USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri, vol. 2 > Part 13
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Caldo Arnold Layman
for the navy; artillery wheel hubs and rim parts, eight inch howitzer shells, 155 M. M. howitzer shells, Mark 111 French type detonator fuses and 155 M. M. adapters for the army. Very early in the war it became apparent that upon the destruction of the submarine depended the defeat of the German autoerat. In the depth charge a means was discovered whereby the deadly undersea craft could be routed from the waters. To get depth bombs quickly was of the utmost importance. On June 16, 1917, the Wagner Company was furnished with blue print drawings for depth charges, with the request that working models be produred as quickly as possible. Two weeks later experimental models, with all parts interchangeable, were expressed by the Wagner Company to an eastern naval station. A series of practical tests were made by the naval officers and these experimental models were found to function properly. Thereupon an order was telegraphed to the Wagner Company to proceed with quantity pro- duction and soon thereafter regular shipments were started. On one word, speed, lay the possibilities of coping with the submarine. At one time, so critical had the situation beeome, that shipments were made on fast passenger trains. During this time a baggage ear nosed its way out of the Wagner plant each night, and, under special naval guard, sped on its way to the guardians of our seas. For a few months after our entrance into the war, and until our own production was available, the United States navy was supplied with its depth bombs by the British navy. In order to return this loan by the British government, the Wagner Company built several thousand depth bombs of the British type. The depth bomb was a development of the war and grew in im- portance with it. Originally it was designed to discharge at comparatively shallow depths, and was used sparingly, being dropped over the side of the attacking vessel. As the submarine construction developed to withstand deeper water pressure, the depth bomb was made to explode at much greater depth, the mechanism being such that the operator eould set it for explosion at any depth desired. As the war progressed, very much more liberal use was made of the depth bomb, a single destroyer sometimes throwing out as many as fifteen to twenty in one attack. This very much more extended use of depth bombs made it necessary for the United States government to place contracts for addi- tional sources of supply. Hostilities terminated suddenly before deliveries on these additional contracts could be put to actual use ; therefore, it can be truth- fully said that the death knell of the German submarine had the ring of Wag- ner quality in it. The depth charge was the Wagner Company's most notable participation in the work of winning the war. The effectiveness of the depth bomb will be understood when it is stated that, according to recent statistics, a total of two hundred and three German submarines were destroyed during the war, and of this number, an overwhelming majority were destroyed by depth bombs. As the war progressed, the development of sounding devices in locat- ing submarines and the depth charges in destroying them practically put an end to the undersea terror. Many other productions of the company were almost of equal value. Moreover, twenty-five per cent of the men in the service of the company responded to the eall of the colors. Men not engaged on war work were called from the Wagner plant as freely as from any other and among those to go were seventy-five per cent of their selling and engineering forces. Some of those who went into the service of the country made the supreme saeri-
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fice. When others returned, they were given positions that they had left or others equal to them, regardless of prevailing industrial conditions, and be- cause of doing work essential to winning the war every employe of the Wagner Company was entitled to wear the ordnance department's service badge and to receive the department's certificate of service.
Mr. Layman has utilized every means to promote his knowledge and has himself become a dynamie force in the business world. He is today a fellow of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and one of its representatives on the council of the Federated Engineering Societies, an associate member of the British Institute of Electrical Engineers, past president of the Engineers Club of St. Louis and of the National Metal Trades Association and a director and member of the executive committee of the National Electric Light Association. Aside from his activities as the president of the Wagner Electric Manufactur- ing Company he is one of the directors of the First National Bank of St. Louis, the St. Louis Union Trust Company, the Certain-teed Products Corporation ยท and the American Central Insurance Company.
On the 8th of June, 1896, Mr. Layman was united in marriage to Miss Laura E. Toms, of Richmond, Indiana, eldest daughter of Anderson and Mary J. Toms. They have four daughters: Mrs. Edward F. Deacon, Mary Arnold, Laura Arnold and Grace Wilson.
