USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri, vol. 2 > Part 18
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Authorship includes Through Texas, published in 1892; The Ozark Uplift, in 1900; The Forest City, 1904; A Trip to Panama, 1907; Introdnetion and Notes on Faesimiles of Poems and Letters of Robert Burns, 1907; The Build- ing of St. Louis, 1908; St. Louis, the Fourth City, 1909; The Log of the Alton, 1909; One Hundred Years in a Week, 1910; The Brown-Reynolds Duel, 1911;
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Walter Barlow Stevens
Water Purification at St. Louis, 1911; History of St. Louis, two volumes, 1911; Samuel Morris Dodd, 1912; Book of the Fourth American Peace Congress, 1913; St. Louis Nights Wi' Burns, 1913; Eleven Roads to Snecess, 1913; Missouri, The Center State, two volumes, 1914; Grant in St. Louis, 1915; Halsey Cooley Ives, 1915; Lincoln and Missouri, 1915; Missouri's Centennial, 1917; A Reporter's Lincoln, 1917; Missouri One Hundred Years Ago, 1919; Ambassador Francis, 1920; Missouri's Travail of Statchood, 1920: Centennial History of Missouri, two volumes, 1921.
Mr. Stevens was married in 1912 to Mrs. Sarah Rebecca Croft, Georgetown, South Carolina.
Johan moore 1
Benjamin C. Moore
BENJAMIN C. MOORE, president of the Moore-Seaver Grain B Company of Kansas City, has worked his way upward from a humble position until he stands today as one of the prominent grain merchants of the southwest. A native of Kansas City, he was born February 4, 1876, and is a son of Colonel John W. Moore, who was one of the first mayors of Kansas City, having settled here in pioneer times. Ile was born in Danville, Ken- tucky, November 25, 1840, and with the family removed to Gallatin, Tennessee, when but five years of age. In 1849 the family home was established on a farm near Blue Springs, Missouri, and at the age of nineteen years Colonel Moore was entrusted with a freighting train operating over the western plains. He dis- played great ability as a commander of military forces in the Civil war, serving as a colonel on General Marmaduke's staff. In 1872 he married Sallie Bryant, daughter of William Bryant, one of the pioneers of Jackson county, Missouri. With the business development and progress of Kansas City he was closely associated for many years. He built and operated the first roller mill in this vicinity, the site thereof being at Nineteenth and Walnut streets. In 1885 he was elected mayor of Kansas City and he became also a charter member of the Kansas City Board of Trade, serving as its president in 1899. He was one of the owners and active in the control of the business carried on under the name of the Moore Grain & Elevator Company and thus he figured prominently in connection with the political and civic interests and the commercial progress of this section of the state. He passed away in Kansas City, June 5, 1917, after an illness of five months, survived by his widow and his son, Benjamin C. Moore, of Kansas City. Fraternally Colonel Moore was connected with the Masons and had attained the Knights Templar degree of the York Rite and was a member of the Mystic Shrine. He long held membership in the Presbyterian church, of which he served as elder.
Benjamin C. Moore, after attending the public schools and the high school of Kansas City, entered the Missouri Valley College at Marshall, Missouri, and later became connected with his father in the grain and elevator business. Through the intervening period he has made steady progress along that line and in 1906 he established and incorporated the Moore-Seaver Grain Company, with offices in the Board of Trade building. They have a large elevator and conduct a warehousing and grain business which has now assumed mammoth proportions. Mr. Moore started out independently with but small capital but has steadily progressed until he ranks with the leading grain merchants of the southwest. He is courageous and careful in the conduct of his affairs, full of energy and a man of the strictest integrity. In 1916 he served as president of the Board of
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Trade of Kansas City and thus furnished the only instance when father and son have been president in the history of the organization.
In 1899 Mr. Moore was married to Miss Lilian Johnson, who was born at Holden, Missouri, a daughter of E. P. Jolinson, one of the early settlers of that place. They now have one child, Martha, who is sixteen years of age.
Mr. Moore is a member of the Kansas City Club, the Blue Hills Country Club and the Hillerest Country Club and is a devotee of golf. Fraternally he is a Mason, belonging to Temple Lodge No. 299, A. F. & A. M .; also to Oriental Chapter No. 102, R. A. M .; Oriental Commandery No. 35, K. T .; and Ararat Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is identified with the Grace Presbyterian church and is a supporter of all of its various activities for the moral progress and improvement of the city. His business is now so thoroughly organized that he is able to leave it largely in the care of others and travel extensively. A broad-ganged man, he has a host of friends, and something of his popularity is indicated in the fact that he has been chosen to serve on the board of directors of all the various clubs with which he is identified.
