USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri, vol. 2 > Part 33
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In 1888 Mr. Bell was married to Miss Maggie Peper, a daughter of Captain Christian Peper, of St. Louis. She was graduated at Mary Institute in 1880 and
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Dicholas Montgomery Bell
was a highly accomplished musician and an artist of more than ordinary ability, many beautiful works of art executed by her adorning the family home. Mrs. Bell passed away May 1, 1912, leaving a son and a daughter, Christian Peper and Marjorie Peper, now Mrs. Hinrich, who has one son, Robert II.
While Mr. Bell has been most active in connection with national affairs, he has been equally loyal to the interests of his city and was one of the directors of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, director in charge of the live stock exhibit and member of the superior jury of awards. King Edward of England, King Leopold of Belgium and Emperor William of Germany had horses at the exposition and each expressed a desire through their representatives to confer a decoration upon Colonel Bell for his able services in the execution of the duties of his office. Ile told the representatives to convey to their respective rulers his gratitude and courteous thanks, but to say for him that it was not eustomary for one sovereign to decorate another sovereign and that he was a "Sovereign American Citizen." Mr. Bell is also a member of the Society of Colonial Wars and the Sons of the Revolution, and in Masonry the honorary thirty-third degree has been conferred upon him. A contemporary writer has said of him: "In his active life he has sueeeeded because he has desired to succeed. Nature has endowed him bountifully and he has studiously, earefully and conscientiously increased the talents that have been given him. Ile is recognized as a ripe scholar and a man of strong intellect, whose publie work has been of far-reaching and beneficial effect. He has exhibited in every judg- ment of his mind a strong common sense that has illumined every dark corner into which he has looked. He stands today as one of the representative eitizens of St. Louis-a man of remarkable presenee, of high moral character and of the best social position."
James L. AlcCord
O history of Buchanan county could in any way be regarded as N complete which failed to take ample cognizance of the widely known McCord family, whose activities for almost three- quarters of a century have been inseparably linked with the business and social life of the city of St. Joseph, which owes much of its wonderful growth and prosperity to its position as a distributing center of the products of a vast country, but it is no less indebted to the great business houses and to the enterprising men who have developed them from modest beginnings to phenomenal proportions. One of the largest and most important of the commercial concerns of St. Joseph is the wholesale grocery house of the Nave-McCord Mercantile Company, which at present under the guidance of its president, James H. MeCord, continues to enjoy an expanding prosperity, the foundations of which were firmly set by its founder, the late James MeCord.
James H. MeCord was born at Savannah, Missouri, November 2, 1857, a son of James and Mary E. (Hallack) McCord. The first of the family to come to the United States emigrated from the north of Ireland, the progenitor settling, in 1735, in Albemarle county, Virginia, where in the public records the name appears in 1740, when John MeCord signed the document calling for a Presby- terian minister. In 1750 record is found in the same county of Robert Field, the great-great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, and honorable mention is made of John Field, his great-grandfather, as holding a captain's commission in the Eighth Virginia Regiment in the War of 1812. William McCord, the grandfather of James H. McCord, was prosecuting attorney for Randolph county, Virginia, from 1829 to 1836, but in the latter year he and his family removed to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and later to Versailles, Morgan county, Missouri, where he resumed the practice of the law. He died shortly after, in October, 1839. His widow, Sally Moss (Field) MeCord, survived him thirteen years, dying at Savannah, Missouri, in 1852.
