USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri, vol. 2 > Part 34
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بيا م حاليه
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John C Sigdon
John C. Digdon
J 30HN C. HIGDON, one of the prominent representatives of patent law at the St. Louis bar, was born in Griggsville, Illi- nois, January 7, 1860, his parents being John Erasmus and Sarah (Baldwin) Iligdon. After completing a high school course in Kansas City, Missouri, his parents having in the meantime removed to this state, he continued his edneation in the William Jewell College and qualified for life's practical and responsible duties by pursuing a mechanical and electrical engineering course with the view of specializing in patent law. However, his school and college work were not continuous, for when a lad of fourteen years he initiated his business eareer by securing employment in a machine shop, where he remained for several years before taking up the study of law. It was his activity in that field of endeavor, combined with the desire to enter upon a professional career, that led him to specialize in the field to which he now gives his attention. He was admitted to the bar in 1884 and in 1890 he organized the firm of Higdon & Longan, successors to Higdon & Higdon, which had been established in Kansas City in 1887.
Mr. Iligdon became a resident of St. Louis in 1889 and has for a third of a century been counsel in important cases relating to patents, trademarks and copyrights. In the suit of the United States court against the bridge trust at St. Louis he prepared and filed a brief, as a friend of the court, in the United States supreme court. He was one of the counsel in the noted Clamorgan- Collins suit, a suit in which he defended the young wife when it was attempted to dissolve the marriage contraet on the ground that she is a negress. He is the author of two books: "The Real Object of the American Patent Laws-To Benefit the Whole People, Not to Enrich a Few Owners of Patents;" and also a volume entitled "Extension of Patents by Judicial Decisions." IIe belongs to the American Bar Association and his colleagues and contemporaries in the profession acknowledge his prominence in his ehosen field of labor. On appli- cation by Mr. Higdon and G. H. Foree to have ballot boxes opened and ballots reeounted on allegations of fraud, Judge C. B. Faris rendered the decision that the federal corrupt practices act did not govern primary eleetions.
In March, 1888, Mr. Higdon was married to Miss Eunice Elmine Garretson, of St. Louis, who passed away in 1907, leaving three children, Jack G., Henry Longan and Eunice. In 1908 Mr. Higdon was again married, his second union being with Miss Gertrude Hortense Holloway, of St. Louis.
Mr. Higdon is well known in the leading clubs of the city. He became a charter member of the Mercantile Club and is also a member of the Automobile Club of St. Louis, the St. Louis Engineers Club and is an associated member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. His religious faith is that of the Christian Science church.
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DS. Brown
Daniel Sidney Brown
3OME one has written : "He has achieved success who has lived S well, laughed often and loved much; who has gained the re- speet of intelligent men and the love of little children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task ; who has left the world better than he found it, whether by an improved copy, a perfect poem or a resened soul; who has never lacked ap- preciation of earth's beauties or failed to express it; who has always looked for the best in others and given the best he has." Not one but several of these standards found expression in the life record of Daniel Sidney Brown. He contributed to the world's work as the promoter of an important industrial enterprise in St. Louis; he added much to the richness of life through his love for and cultivation of flowers, having for many years the finest private collection of orchids in the country-a collection which two years before his death he gave to Shaw's Garden, that the public might enjoy to the full the beauty which he had thus gathered.
Daniel Sidney Brown was born in St. Louis, November 15, 1853, his parents being William and Mary A. (Cox) Brown, the former a native of Washington Boro, Pennsylvania, and the latter of Chelsea, England. The old Brown home- stead in Washington Boro is still standing. William Brown removed from Pennsylvania to St. Louis in 1845, having been married in Cincinnati, Ohio, while en route to his western destination. Immediately after his arrival he organized the Pioneer Cooperage Company and the business developed under his able management until it became one of the important industries of St. Louis. Soon after the founding of this enterprise he became identified with Samuel Cupples, for whom he manufactured much of the woodenware handled in the Cupples establishment.
Daniel Sidney Brown was educated in the public schools of St. Louis and also pursued a course in a business college, after which he entered his father's employ and acquainted himself with every phase of the trade. Following his father's demise in 1888 he was offered the presidency of the company, but re- fused that position and was made first vice president, in which capacity he continued until 1910, when he retired from the business, having accumulated a very substantial fortune, and thereafter gave his attention to the cultivation of orchids.