Coward Augustus Faust
EDWARD AUGUSTUS FAUST, president of the St. Louis Boat E & Engineering Company, was born in St. Louis, January 13, 1869, his parents being Anthony E. and Elizabeth (Bischoff) Faust. After attending the public schools he continued his education in Smith Academy and in Packard's School of New York. In 1885 he became connected with commercial in- terests in the eastern metropolis, entering the employ of Tode Brothers, engaged in the wholesale and retail fancy grocery business. Mr. Faust continued with that house until 1887 and for eleven years thereafter was associated with his father under the firm style of Fanst & Sons Oyster & Restaurant Company. In 1893 he was elected the vice president and secretary of that company and so continued until 1902. In the meantime he had also become identified with other business interests and in 1898 was elected a vice president and director of the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association as the sue- cessor of Adolphus Busch, Jr., who had passed away. He was also made general manager of the St. Louis Refrigerator Car Company. In 1915 he became the president of the Standard Shipbuilding Corporation of New York and later was elected to the presidency of the St. Louis Boat & Engineering Company, the latter being one of the largest inland steel boatbuilding companies in the United States. Moreover, Mr. Faust has other very important business connections, being a representative of the directorate of the National Bank of Commerce of St. Louis, of the Laclede Gas Company, of the Kinloch Telephone Company and of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad Company. He has his office in the Bank of Commerce building, from which point he directs the important and extensive business interests under his control.
On the 20th of March, 1897, Mr. Faust was married in St. Louis to Miss Anna Louise Busch, a daughter of Adolphus Busch, and they are parents of two children, Leicester Busch and Andrey. Mr. Faust is a prominent figure in club eireles, belonging to the St. Louis, Racquet, Noonday, St. Louis Country, Sunset Inn, Bellerive Country and Log Cabin Clubs, to the Missouri Athletic Association and to the Liederkranz. During the period of the war his elder son was a member of the Students Army Training Corps at Yale. Politically Mr. Faust is a republican, thoroughly informed concerning the vital questions and issues of the day, yet has never been an office seeker. His time and attention have been concentrated upon his growing business interests, which have con- stantly developed until his position is today one of leadership in connection with inland boatbuilding in the United States.
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a. H. Mullins.
Major Alexander 2). Mullins
T
HE memory of Major Alexander W. Mullins is enshrined in the hearts of those who knew him, crowned with lasting honor because of his useful achievements and high attainments. Of him it was said: "He was of heroic type in bearing, mind and character, and in his death Missouri lost one of its truly great men."
A native of Kentucky, Alexander W. Mullins was born in Marion county, April 12, 1835, and was a son of Berryman and Susannah (Crews) Mullins, who removed to Missouri when their son was a lad of but nine years. The family home was established in Linn eounty and he was reared upon the farm near Linneus, early becoming familiar with the duties and labors inei- dent to the development and eultivation of the soil, while at the same time he attended the publie sehools of the county and supplemented his early eduea- tional opportunities by study in MeGee College of Maeon county. When his college days were over he became a law student in the office of Judge Jacob Smith, an eminent member of the Missouri bar, praetieing at Linneus. Mr. Mullins applied himself with great diligence and thoroughness to the mastery of the principles of jurisprudence and in 1857 was admitted to the bar upon examination before Judge James A. Clark, of Linn. Ile at onee entered upon the praetiee of his profession, but with the outbreak of the Civil war beeame a private of the First Regiment Cavalry, Missouri State Militia, and was soon afterward eommissioned a major by Governor Gamble.
