USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri, vol. 2 > Part 3
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The new venture which George W. Brown and his partners launched proved successful and three years later, Hamilton-Brown Shoe Company followed in his footsteps and also began the manufacture of shoes, and while the two organizations competed in the same line of business, during all the years since the most cordial and friendly feeling has always existed between them. The enterprise in which G. W. Brown embarked was launched, becoming the first successful shoe manufacturing organization of St. Louis, and it has been the pride of his fellow townsmen to the present day. Since then the years of his life have passed quickly in interested devotion to his business and he has always held steadfastly to the principle of high grade methods and of placing only high grade men in positions of responsibility. His success has been continuous, each forward step with its consequent broader outlook and wider opportunity enabling him to help in the promotion of every good work.
The Brown Shoe Company, Incorporated, originally known as Bryan- Brown and Company, was founded in November, 1878, and associated with Mr. Brown in its organization were A. L. Bryan and J. B. Desnoyers. A man of vision, ambition, courage, and enterprise, with a faith and a character that kept his heart and purpose right, Mr. Brown developed the business along un- assailable lines. The original capital was twelve thousand dollars, of which about one-third was invested in shoe machinery, lasts, patterns, and other equipment. Their first employes were five Rochester expert shoe workers, and in order to persuade these men to remove to St. Louis, it was necessary to furnish their railroad fares. Something of the rapid growth of the enterprise is indicated in the fact that in less than one year the factory was removed from its first location, 104 South Eighth street, to larger quarters in the Cupples building, at Eighth and Walnut streets, first occupying the top floor of this building, while not long afterward the next floor below was seenred and later the owner erected an additional story for the use of the firm. The growth of the enterprise is largely the history of the shoe trade of St. Louis. The busi- ness has constantly increased, demanding various removals from time to time in order to secure enlarged quarters. In 1885 Mr. Brown purchased A. L. Bryan's holdings in the company, as Mr. Bryan's health made it necessary for him to move to California, and in 1893 J. B. Desnoyers, then vice president, retired from the company and the corporate name became The Brown Shoe Company. The company's business thereafter grew with more rapid strides each year, so that the shipments during its last year in the Eleventh and Washington avenue building amounted to more than eight million dollars. For
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George Warren Brown
fifteen years the company oeeupied the west third of this block, which is now used by the Rice-Stix Dry Goods Company.
The continued growth led to the formulation of plans for the ereetion of a building especially for this company-plans that were vigorously prosecuted until on the 1st of January, 1907, the Brown Shoe Company opened to their customers and friends the White House. The occasion was a record one of the kind. The large lobby of the first floor was beautifully decorated with palms and eut flowers, many of which were contributed by competitors and other wholesale houses of St. Louis. A reception was held and refreshments served, the guests of that occasion numbering many of the foremost citizens of St. Louis. Addresses were made by Ex-Governor D. R. Francis, E. C. Simmons, Colonel George W. Parker, Rev. Napthali Luccock, Hon. C. V. Anderson and A. B. Groves, arehiteet of the building, after which the guests were shown through the building. Thus was dedicated to commerce the White House build- ing in St. Louis, used for assembling and distributing shoes produced in all the factories of the company and also used for its sales headquarters, general and executive offices. This building is the largest and finest used by any shoe house for the same purpose in America. The company was reorganized January 2, 1913, under the laws of the State of New York, as Brown Shoe Company, Incorporated, with a capital stock of ten million dollars. Mr. Brown was president of the first incorporated organization in 1880 and so continued until May 18, 1915, a period of thirty-five years, which is probably the record for any man whose business grew from so small a beginning, with steady advanee- ment each year on a single foundation without the absorption of any other concern.
After thirty-five years as president Mr. Brown resigned and was then elected chairman of the board of directors, which position he continues to hold, and he is also a member of the executive committee. Seven large plants of the com- pany are located in St. Louis and six in the St. Louis shoe zone of Missouri and Illinois. About eight thousand employes are now on the pay roll. Two hun- dred and fifty salesmen sell the company's goods all over the United States and in many foreign countries, including the far east. In 1920 the company's shipments amounted to thirty-seven million dollars. To Mr. Brown is attribu- table the development of one of the largest shoe concerns in the world and high grade business methods have been followed continuously, applied to all transactions in both the buying and selling sides of the business.