James McCord, father of James It. McCord, was thrown upon his own re- sources at an early age. Born in Randolph county, Virginia, January 7, 1826, he embarked upon a business career before he had reached the age of fifteen in 1840. Commeneing as a clerk in a country store at Calhoun, Henry county, Missouri, his duties were faithfully performed the first year with no remuneration except his board. By the second year, however, he had become valuable enough to his employers to receive a salary of seventy-five dollars, which was increased in the third year to one hundred dollars. In 1843 we find him at Warsaw, Missouri, working in a similar capacity, receiving his board and one hundred and fifty dollars, which in the following year was increased to two hundred dollars. Still better, he had, by his fidelity to his employers' interests, so won the firm's con-
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fidenee that he was made their representative in St. Louis and New Orleans, and later at other points. With these experiences behind him, he felt well qualified to enter upon a career of his own, and in 1846 he embarked in business, forming a partnership with his brother-in-law, Abram Nave, at Savannah, Andrew county, where the latter conducted a store at that time. This personal friend- ship and business association continued unbroken throughout the long period of fifty-two years and was terminated only by the death of Mr. Nave. The partners established a business at Oregon, Holt county, where James McCord remained until the gold booom struck the country in 1849, in which year he made preparations to go to California by sea but later changed his mind and abandoned the journey, remaining in northwest Missouri. In April, 1850, the gold fever again seized him and he crossed the plains to the golden state, remaining on the Pacific coast until the following year, when he returned to Savannah, Missouri. Better prepared by his initial experience, he made a second trip in 1852, having as companions on the journey three friends, Abram Nave, Charles L. Clark and D. M. Steele, on this occasion driving a herd of cattle across the plains. This venture proved very remunerative and was repeated for several years, or until it became unprofitable. The mercantile partnership was continued at Savannah in the meantime and the company eame to a realization of the business opportunities offered them by the opening of travel and the rapid settlement of new localities. The great commercial concerns which now recall their names in half a dozen states, bear ample testimony that they were men equal to the occa- sion. The year 1857 saw a wholesale grocery established at St. Joseph, under the firm name of Nave, MeCord & Company; two years later witnessed the open- ing of a similar establishment at Omaha, Nebraska, with Charles L. Clark as resident partner; in 1865 the firm of C. D. Smith & Company was founded at St. Joseph, Missouri, with Abram Nave, James McCord, D. M. Steele and C. D. Smith as partners, the last named gentleman being the manager. In 1868, Leach, Nave & Company, which later became MeCord, Nave & Company, was estab- lished at Kansas City, Missouri, and in 1871, Nave, Goddard & Company, which later became Nave & McCord, entered into the commercial life of St. Louis. At the time of his death, September 24, 1903, Mr. McCord was identified with the following large business houses : The Nave-McCord Mercantile Company, of St. Joseph, of which he was president, a business established in 1846, incorporated in 1880, and reincorporated in 1900; the McCord-Brady Company, of Omaha, Nebraska ; the MeCord-Chapman-Greer Mercantile Company, of Pueblo, Colo- rado; the MeCord-Collins Company, of Fort Worth, Texas; the MeCord-Collins Mercantile Company, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; the Smith-McCord Dry Goods Company, of Kansas City, Missouri; the Kistler-Metzler Mercantile Com- pany, of Topeka, Kansas; the Sentney Wholesale Grocery, at Hutchinson, Kan- sas ; the Henry Krug Packing Company, of St. Joseph, Missouri; the James McCord Realty Company, of St. Joseph, Missouri, and the Nave & MeCord Cattle Company, the owners of a ranch containing one hundred thousand aeres in Garza county, Texas. Since his death some changes have been made in the titles of the foregoing companies, although the major portion have retained his name for the prestige which it carries. Gifted with a mind of unusual grasp and of exceptional ability, James McCord successfully piloted these varied and enor- mous interests. His public worth and standing as a citizen were of wide repute,
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James D. OrCord
and to every worthy public enterprise he was a liberal contributor, while no de- serving appeal to his private charity was addressed to him in vain. Ilis success in the business world was phenomenal, but withal only commensurate with the high integrity and untiring energy brought to bear on his manifold interests, and a more notable illustration of marvelous ability and superior management has rarely been exhibited in this country than that shown by the great house of which he was the founder and which has achieved a national reputation, securing for St. Joseph much prestige in the commercial world.
On October 5, 1854, James McCord was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. HIallaek, who was born in Jessamine county, Kentucky, February 28, 1836, and they became the parents of nine children as follows: William Il., residing at Omaha, Nebraska; James Il .; Samuel S., of St. Joseph, Missouri; Susan Alice, deceased ; Lucy, who married J. Harry Parker, Jr., of St. Joseph ; Mary Ada, who married J. Burnett Collins, of Fort Worth, Texas, deceased; George L., of Denver, Colorado; Robert II., of Kansas City, Missouri, and Francis, who is deceased. The mother is still living in the old homestead in St. Joseph, which she has occupied for fifty years. She is a woman of strong Christian character, is still active, and devotes her time to various charities and missionary work in connection with the First Presbyterian church of St. Joseph, of which she is the oldest living member.