Following the elose of his military experience Major Mullins resumed his law praetiee and steadily forged to the front in that connection, long oceupy- ing a position of distinction as a representative of the legal fraternity of Mis- souri. He early gave evidence of superior ability in the trial of eases, which he prepared most earefully and thoroughly, so that he entered the courtroom well qualified for defense as well as for attaek. He was seldom, if ever, at fault in the application of a legal prineiple and his familiarity with statutory law was exact and comprehensive. Ile was always courteous to the court, never abusive of an adversary, and while his devotion to his elients' interests was proverbial, he never forgot that he owed a still higher allegiance to the majesty of the law. He was nominated by the republican party for the office of judge of the supreme court of Missouri and for attorney general of the state, but in neither instance did he make any active personal eampaign, preferring to remain with his family and devote his energies to the practice of his chosen profession. In 1877 he was appointed United States attorney for the western district of Missouri by President Grant. As his financial resources inereased he made judicious invest- ments in lands and in bank stock and acquired valuable property of this ehar- aeter that enabled him in the later years of his life to live retired, enjoying the
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companionship of his family and friends. He became one of the large stoek- holders of the Moore & Mullins Bank, of which he was the president, and dur- ing his later years it was his daily custom, when the weather would permit, to visit the bank and there advise with the officers concerning its business manage- ment or converse entertainingly with his friends as they would come and go. . The people, recognizing the value of his counsel, especially in matters of law, were accustomed to call upon him for advice, which he gave not only gratui- tously but most willingly.
On the 10th of January, 1863, Major Mullins was married to Miss Nerrissa Smith, daughter of Judge Jacob Smith, who was his preceptor in law. They became the parents of six children : John D., A. W., Roscoe C. and Ben II., all of Linn county ; Mrs. Mabel Amiek, of St. Joseph ; and Mrs. Franees Dillon, of Grant City, Missouri. The mother and all of the children are living, the family circle remaining unbroken by the hand of death until the passing of Major Mullins on the 8th of February, 1920.
Major Mullins had been so long a prominent factor in the life of the com- munity, had been so true in his friendships and so honorable in all his purposes, that the news of his death brought a sense of personal bereavement into almost every household of Linn county. He had for forty years been a member of the board of education of Linnens and for more than one-half of that time had served as its president. The school system of the city is largely a monument to his devotion to the eause. At all times his aid and cooperation could be counted upon to further measures for the general good and it was ofttimes his initiative that promoted such measures and thus advanced the welfare of the community. He filled the office of county treasurer and numerous other responsible positions in a most ereditable and satisfactory manner and twice he was called upon to represent his distriet in the state legislature. He was always a stalwart repub- liean and was recognized as one of the influential leaders of the party in Mis- souri, but in his friendships no politieal lines were recognized. When death ealled him the family received telegrams and other expressions of condolenee from friends throughont the country, who spoke of Major Mullins as a distin- gnished jurist and citizen and a man of many excellent qualities. He was not only respected and admired by all who knew him, but by reason of the kindli- ness of his nature and the charitableness of his opinions he won the affectionate regard of many. At his demise one of the local papers said: "The passing of Major Mullins is a loss to every citizen of Linn county, and especially of Linneus. He was a courtly gentleman, the soul of honor, eminent in his profes- sion, liberal in the support of every good work, a man of kindly nature and lovable qualities that evoked admiration from people in all walks of life."
Clarence J. Curby
LARENCE J. CURBY, an outstanding figure in the business C eireles of St. Louis, is widely known as the vice president and general manager of the Smith & Davis Manufacturing Com- pany and as such is controlling one of the important productive industries of the city. He is yet a young man and has made progress of such notable and substantial character that his future career will be well worth watching. Born in San Francisco, California, on the 29th of August, 1883, he is a son of Clarence E. Curby, a native of Pennsylvania, who, removing westward to St. Louis, was identified with mercantile interests and became secretary of the Smith & Davis Manufacturing Company, a position which he ocenpied for a number of years. Ile passed away in August, 1912.
Clarence J. Curby was educated in the Western Military Academy, in which he completed a course of study with the class of 1902. Ile then started in the business world with the Smith & Davis Manufacturing Company, of which his father was the secretary, and the son is now practically sole owner of this extensive business, with offices and factories at No. 1925 Locust street, in St. Louis. They are manufacturers of iron and brass bedsteads, spring and wire mattresses and hospital furniture, and do a mammoth business, the output be- ing very extensive. The officers of the company are: B. 11. Jones, president ; C. J. Curby, vice president and general manager; J. H. Kentnor, secretary ; and W. H. Whitehill, treasurer. Mr. Curby is the executive bead and directs the policy of the business, which under his wise guidance has steadily developed, becoming one of the important manufacturing interests of St. Louis.