On the 7th of April, 1885, the anniversary of Mr. Brown's leaving home personally to take up the battle of life, was celebrated the marriage of George Warren Brown and Bettie Bofinger. The wedding, which occurred in the Southern Hotel in St. Louis, was a notable occasion. They have a son, Wilbur George Brown, born March 21, 1896.
Mr. Brown believes "a man's a man for a' that" and has always manifested an interest in every employe entitled to recognition through his ambition, energy, honesty, application and ability, and such have been promoted from time to time until nearly all of those who now are directors of the company and heads of departments have worked up from humble positions in the com- pany's employ. It has always been one of the aims and purposes of his life to assist young men in gaining a start and he does many things unknown to
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George Warren Brown
the general public for the good of the coming generation. He was one of the organizers of the Mercantile Club and also of the old Business Men's League, now the Chamber of Commerce. He has ever been anxious and willing to do for St. Lonis, to assist in its upbuilding and promote its growth in every land- able way. Ile is a sincere member of the Methodist church and ever ready with his purse for this cause. During the period of the World war he was chairman of several important committees, was a member of the Missouri Council of Defense and also a member of the National War Work Council of the International Y. M. C. A. For many years he has been a member of the International Committee of the Y. M. C. A., was former president of the St. Louis Y. M. C. A. and is still on its board of directors. He has been a member of three general conferences of the Methodist Episcopal church and is a director of the St. Louis Provident Association. Aside from his large busi- ness interests he has within the past fifteen years promoted or erected more of the modern new business buildings on upper Washington avenne and Locust street in St. Louis than all others put together. In polities he is an independent republican. He has membership in the St. Louis, St. Louis Country, Noonday and City Clubs. In a review of his life and record, it will be seen that one of the salient characteristics of George Warren Brown has been thoroughness : another element that of unwavering resolution to merit the trust reposed in him and at no time to sell ont principle to produce business advancement. This was manifest in his career as an employe and has characterized his record as a successful business man. Moreover, he has always keenly realized his indi- vidnal responsibilities to his fellowmen while on life's highway to a life more abundant and more enduring.
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1390191
Nacken Hill,
alker Lill
ALKER IIILL is now one of the executive managers of the First National Bank of St. Louis, which came into existence W in July, 1919, as a consolidation of the St. Louis Union Bank, the Mechanies-American National Bank and the Third Na- tional Bank of St. Louis. Mr. Ilill had long been a well known figure in the financial circles of the city and had occupied the presidency of the Mechanics-American National Bank from 1905. Chance has had no part in shaping his career. Ilis plans have been clearly defined and promptly executed and at all times he has been actuated by a legitimate and honorable ambition that has brought him out of humble sur- roundings to a place of leadership in the financial world. He was born in the beautiful old city of Richmond, Virginia, May 27, 1855, his parents being Lewis and Mary Elizabeth ( Maury ) Ilill, the former a commission merchant of Rich- mond and a descendant of one of the prominent old families of Virginia. The grandfather and great-grandfather of Walker Ilill owned and condueted Rum- ford Academy in King and Queen county, Virginia, in which institution they prepared young men for the universities.
The early education of Walker Hill was acquired through the instruction of his parents and he also spent four years as a pupil in the private school of Wil- liam F. Fox of Richmond. He made his initial step in the business world in June, 1871, and his youthful fondness for athletic sports, in which he freely indulged, especially baseball, was undoubtedly a source of the development of a strong physical manhood that well qualified him for the duties which he assumed in the business world. On the 1st of July, 1871, Mr. Hill became messenger in the Planters National Bank of Richmond, Virginia, and his capability won him pro- motion to assistant teller in 1872. The following year he was made toller of the bank and occupied that position until 1881, when he was appointed cashier of the City Bank of Richmond. When six years had elapsed he left the south for St. Louis and, following his arrival in this eity in 1887, he became cashier of the Union Savings Institution, the predecessor of the American Exchange Bank. Ilis developing powers further qualifying him for excentive control and adminis- trative direction of large financial interests, he was elected president of the Amer- ican Exchange Bank in 1894 and in 1905 was elected president of the Me- chanies-American National Bank of St. Louis, the successor to the Mechanics' National and American Exchange National Banks. The new organization was capitalized for two million dollars and it was not long before its surplus ex- eeeded its capitalization. Mr. Ilill remained at the head of the bank and when it was merged into the First National, together with the Third National and the St. Louis Union Bank, he became one of the executive direetors of the new institu- tion. Ilis name and his reputation have long been enviable in the financial
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Walker Dill
circles of the city, and in 1897 he was elected treasurer of the American Bankers' Association. During the following year he served as vice president and in 1900 was elected to the presidency. It is a recognized fact that the simple processes are those which win results-not the intricate, involved plans-and thus it is that analyzation brings to light the fact that the successful men are those whose rules of business are simple in plan, even though there be a multiplicity of de- tail. Investigation into the career of Mr. ITill shows that it has been through close application, ready discrimination between the essential and the non- essential and indefatigable energy that he has reached the commanding position which he now occupies as one of St. Louis' financiers.