Mr. Layman is well known in club circles in both the east and the west, having membership in the Engineers Club and the Railroad Club of New York, in the Commercial, St. Louis, Noonday, Town & Gown, Engineers, St. Louis Country and Bellerive Country Clubs of St. Louis, also the Contemporary Club, of which he was chairman in 1911 and 1912. He belongs to and is a trustee of the Pilgrim Congregational church of St. Louis and is also director of the senior division of the Pilgrim Sunday school. Fraternally he is identified with Tuscan Lodge, No. 360, A. F. & A. M., and he likewise belongs to the St. Louis Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. On national questions he is a republican, but on local issues casts an independent ballot. His interest in community affairs, however, is manifest in many tangible ways. He is a mem- ber of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce and of the St. Louis Electrical Board of Trade. He is serving on the board of directors of Washington Uni- versity Corporation and on the advisory board of the David Ranken, Jr., School of Mechanical Trades. From time to time he has served as a member of the general council of the Society for Vocational Education. One of his marked characteristics is his deep interest in affording to youth the opportunity for educational and business advancement and his cooperation has been a stimulus in the life of many a successful young man.
Filip S. Brown
hon. Philip Shelley Brown, St.
ON. PHILIP SHELLEY BROWN, for many years a distin- H guished member of the Kansas City bar, was born in Bed- ford county, Pennsylvania, October 14, 1833. ITis father, Henry Brown, was a descendant of the Maryland family of that name, and his mother who in her maidenhood was Miss Shelley, was a representative of the old Shelley and Smith families, having among her ancestors some of the earliest set- tlers of Philadelphia. The father died early in 1834 and the mother taking young Philip and his three brothers, removed to her father's farm in Hunting- ton (now Blair) county, Pennsylvania.
There Philip S. Brown divided his time between farm work and schoolroom duties to the age of sixteen years, when he entered the academy of the Rev. John H. MeKinney at Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. His stay there was prolonged for three years, due solely to his own exertions, for during vacation periods, by his services as deputy in the sheriff's office of that county, he was enabled to meet the necessary expenses for tuition. Leaving the academy in 1852, Mr. Brown during the following year entered the employ of the Cambria Iron Company, working through the day and continuing his studies at night. In 1855 he re- signed his position and removed to Davenport, Jowa, where he took up the study of law and was admitted to the bar in 1857.
In the succeeding year Mr. Brown removed to Kansas City, Missouri, then a small town, and engaged in the practice of his profession, retaining for years a most prominent position at the bar. As attorney for and director of the then constructing Kansas City, Galveston & Lake Superior Railroad-now a part of the main line of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy system-during those early years of the frontier town's precarious existence, he displayed a remarkable faith in the eity of his adoption ; and by his sound counsel and adviee the growth and advancement of the city were largely promoted. While a member of the eity eouneil in 1866 he drew the right-of-way contraet and made the legal ad- justments for the entrance into Kansas City of the Pacific Railroad, which is now the main entrance into Kansas City of that great corporation, the Missouri Paeifie Railroad.
In the practice of law Mr. Brown beeame senior partner in the firm of Brown & Case, his associate being Ermine Case, Jr., with whom he entered into partnership relations in 1859. In 1872 they were joined by Edward M. Wright, under the firm style of Brown, Case & Wright, an association that was maintained until 1882. The firm of Brown, Chapman & Brown was then organ- ized, the partners being P. S. Brown, Benjamin H. Chapman and William II. Brown, the last named being a son of the senior partner. This association was formed in 1884 and in 1899 the firm became Brown, Harding & Brown, the
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new member thereof being John T. Harding. After many years of arduons application, his marked ability keeping him at the front of his profession at all times, finding his health impaired, he retired from practice in 1890 and directed his efforts to the development of his large realty interests. His name remained as that of senior partner until 1908.