A love of nature and particularly of botany was inherent in Mr. Brown, who as early as his twentieth year began making his collection of rare orchids and other specimens of tropical flowers. Ile gathered the largest private collection of rare orchids in the United States, having some two thousand named varieties, and there was not a rare variety that he did not secure. His conservatories won him world-wide reputation and in this connection another writer said while he
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Daniel Sioney Brown
was yet living: "His home is situated on Webster avenue in South Kirkwood. Spacious and artistic, in the midst of a beautiful setting, it is largely ideal. The residence stands back about three hundred yards from the road and is approached by a driveway through well kept lawns. The estate covers one hundred and forty acres, forty of which are apportioned to the grounds and conservatories. Mr. Brown takes his chief delight and recreation in his flowers and plants, for as a cultivator of orchids, ferns and palms he is as widely known in Europe as America. In the first conservatory, which is known as the Stove House, the dimensions of which are one hundred by twenty feet, he has grouped both the celestial and terrestrial Cypripedium orchids and hybrids of the Laelia Cattleya, among which will be found all the white varieties. In the East India House, which is one hundred by twenty feet, are the Phalaenopsis. These are natives of the Philippines, bearing an extremely large spray and beautifully colored from a pure white to a deep purple. The Angraecum Sesque- pedale bears a very large white flower of a star shape, which blooms about Christmas time. There are also several varieties of the Dendrobium, bearing a beautiful blossom of a yellow tint, and among palms of the smaller varieties are two very rare Cyrtostachys Renda, the stems of which are a dark purple and which were presented to Mr. Brown while he was visiting the famous Kew gardens in England. These are the only two of the species in the United States and are thriving wonderfully under his care. Ferns of all varieties grow luxuri- antly and the entire collection presents a picture that is a continued source of delight and pleasure. In another room there is a splendid collection of Nepenthes or pitcher plants, some of which bear very large pitchers. All the rare varieties are included in this collection. In the Mexican House, thirty by fifty feet, Mexican and other orchids from the cooler climates are to be seen, bearing beautiful blossoms, and in the Cypripedium House are orchids of beau- tiful and rare varieties, making this one of the best collections of the country. It also includes the largest growing orchid in existence, the Grammatophyllum Speciosum, which is a cutting of the Kew plant bought by Mr. Brown of Sanders & Son, the English experts, on one of his trips abroad. His collection of orchids is acknowledged by those competent to speak on the subject to be one of the best in America, and it has taken years to get together. The palm house, a splendid building one hundred by sixty-four feet and forty feet in height, contains the most beautiful palms of all varieties, some over thirty feet high, which Mr. Brown has grown from small plants two or three feet high. His Latania Barbonica, a magnificent palm over twenty-five feet high, has been in his possession for over thirty years and was in fact started by his mother, from whom Mr. Brown has inherited his intense love of plant life. His Cycas Revoluta was exhibited by the Japanese at the World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893, and at that time was said to be one hundred and fifty years of age and also the largest of its species in existence. Among his collection is also a date palm now over twenty-five feet high, which Mr. Brown has had for over thirty years and which he has developed from a little plant. There is also a magnificent specimen of the Cycas Cireinalis, a most beautiful cycad about eighteen feet high, from the stem of which radiate numerous feathery fronds from ten to twelve feet long. He is also the proud possessor of the palm, only three of which are known to be in existence, named after Prince Bismarck of Germany, Bismarck
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Daniel Sidney Brown
Nobilis, which he has had for over twenty-five years. Thus the magnificent, rare and beautiful palms, ferns and orchids which constitute the chief features of his conservatory have made his the finest private collection in existence and, moreover, this has been accumulated purely for the pleasure which Mr. Brown takes in all that is beautiful, rare and interesting in plant life. It will without doubt be of intense interest to botanists and lovers of flowers to know that among his collection of palms is the rarest of the speeies, the Kentia Belmoreana Brownii, which is the only one known to exist and which was found among a lot of seedlings raised by Sanders & Son of St. Albans, England, at their place in Bruges, Belgium. It would require a volume to tell of all the attractive features in the conservatories of Mr. Brown, which, however, are always open to his friends that they may enjoy with him these beautiful productions of nature, of which he has every reason to be justly proud." Two years prior to his death he gave his notable collection of orchids to Shaw's Garden. In the meantime he had also made a wonderfully fine collection of snuff-boxes and old ivories, possessing many notable pieces. Brownhurst, his estate of one hundred and sixty acres on the Denny road, fourteen miles south of St. Louis, which he purchased in 1890, became one of the show places of St. Louis eounty and he resided thereon for twenty-six years. In 1919 he sold that property and took up his abode in the city, where he passed away ou the 17th of November.