In 1904 Mr. Curby was united in marriage to Miss Rose Davidson, a daugh- ter of John Davidson, of St. Louis, and they have two children, Ruth D. and John Edgar, aged respectively twelve and nine years and both in school. The parents are members of the Second Presbyterian church, of which Mr. Curby is a trustee. He is fond of outdoor life and belongs to the Sunset Hill Club, the Ridgedale Club and also to the St. Louis Club and the Missouri Athletic Association.
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John & Pachy.
John S. Leahy
OHIN S. LEAHY, attorney at law, with offices in the National Bank of Commeree building in St. Louis, is the senior partner in the firm of Leahy & Saunders. St. Louis numbers him among her native sons, his birth having here occurred August 4, 1872, his parents being Stephen and Jane (Doyle) Leahy. The father was a native of Ireland and came to Ameriea with his parents in 1851, the family settling originally in New York, where he was reared and educated. In 1868 he came to St. Louis, where he married and resided until his death. He was a manufacturer of oil eloth and beeame a well known figure in the business eireles of this eity. Ile passed away in 1873, at the age of thirty-five years. The Doyle family was established in St. Louis in 1834 by the maternal grandfather of John S. Leahy, who eame direct from Ireland, his dissatisfaction with political and other conditions of that country eausing him to seek a home in the new world. IIe was a stone eon- traetor and was identified with the ereetion of many of the foremost buildings of St. Louis during the period of his active life here. He completed the St. Louis courthouse, ereeted Christ Church cathedral and many other of the large and prominent buildings of the city. During the Civil war he aided in equipping the Seventh Missouri Regiment and was an active factor in military affairs. Prior to his death he made provisions whereby he left the sum of one hundred thousand dollars as an endowment to the St. Louis University and the Christian Brothers College for perpetual scholarships for the education of the children of the working classes. He was also a very prominent factor in republican polities and served as a member of the Missouri legislature in 1861 and 1862. He passed away in 1867, at the age of sixty-seven years. His daughter Jane beeame the wife of Stephen Leahy and the mother of two children: Lawrence A., who is now a Jesuit priest of Detroit, Michigan, having prepared for the priesthood in St. Mary's College ; and John S., of this review, I
The latter was educated in Christian Brothers College, from which he was graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree, while later the Master of Arts degree was conferred upon him. Ile also attended St. Louis University and Georgetown University at Washington, D. C., being there graduated with the LL. B. degree. Ile at onee located for practice in St. Louis and has since confined his attention almost entirely to corporation and insurance law, especially that relating to fire and life insurance. IIe is a member of the St. Louis, the Mis- souri State and American Bar Associations.
On the 7th of December, 1900, in St. Louis, Mr. Leahy was married to Miss Julia Steer, a native of St. Louis and a daughter of F. A. and Margaret ( Craw- ford) Steer, both representatives of old St. Louis families. Mr. and Mrs. Leahy have three children : Jane, born February 2, 1907; John S., June 14, 1912; and
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Justin Crawford, October 28, 1915. All were born in St. Louis and are with their parents at No. 4630 Lindell boulevard.
During the World war Mr. Leahy served on the legal advisory board and was very active in support of the Red Cross and the Liberty Loan drives. He is a member of the Roman Catholic church, belongs to the Knights of Columbus and for five years was state deputy. He also has membership in the Chamber of Commerce and is interested in all of the activities of that organization for the city's upbuilding and progress. He is a member of the Noonday, St. Louis and Algonquin Clubs and he gives his political allegiance to the republican party, which elected him to the office of city councilman in 1912 for a two years' term. He manifests keen interest in everything relating to the material, intellectual, social, political and moral upbuilding of St. Louis and is most widely and favor- ably known in the city where he has spent his entire life.
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WK Kavanaugh. 1
William Kerr Kavanaugh
ILLIAM KERR KAVANAUGHI, president and general manager W of the Southern Coal, Coke & Mining Company, with offices in the Security building in St. Louis, was born in Saline county, Missouri, July 13, 1860, a son of Richard Parsons Kavanaugh, who was a native of Huntsville, Alabama, and who devoted his life to the professions of teaching and preaching. He was for many years connected with the State School for the Deaf at Fulton, Missouri, and was an authority on and expert in this field of instrue- tion. IIis life was one of great usefulness in promoting methods of teaching this elass of unfortunates. Ile passed away July 28, 1870, and it can be said of him that he was a most successful man if one judges from the standpoint of a modern philosopher who has said: "Not the good that comes to us, but the good that comes to the world through us, is the measure of our success." In early manhood he married Sarah Talbot, who was born at Loutre Island in Montgomery county, Missouri, and she, too, has passed away. In the family were but two sons, of whom Lewis T. Kavanaugh, brother of William K. Kava- naugh, was manager of the Mississippi warrior seetion of the railway adminis- tration until April, 1920, when accidentally drowned.