On the 3rd of November, 1858, Mr. Brown was married to Miss Julia A. Shaffer, the eldest danghter of William Shaffer, of Blair county, Pennsylvania, and to them were born nine children, of whom five are living. Julia Angusta, who was born November 3, 1859, and became the wife of Edward B. Shillito on the 2d of February, 1881; Lula Katherine, whose birth occurred August 12, 1862, and who on the 17th of June, 1885, gave her hand in marriage to Joseph Curd; William Harrison, born February 26, 1864, who wedded Caroline Sanford Miller on the 11th of June, 1896, and passed away April 6, 1916; Philip Sheridan, who was born December 25, 1866, and who married Edith Wolf on the 13th of August, 1908; Ralph J., whose natal day was March 8, 1874; and Sara Lela, born March 8, 1874, who became the wife of Allan J. Epperson on the 26th of April, 1899. The wife and mother passed away in Kansas City, January 6, 1908. Early allying himself with the Presbyterian church, Mr. Brown has aided and upbuilded many of its projects and has ever been among the first to advance the social and religions welfare and the pros- perity and progress of his community.
Philip Sheridan Brown, Jr.
PHILIP SHERIDAN BROWN, Jr., well known in Kansas City P as an insurance and investment broker, has also figured prom- inently in connection with public affairs and his efforts have constituted an element of municipal progress and improve- ment. Born in Kansas City, December 25, 1866, he is a repre- sentative of an old family of Maryland, tracing his ancestry back through several generations to Jacob Brown, who was born in that state, then a colony, in November, 1750, coming of English and German parentage. In a collateral branch the ancestral line is also traced back to Abram Shelly, who came from Ilolland to the new world about 1690 and settled near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On the distaff side Philip S. Brown, Jr., is descended from William Shaffer, who was born in 1811, and also from Frederick Hileman, whose birth occurred in York county, Pennsylvania, January 30, 1788. The Brown, Shelly, Shaffer and Hileman families were all early settlers of Pennsylvania, where many representatives held public office in early colonial times and after the organization of the republic. Among their descendants were those who became factors in the pioneer settlement and up- building of Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri.
Philip S. Brown, Sr., who has now reached the advanced age of eighty- seven years, came to Kansas City in 1858 and here still makes his home, one of the most honored and venerable residents of Missouri's western metropolis.
His son and namesake, Philip S. Brown, Jr., was a pupil in the ward schools of Kansas City and afterward was graduated from the high school with the class of 1883. Immediately afterward, although only sixteen years of age at the time, he entered the fire insurance business as local agent and has continu- ously been connected with this field of activity, yet has also extended his labors into other lines, including real estate and property investments. His business affairs have constantly broadened in scope and importance and he is now senior partner in the firm of Brown, Mann & Barnum, which was organized in 1905 and is known throughout the country as one of the strongest and most success- ful organizations of this character in Missouri. Mr. Brown displays marked initiative, keen insight into business problems and the faculty of separating the essential elements of any business project from its inconsequential phases.
While prominently known as a business man, Mr. Brown also has gained rating with the leading and valued residents of Kansas City by reason of his active publie and political work. Since attaining his majority his support has been given to the republican party and he has long wielded wide influence in its circles. He served as a member of the lower house of the city council from 1894 until 1896 and was then elected to the upper house for a four years' term. Throughout the great constructive period in connection with municipal affairs,
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Philip Sheridan Brown, Jr.
extending from 1904 until 1908, he was a member of the board of public works and one of the water commissioners. While serving in the city council the splendid park and boulevard system was laid out, the grounds condemned and construction work begun. Mr. Brown was made chairman of the committee on parks and public grounds and in this connection worked untiringly for the promotion and consummation of all these improvements, and it is largely due to his efforts that there came into force the general ordinances systematizing the planting and care of the now beautiful shade trees which extend for many miles along the principal residence streets. He was also an early advocate of small parks for children's playgrounds and looks at all of these vital questions from a broad standpoint of civic beauty and civic improvement.
Aside from his labors in Kansas City, Mr. Brown has been recognized for many years as a leader of his party in the state and from 1900 until 1906 was a member of the executive committee of the republican state central committee of Missouri. He was also chairman of the congressional committee of the fifth district and chairman of the central committee of Jackson county during the presidential campaign of 1904 and for two years thereafter.