It was on the 19th of November, 1879, that Mr. Brown was united in mar- riage to Miss Dora Mather, daughter of William Ray Mather, who was a son of the Rev. Ebenezer Mather, of Fairmont, West Virginia, and a representative of an old colonial family that furnished many members to the ministry. Had Mr. Brown lived but two days longer he and his wife would have reached the fortieth anniversary of their marriage. They were the parents of five children : Luella Ray, the wife of I. F. Boyd, president of Boyd-Richardson Company, of St. Louis; George Mather, engaged in the real estate business in St. Louis; Sidney Mather, a young lady who gave eighteen months to Red Cross work in France during the World war, returning home in January, 1920; Marjorie Douglas; and Polly.
Mrs. Brown has been a member of the Wednesday Club of St. Louis for several years and has been chairman of the South Central Field Committee of the national organization of the Young Women's Christian Association for a number of years. She belongs to the Episcopal church, of which Mr. Brown was a member, and like him she has been most generous in charity and philanthropy.
Mr. Brown gave freely but unostentatiously and proved himself a friend to many young men whom he educated, and two of whom he had live with him in his beautiful home in St. Louis county. All who knew him bore testimony to his splendid character and many admirable qualities. His entire business career was devoted to the cooperage business and in this connection he was a great man for details, thoroughly qualifying himself for the conduct of the enterprise by learning to operate every machine himself. He displayed considerable in- ventive ingenuity in this connection. He was always a hard worker, was kind and gentle to an eminent degree and was greatly beloved by all in his employ. He never sought to figure in club circles. He was strictly a home man and his time outside of business was devoted to the cultivation of his orchids. He was a naturalist who loved the country, the trees and the shrubbery and he was
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Daniel Sidney Brown
better known by the large orchid growers of England even than by those of his own country. He could never be called a good mixer, but he was most devoted to his friends, toward whom he displayed a deep-seated and true devotion. His politieal allegiance was given to the republican party, but aside from the exer- eise of franchise in support of principles in which he believed he took no aetive part in politics. To the majority he seemed quiet and reserved, but to those who eame within the close cirele of his friendship he was a most lovable man, his salient traits of character being such as won for him the kindliest regard and high respect of all.
William Pendleton Anderson
HE history of William Pendleton Anderson constitutes an im- T portant chapter in connection with the industrial annals of Missouri. From a small beginning he has developed interests of gigantic proportions and throughout the entire period has employed constructive measures, his path never being strewn with the wreck of other men's failures. His powers of organ- ization, his ready adaptability and his enterprise have made him a dynamic force in connection with the development of the business inter- ests which constitute the basis of Missouri's prosperity. Mr. Anderson was born in East Liberty, Allen county, Indiana, February 14, 1865, his parents being J. L. and Mary C. Anderson. In early life the father followed farming but later became connected with his son in the lumber business, and up to his death on the 14th of February, 1920, he was in charge of the supply depart- ment of the Gideon-Anderson Lumber & Mercantile Company.
