheran church. He is loyal to all those interests which make for good in the community and his business career has been characterized by persistency of purpose which, intelligently guided, always leads to substantial results.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.