James H. MeCord, the subject of this sketch, was born at Savannah, Mis- souri, while the family was sojourning there, being brought to St. Joseph when but five weeks old. He received his early education in the public schools, later at the St. Joseph high school, after which he entered the Virginia Military Insti- tute, from which institution he was graduated with distinction in 1879, having the honor to be awarded the first Jackson-Hope medal. In September of that year he entered the service of the Nave-MeCord Mercantile Company, in which he has since held every office, having. advaneed through the positions of secre- tary, treasurer and vice president to that of president. Following the death of his father in 1903, he succeeded to the last named position, which had been held hy the elder MeCord for many years. In addition to holding an official position in each of the outside houses, he is president of the Burnes National Bank of St. Joseph. He has ever taken a good citizen's part in public affairs, having been president of the St. Joseph library board; president of the "Buchanan Society for the Relief and Prevention of Tuberenlosis"; and holds membership in the leading social and business elubs of the city. Like his father, he is a man of extraordinary business acumen and is his worthy successor to the management of one of the foremost business houses of St. Joseph. His modern residence, situated at 1823 Clay street, St. Joseph, is the center of domestie enjoyments, which he prizes far more highly than his well won business honors.
In 1895 Mr. MeCord was united in marriage to Miss Adele Calhoun Parker, daughter of Virgil and Susan (Calhoun) Parker, of Atchison, Kansas. Mrs. McCord's grandfather was surveyor general of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and for many years enjoyed a close personal friendship with Abraham Lincoln, whose neighbor he was at Springfield, Illinois, when both the future president and he were young men. Mrs. McCord's mother died when she was a mere child and the duty of rearing her devolved upon an aunt, whose husband, Henry Jackson, was an officer in the Seventh United States Cavalry-General
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James D). McCord
Custer's regiment-and who was on detached duty at the time of the massacre on the Little Big Horn in 1876. Mr. and Mrs. James H. McCord are the parents of one son, James Hamilton, Jr., who was born on October 21, 1895, and was captain in the One Hundred and Thirty-ninth Infantry, A. E. F., being severely wounded in the Argonne-Meuse Offensive.
Following the entrance of the United States into the great World war in 1917, James H. McCord was closely associated with Major-General Crowder as lieutenant colonel in the inspector general's department, United States army, in charge of the selective service system in Missouri. In the earlier border troubles with Mexico, Mr. MeCord also brought his military training into opera- tion, rendering excellent service in many directions.
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IL Burton
William D. Burton
SINCE the year 1882 William V. Burton has been a resident of S St. Louis and throughout the entire period of thirty-eight years he has been connected with the hotel business. His are not the mammoth hostelries which afford palatial surroundings and entertainment for the rich, for back of all of his activity has been the humanitarian spirit that has prompted his aid to the poor. His hotels are the ten-cent rooming houses which give shelter and a place to sleep to the man who has touched the lowest financial depth. In carrying on this business Mr. Burton has ever been actuated by a desire to assist the unfortunate in life and his work has been indeed that of a public benefactor. His own career has not been entirely free from setbacks and discouragements, notwithstanding the fact that he is today one of the men of affluence in St. Louis.
Iowa numbers Mr. Burton as a native son, his birth having ocenrred in Van Buren county, that state, in 1841, so that he has now reached the seventy-ninth milestone on life's journey. His father, John W. Burton, removed from Ken- tueky to Iowa, casting in his lot with the pioneer settlers of that state as early as 1835, when the district was still under territorial rule. At a previous date he had removed with his mother, Mrs. Catherine Springer Burton, to Illinois and, settling near Beardstown, they had experienced all of the hardships and privations of frontier life. The Indians were still numerous in the state at that time and in 1832 John W. Burton volunteered for service in the Black Hawk war, which terminated Indian supremacy in the middle Mississippi valley. After a residence of more than a half century in Iowa, John W. Burton passed away in 1891, while his wife survived until October 31, 1906. They were the parents of eleven children.