William Pendleton Anderson acquired his early education in the public sehools of his native town and afterward attended high school in Decatur, In- diana. Thus today he is a man of most liberal education, due to his wide reading of the best authorities on all leading subjects that have to do with his business, economie, manufacturing, social and political interests. He makes it his purpose to inform himself thoroughly upon any subject which engages his attention and he is thus enabled to speak with anthority upon many questions that elicit general interest. After starting in business his first three years were devoted to farming and through that period he developed into a man of affairs, recognizing and utilizing business opportunities in other directions. Ile became connected with the timber and sawmill interests at Monroeville, Indiana, where he rented a small sawmill which he operated for about two years. He then became associated with his father, J. L. Anderson, and his brother, M. S. Ander- son, in the purchase of a larger sawmill at Wren, Ohio, which they operated for about three years. Having developed into a good sawmill operator and fore- seeing a future in the lumber business for a man with ability and energy, W. P. Anderson began to look about for larger fields of operation and decided to make an investigation of chances offered in connection with the lumber industry in southeast Missouri. In the spring of 1900, in company with a brother-in-law, F. E. Gideon, he made the trip to this state and found conditions to be as reported. Accordingly, in September he removed the mill from Wren, Ohio, to the present site of Gideon. His initial purchase of property was a body of timber covering four sections. Associated with him in this undertaking was his brother, M. S. Anderson, and his brother-in-law, F. E. Gideon, the three enter- ing into a partnership relation and immediately beginning operation. A short time after this Louis Houck built the railroad through this part of the country,
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William Pendleton Anderson
constructing the line that now belongs to the Frisco system, and thus shipping facilities were easily accessible. In the following spring after Mr. Anderson came to southeastern Missouri, he was joined by another brother-in-law, M. V. Mumma, and a Mr. Snider, who removed a mill to Missouri, purchasing four and one-half sections of timber and land. The mill was operated for a year, at the end of which time Mr. Snider decided to return north. Mr. Anderson then purchased his interest in the mill and organized the Clarkton Lumber Company as a partnership concern. This company was later consolidated with the firm formed by F. E. Gideon, W. P. Anderson, M. S. Anderson and M. V. Mumma, the business being conducted under the style of Gideon and Anderson. After the consolidation of the Gideon & Anderson interests with the Clarkton Lumber Company, the name of the Gideon-Anderson Lumber & Mercantile Company was assumed. The business was carried on as a partnership until 1908, when Mr. Gideon retired, and the company was then incorporated under the name of the Gideon-Anderson Lumber & Mercantile Company. It was in 1905 that Mr. Anderson and his associates entered into the mercantile business in a small way and in 1918 they completed and now occupy one of the largest and most substantial mercantile establishments south of St. Louis. They also organized the Commercial Bank of Gideon, which is located in the same building and of which Mr. Anderson is the president.
In 1908 the Gideon-Anderson Lumber & Mercantile Company built a line of railroad from a point about eight miles south of Gideon, Missouri, to Malden, Missouri, a distance of about twenty miles, and incorporated the undertaking under the name of the Gideon & North Island Railroad, Mr. Anderson becom- ing the president. Further extending his interests he was instrumental in closing a deal with the O. B. Gwynn Slack Barrel Stave Company, in which he purchased the entire plant and stock of this company, incorporating it under the name of the Gideon Cooperage Company, of which he became president. In 1918 he closed a deal with the Boynton Land & Lumber Company and the Mill- Shoals Cooperage Company at Boynton, Arkansas, purchasing a large body of timber and the lumber mill and cooperage plants of these companies, thus form- ing the Anderson-Poorman Manufacturing Company. In 1917 the plant and business of the Senath Cooperage Company was purchased, the plant being located in Senath, Missouri, whence it was removed to Leachville, Arkansas, and there the business was incorporated under the old name of the Senath Cooperage Company, Mr. Anderson likewise becoming president of this con- cern. In 1906 he was instrumental in organizing the Bank of Clarkton at Clarkton, Missouri, of which he also became president. He is now the president of many corporations, all of which are directly or indirectly the outgrowth of a small leased sawmill which he began operating in Monroeville, Indiana. These include the Gideon-Anderson Lumber & Mercantile Company, the Gideon Cooperage Company and the Gideon & North Island Railroad, all of Missouri; the Bank of Clarkton at Clarkton, Missouri; the Anderson-Poorman Manufac- turing Company of Boynton, Arkansas; and the Senath Cooperage Company of Leachville, Arkansas.