On the 14th of October, 1885, in St. Louis, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Hill and Miss Jennie Morrison Lockwood, daughter of Richard J. and Angelica Peale (Robinson) Lockwood. They have become parents of three children : Lockwood, Walker and Maury Hill. The family attend the Episeo- pal church and Mr. ITill has for some years been junior warden in St. Peter's. His interests are broad and varied and his assistance is at all times found on the side of reform, advancement and improvement. He has been treasurer of the Hospital Saturday and Sunday Association and also of the Humane Society of Missouri and has served the Business Men's League of St. Louis in the same capacity and as president. He has ever voted with the democratic party but has never cared to enter polities save as a supporter at the polls of the prin- ciples in which he believes. The duties and obligations of citizenship, however, have been fully met by him and his work has been of the utmost benefit in the business development of St. Louis. He possesses initiative and a genius for de- vising the right thing at the right time, combined with every-day common sense. As a factor in financial circles he has held to the highest standards of business integrity, while at the same time he has used every legitimate means for increas- ing the seope of his activities.
John Barber White
John Barber White
3UROUGHIOUT his active life John Barber White has been con- nected with the lumber industry and was foremost among T those engaged in the exploitation and development of yellow pine. His activities have been of far-reaching importance and yet have constituted but one phase of his career, for he has done much important public service and throughout his entire life his studious habits have made him a man of scholarly attainments. Kansas City has long numbered him among her foremost residents, although his connection with the lumber trade has covered many sections of the country. A native of New York, Mr. White was born in Chautauqua county, December 8, 1847, his parents being John and Rebekah (Barber) White. His ancestry can be traced back to John White of South Petherton, Somerset, Eng- land, who in 1638 crossed the Atlantic and became identified with colonial inter- ests in the new world as a settler at Salem, now Wenham, Massachusetts. A son of John White and his wife Joana was Josiah White, the direct ancestor of John Barber White in the second generation. IIe married Mary Rice and they were the parents of Josiah White, who wedded Abigail Whitcomb. The ancestral line is traced down through their son Josiah and his wife, Deborah House; through Luke and Ennice White, the latter a granddaughter of Colonel Jonathan White, to their son John and his wife, Rebekah Barber. The family has figured prom- inently in both England and America through several eenturies, especially in connection with valuable public service rendered. In this connection it is noted that Robert White, the father of John White, the emigrant, was guardian and church warden at South Petherton, Somersetshire, as early as 1578, as was also his grandfather before him. To the son, John White, was aecorded a grant of sixty acres at Salem, now Wenham, Massachusetts, and later he received several other grants of land. He built the first saw and grist mill at Wenham and thus aided in laying the foundation of business development there. IIis son, Josiah White, served as a private in King Philip's war and was sergeant in command of a garrison on the west side of the Penicook river, called the Neck. ITis son, Josiah White (II), rendered military aid in the Colonial war and was a man of considerable prominence in Lancaster, where he acted as tithing man in 1718 and was also one of the first seven seleetmen of the town, filling that position for five years. For a year he acted as town treasurer and for three years was repre- sentative to the general court. In 1729 he became a deacon of the first church of the community and so continued until his death, or for a period of forty-three years. Josiah White (III) was the builder of the first sawmill in Leominster, the dam of which is still in use. ITis brother, Jonathan White, was a large land- holder and one of the first proprietors as well as an officer of the town of Charlemont, Franklin county, Massachusetts. At the time of the French and
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John Barber White
Indian war he was commissioned captain in a Worcester regiment commanded by Colonel Ruggles, this command marching from Crown Point in 1755. Captain White was later promoted to the rank of major and afterward became lieutenant colonel and colonel. The name of White again figures in connection with the military history of the country through the service of Luke White, who was a member of Captain Warner's Company of Colonel Marshall's Regiment in the Revolutionary war and later acted as clerk in the commissary department. Thus in succeeding generations the family has rendered valuable service to the country in one connection or another.