William V. Burton, spending his youthful days under the parental roof in Iowa, attended the district schools near his father's farm and afterward continued his education in an academy at Bentonsport, Iowa. Later he concen- trated his efforts upon the work of the farm until he reached the age of twenty years, or in 1862. He then made his way to St. Louis, but previous to this time has joined Captain Lawrence's company of Clark county, Missouri, for service in the Civil war. Before the command was organized, however, the men dispersed. Mr. Burton spent the winter of 1862-3 in St. Louis and then made his way to Arkansas, where he joined Captain Lesueur's battery of Price's army. He did duty with Parsons' infantry and was engaged in southern Arkansas and Louisiana, taking part in many hotly contested battles, including those of Mansfield, Louisiana, Camden, Arkansas, and others of minor impor- tance. He likewise participated in the engagement of Saline river, Arkansas, and was at all times a brave and faithful soldier, being mustered out at Shreve-
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Cdilliam D. Burton
port, Louisiana, in June, 1865, after three years' connection with the artillery branch of the army.
Following the close of the Civil war Mr. Burton located in Mississippi, being on a cotton plantation there for thirteen years. On the expiration of this period he turned his attention to merchandising, which he carried on in con- nection with the development of the land, but the heavy floods proved disastrous to the production of crops and he decided to leave Mississippi and try his fortune elsewhere. Accordingly he arrived in St. Louis in 1882 and soon afterward met a man who desired to sell a hotel. Mr. Burton became the purchaser and since that time he has developed and enlarged the business until he is now proprietor of almost a dozen of the ten-cent lodging houses of St. Louis. The one thing that has always been absolutely demanded in these establishments is cleanliness and Mr. Burton has a corps of people constantly employed to keep the hotels spotless. The great rooms are fitted out with double-decked beds, there often being one hundred in a room. These can be secured for ten cents per night. Then there are other rooms containing a single bed and chair, which can be secured for fifteen cents per night, and still others with a little better furnishing for twenty cents per night. The method of conducting these is seen in the signs which hang about the walls, including the following: "No card playing." "No loud talking or laughing after 9:30 P. M." "Guests are requested to go to bed by 11:30 P. M." "Beds will not be held for guests after 6 P. M." "Be good and you'll sleep well." His policy to the guests is indicated in the sign: "Clerks in my houses must be kind and good to guests. Guests that will dissipate and use bad language must go. (Signed) Burton." Not only does the lodger get a bed but also may have a free hath, while hot and cold water are supplied the year around. Shoes may be shined without extra charge, water, soap and a basin are furnished in which to wash socks and linen, there are free newspapers to read, free information to the unemployed and the privilege of loafing in a big clubroom all day. The clerks, too, are glad to give references to employment agencies where work may be obtained. In an account given in one of the newspapers concerning the Burton hotels is said: "The two paramount things about these dime hotels is their compactness and their cleanliness. Every inch of available space is used. The beds are placed far enough apart to be convenient, but when one hundred of them are put in a single room one knows no space has been wasted. * * *
An effort is made to keep the places as clean as soap and water will make them. Mr. Burton employs about fifty people, most of whom are engaged in sweeping and scrubbing the hotels and many of whom are women. He has employes who have been with him more than twenty years. * *
* In summer the hotels accommodate an average of eight hundred and fifty men a day; in winter they will run to their capacity of two thousand. * *
* Mr. Burton has made the hotel business almost a charity. He takes pride in being able to give a man a good clean place to sleep for a dime." Most of this business is now managed by subordinates, Mr. Burton looking after only the larger details. As time has passed and he has prospered, he has made wise and judicious investment in real estate and is the owner of some excellent income paying property, having in the thirty-eight years of his residence in St. Louis accumulated a comfortable fortune.
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William D. Button
In 1889 Mr. Burton was united in marriage to Mrs. Mary L. Nixon, who in her maidenhood was Mary L. Delsher. She was born in St. Charles, Missouri, and died in 1896. By this marriage two sons were born: Walter P., who saw service in France during the World war; and William W., who is connected with the Illinois Electric Light & Power Company at East St. Louis. Mr. Burton's progressive spirit and enterprise have placed him in a most creditable position among the representative business men of St. Louis. Ile has studied life and its problems and is always glad to extend a helping hand. At the same time, as the result of his careful management and his enterprise, he has built up his own fortunes to gratifying proportions and the most envious cannot grudge him his success, so well has it been won and so worthily used.