William K. Kavanaugh attended the schools of Fulton, Missouri, to his sixteenth year, when it beeame necessary for him to provide for his own support, but while his schoolroom instruction was over his textbooks were not put aside, and throughout his entire life he has remained a reader and student. His first task was stripping tobaeeo at twenty-five cents per day. Ile worked in that way through one summer and afterward was engaged in the railway fie business. He came to St. Louis in 1878 and secured a position with the State Savings Association, beginning work as a messenger when in his eighteenth year. For seven years he continued with this bank, then at Third and Vine streets, which oeeupied quarters in the Security building, now used by the State National Bank. Within the seven-year period Mr. Kavanaugh rose to a position of respon- sibility and not only gave excellent service to the bank but also seeured much valuable training and experience. The condition of his health foreed him to leave that institution, after which he formed a partnership with his brother in the railway tie business, having their plant on the Tennessee river at Deeatur, from which point they shipped ties by river to different railroads. They de- veloped there a business of large and gratifying proportions. Later they organized the Kavanaugh Sand Company and introduced the first eentrifugal sand pump in the west, pumping sand from the river. This business was located at Memphis, Tennessee.
At length William K. Kavanaugh turned the business over to his brother and again became a resident of St. Louis, where he organized the Union Sand
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Company, carrying on a profitable undertaking of that character for a number of years. Ife next concentrated his attention upon the car transfer business and organized the Interstate Car Transfer Company, which transferred cars across the Mississippi river. Subsequently he sold the business to the Terminal Railway Association of St. Louis, of which he continued president, and he was also made president of the Wiggins Ferry Company, which operated the East St. Louis Connecting Railway and the St. Louis Transfer Railway. He later organized the Mississippi River & Bonne Terre Transfer Company and the Kavanaugh-Lockwood Tow Company, having a large towing and barge business for the transfer of railway ears. Mr. Kavanaugh is now the president and gen- eral manager of the Southern Coal, Coke & Mining Company, which was estab- lished in 1895 and which has an extensive suite of rooms in the Security building in St. Louis, controlling a large volume of business at the present time. The most casual observer can easily see that each change in his business connections has marked a forward step, that his activities have constantly broadened in scope and importance and that through individual effort and merit he has risen steadily to a foremost place in business eireles.
On the 21st of August, 1890, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Mr. Kavanaugh was married to Miss Edna Lee Boggs. He has two children: Josiah Boggs Kavanaugh, a captain of the United States army, who married Lolo Bilgere; and Sarah Talbot, the wife of Captain Walter Valentine Churchill-Longman, of the English army, who is living in London, England. They have one daughter, Valerie Lee.
Mr. Kavanaugh is a member of the St. Louis and Noonday Clubs and the Missouri Athletic Association and is keenly appreciative of the social amenities of life, while his genial manner and cordial disposition make for popularity wherever he is known. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Southern Methodist elmrch. In polities he is an independent democrat, and while never an office seeker, he has been keenly interested in questions of public concern and in problems of vital worth to the community. He has been a most earnest champion of deep waterway projects and is the president of the Lakes- to-the-Gulf Deep Waterway Association, which is working to establish a deep waterway that will connect the Great Lakes with the Gulf of Mexico through the Mississippi river. He has given much of his time and effort to this matter. Being a man of broad vision, he realizes what the value of such a project will be to the country and is gradnally overcoming the opposition of narrow-minded men who do not look beyond the exigencies of the moment to the possibilities and opportunities of the future. Mr. Kavanaugh is a splendid type of that Amer- ican manhood which finds its strength in opportunity and which develops its powers in overcoming difficulties and opposition in a business way, for he started out without financial resources when a youth of sixteen and today is directing most important business affairs as president of the Southern Coal, Coke and Mining Company and equally important interests of public concern as president of the Lakes-to-the-Gulf Deep Waterway Association. He was called to the latter office on the 16th of November, 1906, and has continued to aet in that capacity and since 1909 has been chairman of the Missouri Water- way Commission. Ile was also made a member of the executive committee of the National Board of Steam Navigation at New York and a member of the Board
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