John White, father of John Barber White, became a representative of the teaching profession and afterward engaged in the manufacture of Inmber and veneer. In 1843 he became a resident of Chautauqua county, New York, and thus it was that John Barber White was born, reared and educated in that county. Ile attended the public schools and afterward became a student in the Jamestown (N. Y.) Academy. He initiated his business career as a partner of the two Jenner brothers, with whom he purchased a tract of pine land near Youngsville, Pennsylvania, in 1868. Since that time he has been continuously connected with the lumber industry. In 1870 he opened a lumber yard at Brady and another at Petrolia, Pennsylvania, in connection with R. A. Kinnear, and in 1874 he purchased the Arcade mill in Tidionte, Pennsylvania, and estab- lished a lumber yard at Scrubgrass, that state. He further extended his activi- ties when in 1878 he purchased a stave-heading and shingle mill in Irvineton, Pennsylvania, and in the conduct of that business met with the same substantial success which had characterized his activities in other relations. In 1880 he joined E. B. Grandin, J. L. Grandin, Captain II. H. Cummings and John L. and Livingston L. Hunter, of Tidioute, Pennsylvania, in organizing the Mis- sonri Lumber & Mining Company, which was one of the first to become identified with the yellow pine industry. The company opened offices and mills at Grandin, Missouri, where headquarters were maintained for twenty years, and then re- moved to West Eminence, Missouri. In 1892 the opportunities offered in Kansas City, Missouri, attracted the firm and offices were here established. From the inception of the company Mr. White has been general manager and for a num- ber of years has ocenpied the presidency. From the beginning the enterprise has grown and prospered and has become one of the extensive lumber interests of this section of the country. Nor has Mr. White confined his efforts alone to the operations of this firm. In 1899 he was associated with Oliver W. Fisher and others in organizing the Louisiana Long Leaf Lumber Company, with mills at Victoria and at Fisher, Louisiana. Upon the organization he was elected a director and secretary of the company. A further step in the expansion of his business interests was made when he formed the Louisiana Central Lumber Company in 1901, with mills at Standard and at Clarks, Louisiana, and from the beginning he has been the president thereof. He is likewise the president of the Forest Lumber Company, which has established a chain of retail lumber yards. They also have a mill located at Oakdale, Louisiana, which makes a specialty of large timbers and foreign shipments. On a tract of one hundred thousand acres, purchased from the Gould heirs in January, 1918, the associated companies of Mr. White have established two new lumber plants-the Louisiana Sawmill Company, Inc., located at Glenmore, Louisiana, and the White Grandin
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John Barber Cabite
Company, located at Slagle, Louisiana. Ile is interested in seven manufacturing plants in Louisiana. Ile is the president and general manager of Missouri Lumber & Land Exchange Company at Kansas City, Missouri. The Grandin Coast Lumber Company, which has large holdings in Washington, claims him as vice president. His efforts have not been confined alone to his extensive and successful operations in lumber, for he is identified with a number of other profit- able business interests. In 1874 at Youngsville, Pennsylvania, he founded a weekly paper called the Warren County News, which he afterward purchased outright in connection with E. W. Hoag, and removed to Tidioute. From 1886 until 1907 he was closely associated with banking interests at Poplar Bluff, Missouri, as president of a bank there. He is likewise a director of the New England National Bank of Kansas City and is the vice president of the Fisher Flouring Mills Company, with mills at Seattle, Washington, and Belgrade, Mon- tana. Ile has been prominently connected with organized effort to promote the development of the lumber industry and bring about conditions most favorable thereto. In 1882 he organized the first lumber manufacturers' association in the southern states which operated for many years as the Yellow Pine Manufac- turers' Association, of which he was president for the first three years of its existence. Ile is also a representative of the directorate of the Southern Pine Association and is a member of the board of governors of the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association. Another line of interest in the life of Mr. White is indieated in the fact that he is a life member of the Holstein-Friesian Association.