On the 13th of August, 1908, Mr. Brown was united in marriage to Miss Edith A. Wolf, who was born August 6, 1887, in Kansas City, where her parents, Samuel and Margaret (Sullivan) Wolf, took up their abode at an early day. Their home, which is one of the attractive places of the city, contains a very fine library and to this Mr. Brown largely turns for recreation. He is a firm believer in systematic and organized reading and finds one of his chief sources of pleasure in the companionship of the men of master minds of all ages. He belongs to the Chamber of Commerce of Kansas City and is a life member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. From early manhood he has held membership in the Presbyterian church and he has always been a generous contributor to benevolent and charitable projects, continuously extending a helping hand to the needy yet guiding his charity at all times by that sound judgment which readily recognizes the line between fostering vagrancy and pro- moting self-help. He has ever been a believer in giving to each individual the opportunity for the development of the best that is in him, and throughout his entire life he has held to the highest civic as well as business and personal standards.
HD Thomas
William Sherman Thomas
STARTING out to provide for his own support in the position of Assistant Postmaster in the little town of Pleasant Hill, Ili- S nois, William Sherman Thomas is today the Vice President and Treasurer of the Wagner Electric Manufacturing Com- pany of St. Louis, which has four thousand employes. Not by leaps and bounds has he reached his present dominant position in commercial circles, but by a steady progression that has followed the prompt and efficient discharge of every duty that has devolved upon him, resulting in the constant development and increase of his powers. He was born at Pleasant Hill, Pike County, Illinois, August 21, 1867, and is a son of Dr. John A. and Sophia (Blair) Thomas. Mr. Thomas' eldest brother, Albert J., died in 1918, and his youngest brother, Clarence C., born in 1876, is Cashier of the Citizens State Bank at Pleasant Hill, Illinois.
The Thomas family, of Welsh origin, was founded in Virginia in 1690. The great-grandfather of Mr. Thomas of this review was with the Virginia troops and fought throughout the Revolutionary war, being with the forces under Gen- eral Washington at the time of the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. Dr. John A. Thomas, father of William S. Thomas, was born in Virginia in 1818 and in 1836 removed to Missouri, where he taught school and studied medicine, being graduated from the MeDowell Medical College of St. Louis. In 1845 he removed to Pleasant Hill, Illinois, where he engaged in the practice of his profession to the time of his death, which occurred February 25, 1888. His wife was born in 1836, was graduated from the Illinois Women's College at Jacksonville in 1858 and in January, 1863, became the wife of Dr. John A. Thomas. Following the demise of her husband, she became a resident of St. Louis, where she passed away November 9, 1909, her remains being taken back for interment by the side of her husband at Pleasant Hill.
In the public schools of his native town, William S. Thomas pursued his early education, which was supplemented hy study in the Illinois State Nor- mal University at the town of Normal. After filling the position of Assistant Postmaster at Pleasant Hill for a time he went south to San Antonio, Texas, and became a Teller in the Maverick Bank. Watching for an opportunity to conduct business on his own account, he eventually became a partner in the firm of Thomas & Shultz, grain dealers, and also entered into partnership with his brother in the condnet of a general merchandise store, both of these interests being con- ducted at Pleasant Hill, Illinois. His identification with St. Louis dates from 1894, at which time he organized the Aroma Coffee & Spice Company, becoming its first President. For a number of years he successfully conducted the busi- ness and in 1901 became the General Manager of the D. G. Evans Company, importers of coffees and teas. In 1907 he was elected Treasurer of the Wagner
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Electric Manufacturing Company and later to the duties of that office were added those of the vice presidency and he has since served in a dual position. Some- thing of the volume of the business conducted by the Wagner Electric Manu. facturing Company is indicated in the fact that its employes number four thou- sand. Its plant is most thoroughly equipped with the latest improved ma- chinery and the work has been carefull systematized. At its head are men of splendid executive ability whose constructive efforts and administrative direc- tion have led to the constant development and enlargement of the business, until it is today not only one of the chief productive industries of St. Louis but of the Mississippi Valley as well. The Company maintains branch offices, selling force and warehouses in all the leading cities of the United States and Canada, and is rapidly organizing sales agencies in the leading foreign countries. The Wagner Electric Manufacturing Company is the originator of the single-phase motor business, and the pioneer in the development of large power transform- ers, being the first company to build these transformers and install them at Niagara Falls. In the automobile field the company is one of the leading dis- tributors of starting and lighting devices, and was one of the first in St. Louis to establish a mutual aid society to care for sick and injured employes, and also the first to furnish free group life insurance for its employes.