At Decatur, Indiana, Mr. Anderson was united in marriage to Miss Mary M. Mumma, a daughter of David and Anna Mumma, of Decatur. Her father was a farmer who removed from Ohio to Indiana with his parents at a very early
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William Pendleton Anderson
day, continuing a resident of Decatur to the time of his demise. The death of Mrs. Mary M. Anderson occurred in 1908. There were four children of that marriage : James C., who is associated with his father in business in St. Louis; Franees Anna, the wife of J. W. Daugherty, of Gideon; Opal M., wife of Maynard C. Johnson (both deceased) ; and Olive Bernice, the wife of W. B. Turner, of Malden, Missouri. In 1910 Mr. Anderson was again married, his second union being with Miss Hulda Jane Young, of New Madrid county, Mis- souri, who is a close relative of the De Lisle family of Portageville, Missouri. To the second marriage have been born two daughters, Lucille and Louise.
Mr. Anderson is a man of pleasing appearance and has a very strong per- sonality, and anyone meeting him face to face would recognize that he is what in this eountry we term a square man. There is about him nothing sinister and nothing to conceal. His ease of address, his quietude of deportment and his decision all indicate a right conception of things and an habitual regard for what is best in the exercise of human activities. IIe is a consistent member of the Kingshighway Presbyterian church at St. Louis and he belongs to the Midland Valley Country Club, of which he is a director. He is also well known in the Hoo Hoo, a prominent association of lumbermen, and in the Knights of Pythias fraternity. Extremely progressive and publie spirited, he is recognized as one who has contributed in unusual measure to the greatest development of southeastern Missouri. He has always been a man of action rather than of theory. He possesses marked foresight and takes a broad view of all business deals and prospects. He has always been a stanch advoeate of higher educa- tion for the youth of the land and believes in holding the most advanced ideals before the young. It has always been one of his customs to give to any de- serving man the opportunity to develop and prove his ability. In a word, he is constantly extending a helping hand and knows that the most valuable assist- ance is that which gives the individual the opportunity to help himself.
yo Brown
William Brown
ILLIAM BROWN was the founder and promoter of the exten- W sive business that is now conducted under the name of the Pioneer Cooperage Company in St. Louis. He was born in Washington Boro, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and was a representative of one of the old families of that place, where the old Brown homestead is still standing. Reared in the east, he removed from Pennsylvania to St. Louis in 1845, be- coming one of the pioneer business men of the eity. While en route to his west- ern destination he was married in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Miss Mary A. Cox, a native of Chelsea, England.
Following the establishment of their home in St. Louis, William Brown en- gaged in the cooperage business with llenry T. Blow at Tenth street and Clark avenue. He afterward removed to Cape Girardeau, where he organized a lum- ber and milling company and established a plant, but later he returned to St. Louis and opened a eooperage shop at Tenth and Walnut streets. About that time he admitted John Seaman to a partnership in the business, under the name of Seaman, Cox & Brown, and they extended the scope of their activities by establishing a braneh house in Chicago. Later the name was changed to the Pioneer Cooperage Company, under which title the business is still carried on. Enterprise and diligence characterized William Brown at every point in his career and under his able management was developed a business that beeame one of the important industrial enterprises of St. Louis. Soon after the found- ing of this enterprise Mr. Brown became identified with Samuel Cupples, for whom he manufactured much of the woodenware handled in the Cupples es- tablishment. The development of his business was an indication of his initia- tive, his industry and his laudable ambition. He was also interested in early railroad building in Missouri in order to furnish transportation for lumber. What he undertook he accomplished. He never stopped short of the successful fulfilment of his purpose, for he realized that when one avenue of opportunity seemed closed he could earve out other paths whereby to reach the desired goal. Moreover, the integrity of his methods was never called into question and his record proves that success and an honored name may be won simultaneously.
To Mr. and Mrs. William Brown were born seven children, four sons and three daughters, but only two are now living: Lillie, who is the wife of Thomas S. Gerhart; and William Cox Brown, who is now treasurer of the Pioneer Cooperage Company and is mentioned elsewhere in this work. The death of William Brown occurred in 1888. 1Ie had been a resident of St. Louis for more than forty years and had been most elosely connected with the industrial de- velopment and the business progress of the city through the formative period
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