Before his removal to the middle west Mr. White was married, on the 22d of July, 1874, to Miss Arabell Bowen, of Chautauqua county, New York, a daugh- ter of Daniel Washington and Eliza (Smith) Bowen. They became the parents of two children : John Franklin, now deceased : and Fanny Arabell, the wife of Alfred Tyler Hemingway, general manager of the Forest Lumber Company of Kansas City. For his second wife Mr. White chose Miss Emma Siggins, a daughter of Benjamin Baird and Elizabeth ( Walker) Siggins, of Youngsville, Pennsylvania. Their marriage, celebrated on the 6th of December, 1882, has been blessed with three children : Emma Ruth ; Jay Barber, now deceased ; and Raymond Baird. The last named, like his father, has become prominently identified with the lumber trade. Ile owns a lumberyard in Newark, Ohio, and also in several nearby towns, and is associated with his father as assistant gen- eral manager of the Missouri Lumber & Land Exchange Company in Kansas City, Missouri. Failing to pass the physical examination for entrance into the navy school at Detroit and also at Chicago, he was given a position by the government in charge of seleeting the lumber for airplane stock used in the manufacture of airplanes at Dayton, where he worked until the close of the war, rendering valuable service to the government because of his experience as a lumberman.
John B. White was also active in connection with war interests. Ile was appointed a member of the shipping board by President Wilson upon its or- ganization in 1917 and so served until foreed to resign on account of ill health. Ilis activities, however, have been of a most extensive character and have been of direct service to the country in various ways, aside from the line of commer- eial and industrial development. Something of the nature of his interests is indi- eated in the faet that he is deputy governor of the Missouri Society of Colonial
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John Barber White
Wars and was made the fourth vice president from Missouri of the Sons of the Revolution. He is a life member of the American Academy of Political and Social Science and he has similar connection with the New England His- torieal and Genealogical Society, also with the Heath, Massachusetts, Historical Society. He has a life membership in the Kansas City Historical Society, of which he has been made president, and he is a director of the National Con- servation Association and the American Forestry Association. His membership relations extend to the Virginia Historical Society, the Old Northwest of Ohio, the Missouri Historical Society and the IIarleian Historical Society of London, England. From 1912 until 1914 he served as a member of the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress. He has been a trustee of the Kidder Institute and of Drury College at Springfield, Missouri, and he is a member of the National Geographie Society and the American Society of International Law. He is likewise connected with the International Society for the Prevention of Pollu- tion of Rivers and Waterways and he belongs to the American Academy of Political Science of New York city. While residing at Youngsville, Pennsyl- vania, he served as president of the board of education from 1877 to 1879 and 1880 to 1883, and in 1878 he was elected to represent his distriet in the lower house of the Pennsylvania general assembly and was made a member of the committee of seven elected by the Pennsylvania legislature in 1879 to prosecute cases of bribery. In November, 1905, he received appointment from President Roosevelt as his personal representative to investigate affairs on the Cass Lake (Minn.) Indian reservation and to report as to the advisability of opening up the reservation for settlement. President Roosevelt also appointed him a mem- ber of the forestry department on the commission on conservation of natural resources in 1907 and two years later he was appointed a member of the state forest commission by Governor Hadley of Missouri. His next official position was that of aide-de-camp with the rank of colonel on the governor's staff. He served as chairman of the executive committee during the first, seeond and third national conservation congresses, and when the fourth congress convened in Kan- sas City, Missouri, in September, 1911, he was elected president. Genealogical research has always been a matter of keen interest to him and in 1909 he pub- lished the "Genealogy of the Ancestors and Descendants of John White of Wenham and Lancaster, Massachusetts, 1574-1909," in four volumes, and also the "Gencalogy of the Descendants of Thomas Gleason of Watertown, Massa- chusetts, 1607-1909," and the "Barber Genealogy, 1714-1909," sinee which time he has published another volume, "Ancestry of John Barber White and of His Descendants." His wife, Emma Siggins White, is equally interested in genealogieal work with Mr. White and the most recent volume they have brought out is, "Genesis of the White Family," a connected record of the White family beginning in 900, at the time of its Welsh origin, when the name was Wynn, and traeing the family into Ireland and England. Several of the name entered England with the Norman conquerors. Representatives of the English branch emigrated to America in 1638. He has frequently been heard on the lecture platform, speaking on questions relative to the conservation of the forests and other natural resources, and some of these addresses have sinee appeared in pamphlet form, being freely distributed by the conservation eon- gresses, the Trans-Mississippi Congress and lumber associations. Mr. White
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