On the 20th of October, 1892, in St. Louis, Missouri, Mr. Thomas was united in marriage to Miss Frances R. Moore, a daughter of William R. and Margaret Moore, both of whom have now passed away. Her father, who was born in Missouri, November 20, 1841, died in St. Louis, July 5, 1916, and the mother, whose birth occurred in 1842, departed this life September 23, 1873. To Mr. and Mrs. Thomas were born four sons. The eldest, Maurice L. Thomas, was born at Pleasant Hill, Illinois, in 1893, and was graduated from the University of Illinois in the class of June, 1916, having completed a course in electrical engineering. During his college days he became a member of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity. Returning to his home, he entered the works of the Wag- ner Electric Manufacturing Company, and his rapidly developing efficiency brought him to the position of Production Superintendent in the Large Motor Department. He was thus serving when death called him on the 4th of August, 1919, the news of his demise bringing a sense of deep personal bereavement to all who knew him, for he was most popular with his associates in social and business circles. One writing of him at the time of his death said: "He was always active in athletics, and was ever a tower of strength in every field to which he turned his energies. Ever faithful, modest, earnest and dependable, he fully carned the sincere respect and admiration of all. We may truly say of him-
'This was a man ; I shall not look upon his like again.'"
Maurice is buried in the family lot in Bellefontaine Cemetery.
The second son, Ralph R. Thomas, born at Pleasant Hill, Illinois, December 26, 1894, was graduated from the University of Illinois with the class of June, 1916, having completed an electrical engineering course, the degree of B. S. being then conferred upon him. In his college days he was editor of the Techno-
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graph, an engineering magazine, was a Major in the Student Brigade and won preliminary honors. Ile also beeame a member of the Phi Delta Theta fra- ternity. Later he pursued a special course at the University of Oxford, England. IIe attended the First Officers Training Camp at Fort Riley, Kan- sas, in 1917, and was made a First Lieutenant with the Eighty-ninth Di- vision, A. E. F., and spent fourteen months with the American Army in France, being with the Eighty-ninth Division in their important engagements on the eastern battlefields in France. Since his retirement from the army, he has been employed as a salesman by the William R. Compton Investment Company.
The third son, Nelson R. Thomas, born February 14, 1898, in St. Louis, was graduated from the School of Commerce of the University of Illinois with the degree of B. S. in June, 1919, and is a member of the Phi Delta Theta Fra- ternity. He was Chairman of the Students Union and a Captain in the Stu- dent Brigade, as well as leader of the Mandolin Club during his college days. lle enlisted in the Navy in 1918 and attended the Ensign School at the Great Lakes Naval Station. He is now in the St. Louis office of Goldman, Sachs & C'o. of New York, bonds and investments.
The fourth son, Dwight D. Thomas, born August 18, 1902, in St. Louis, is a student at the University of Illinois and a member of the Phi Delta Theta Fra- ternity.
In his political views, Mr. Thomas is a republican, but not an active party worker. He and his family have membership in the Second Baptist Church and he belongs to Tuscan Lodge, No. 360, A. F. & A. M., and Missouri Con- sistory, No. 1. A. A. S. R. Ile is also connected with the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen and belongs to the Noonday, Bellerive, Country, and City Clubs. Few men are more prominent or more widely known in the busi- ness eireles of St. Louis than Mr. Thomas, and his prosperity is well deserved, as in him are embraced the characteristics of an unbending integrity, unabat- ing energy and industry that never flags. He is also publie spirited, giving his eooperation to every movement which tends to promote the material, intellectual and moral welfare of the community.
Jours very Truly Nathan Schritt. ( -
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