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Colonel Louis Duestrow
N active connection with the insurance business and with mining interests Colonel Louis Duestrow so directed his efforts, guided I by keen sagacity and sound judgment, that in the course of his active and useful life he won a substantial fortune. But more than that, he won honor and a good name by reason of his unquestioned integrity and uprightness. He became a resi- dent of St. Louis when a youth of seventeen years, his birth having occurred in Mayence, Germany, July 16, 1832. His life span covered the intervening years to the 7th of March, 1892, he being sixty years of age at the time of his demise. He was a son of William Duestrow, who conducted a restaurant and store in Mayence until 1849, when believing that he might have better opportunities for his growing family in the new world, he came to the United States and made his way at once to St. Louis, but did not live to see the fulfillment of his hopes, as he fell a victim to the cholera epidemic of that year. Ilis widow survived until November 12, 1880, and reached the advanced age of eighty-one years.
During his youthful days Louis Duestrow attended the schools of Mayence, where he had thorough educational training that well qualified him for life's practical and responsible duties. Ile seemed, too, to have inherited his father's business ability and from his initial step in the business world made steady and continuous progress. He was first employed as clerk in the general store of Mr. Taussig on Carondelet avenue and later he embarked in business on his own account by opening a retail grocery store on Second street, near Poplar. He entered the insurance field in 1857, when he accepted a clerical position with the Franklin Fire Insurance Company of St. Louis, and for thirty-five years he remained an active factor in the conduct of the business. Ilis adaptability and enterprise led to his promotion to the position of secretary of the company upon the death of Charles Abramson in 1858 and for twenty-nine years he occupied the secretarial office, which he resigned on the 12th of March, 1887. Ile remained as a representative of the directorate of the company, however, and continued to act in that position until his death, so that he maintained unbroken connection with the company through a period of more than a third of a century. With the thoroughness that was characteristic of him, he mastered every phase of the insurance business and his executive ability and sound judgment featured as important factors in the success of the company. His sagacity was also mani- fest in his investment in the Granite Mountain Mining Company. He seemed always to recognize the psychological moment for any business act and he became one of the large stockholders and one of the directors of this company, which for a number of years paid enormous dividends, its mines being most profitably operated. Through this avenue he became one of the wealthy men
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Colonel Louis Duestrow
of St. Louis and, moreover, one in whom the publie had every confidence be- eause of his irreproachable integrity and fair dealing in all business matters.
In carly manhood Colonel Duestrow was united in marriage to Miss Jennie Becker, of St. Louis, the wedding being celebrated January 27, 1857. Follow- ing her demise he was married on the 31st of December, 1866, to Miss Fredericka Wensel, of St. Louis, and for twenty-six years they traveled life's journey hap- pily together until separated by the death of Colonel Duestrow in 1892, his widow surviving him until 1894, when she passed away in Mayence, Germany, when on a visit to her old home, survived by but one ehild, a daughter, Hulda, who is yet living in St. Louis.
Colonel Duestrow was one of the founders of the St. Louis Turnverein, known as the Centrals, and he belonged also to the Liederkranz, in which he served as presiding officer for several terms. He was likewise a member of the national executive committee of the North American Gymnasium Union-Turner Bund-and he was a director of the Missouri Crematory Association. He proudly wore the little bronze button that proclaimed him a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, for in 1861, when civil war was declared, he joined the Union army, becoming one of the "boys in blue" of Company I, Third Regiment United States Reserve Corps. On the day of his enlistment he was made first lieutenant and on the 31st of August, 1862, was commissioned a major of the Fifth Regiment United States Reserve Corps. On the 1st of June, 1864, he was promoted to a coloneley and continued in the service until hon- orably discharged on the 12th of March, 1865. During his aetive military career he was on duty under Captain Nathaniel Lyon, who afterward became general, and he participated in the capture of Camp Jackson and subsequently served on the staff of General MeNeil, proving a gallant, faithful and efficient offieer in every capacity, his own zeal, loyalty and bravery inspiring his men and winning him the high commendation of superior officers. He was ever afterward a valued member of the Grand Army of the Republie, belonging to Frank P. Blair Post, No. 1, Department of Missouri. He was also a loyal member of Cosmos Lodge of Masons in St. Louis and in his life displayed the benefieent spirit of the craft, being always an exemplary follower of the teach- ings of the order. He had many attractive social qualities and his entire life was the expression of noble characteristics. He was high-minded, guided by a sense of honor and fidelity in all things, and though twenty-eight years have been added to the eyele of the centuries sinee he passed away, his memory is yet cherished in the hearts of many who knew him.
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