USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri, vol. 2 > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
113
114
Elias Michael
terest in the business in 1884, while in 1885 he was admitted to a full partner- ship. Fourteen years later, upon the incorporation of the firm, he was ap- pointed secretary, filling the position from 1899 until 1903, when he became vice president, acting in that capacity until 1906, when he was advanced to the presidency and continued at the head of the business until his life's labors were ended in death. In 1902 the capital stock of the company was increased from two to four million dollars and the business was developed until it became the second largest of the kind in the country, its trade extending from ocean to ocean and from the northern to the southern boundary of the Union. New names were constantly added to the pay roll until their employes numbered about one thousand, and as the head of this important commercial establishment Mr. Michael became a well known figure in business and financial circles throughout the entire country. His cooperation was continually sought in other directions and he became a stockholder or officer in various important business concerns. His service as a member of directorates was of the utmost value, for his judg- ment was at all times sound, his sagacity keen and his plans of a most practical nature. He became the president of the Premium Manufacturing Company of St. Louis and a director of the Commonwealth Trust Company, the National Bank of Commerce and the American Central Insurance Company.
To speak of Mr. Michael only as an extremely successful business man would be to give but a one-sided view of his career. He never for a moment forgot the duties and obligations of citizenship and there was no one more keenly interested in those things which are a matter of civic virtue and civic pride. Hle never allowed himself to be dominated by party rule but studied thoroughly every question which came up for settlement and gave the weight of his aid and influence to all carefully formulated plans for the progress and improvement of city, community and country. From 1904 until 1910 he was a member of the St. Louis board of education and served as chairman of its finance commit- tee. It was upon his recommendation that the public schools assumed respon- sibility for the vacation schools in St. Louis, which up to that time had been a private experiment. In 1903 he was appointed chairman of the bridge and terminals commission by Mayor Wells, and while his duties were of a most onerous and delicate character, he performed his work in so admirable a man- ner as to win the high endorsement of all. He sought to give St. Louis shippers a through bill of lading from the eastern cities to the Missouri metropolis and he never ceased his labors until his plan reached successful consummation. He was a member of the executive board of the Business Men's League and in 1903 was made chairman of the terminal facilities committee. In 1910-11 he occupied the presidency of the National Wholesale Dry Goods Association and was long a prominent figure in that organization. He also belonged to the St. Louis Manu- facturers' Association and was a director of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States and a member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris, France. In 1913 he represented the former at the conference of the Interna- tional Chamber of Commerce at Brussels, the delegates there meeting to draft rules for the permanent organization. The Louisiana Purchase Exposition had the benefit of his wisdom and experience through his service as one of its di- rectors and again and again his cooperation became a moving force in pushing to successful completion some worthy publie enterprise.
115
Elias Michael
Another phase in the life record of Mr. Michael that is worthy of extended consideration was his charity and philanthropy. No worthy cause sought his aid in vain and he was particularly helpful toward those of his own race. Ilis nature, however, was too broad to eause him to confine his benevolence wholly to the Jewish people, yet his work in that connection was most valuable. He was a director of the Jewish Charitable and Educational Union of St. Louis, was the vice president of the St. Louis Provident Association and a director of the Self-Culture Hall. He became a member of the executive board of the Hospital Saturday and Sunday Association and was on the directorate of Father Dunne's Newsboys' Home. He was also president of the Jewish Alliance Night School and the Jewish Day Nursery and was instrumental in promoting the erection of the Jewish Hospital of St. Louis and was the largest contributor thereto. The Jewish people of his own city found in him a most helpful friend and one who was never weary of promoting their interests and welfare. He was likewise a member of the National Jewish Committee of Fifty, before whom all important questions of Jewish affairs are presented.
Mr. Michael was at one time president of the Mercantile Club of St. Louis and he belonged to many of the leading social organizations of the eity, includ- ing the Aero, Automobile, City, Columbian, Contemporary, Commercial, Glen Echo, Mereantile, Noonday, St. Louis and Westwood Clubs. He greatly ap- preeiated the social amenities of life, but he was never happier than when at his own fireside and with the members of his own household. On the 17th of June, 1886, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Miss Rachel Stix, daughter of Aaron Stix, be- eame his wife. Thereafter her interests, welfare and happiness were his first consideration and he counted no personal effort or sacrifice on his part too great if it would promote her interests in any way.
His life was fraught with great good for the benefit of mankind, was crowned by successful achievement and won for him the honor and respect of all. The characteristics of this many-sided man of noble purpose and of high ideals ean perhaps best be given in quoting from those who were intimately associated with him in one phase or another of his life work. One of his biographers said : "He affected the city for good in all the ways a good man's activities can affeet a community. He brought into business, qualities of idealism that height- ened his transcendent commercial abilities. In the furtherance of liberal eul- ture he was a foremost figure, and in efforts for the betterment of social con- ditions he was a weariless worker. In practical philanthropy he devoted him- self to the advancement of knowledge and the development of strengthening of character. Ile sought to make men and women self-reliant rather than de- pendent. His was the democratie ideal, socially and economically, and he fa- vored in all ways the enlargement and the equalizing of opportunity. Ile was a friend of freedom and helped such causes as woman suffrage with a keen mind and a whole heart. Personally he was a most gracious man, with a strong gen- tleness and a firm-fibred sympathy that aceorded well with his abundant prae- tieality. He gave fine tone to any company, and touched its talk to higher issues. He gave himself ungrudgingly to men and to eauses, and his smile was a smoother of rough ways in affairs. He leaves us an inspiring memory of manhood com- paet with the virtues that give life its fullest meaning."
That Mr. Michael was one of the most representative citizens of St. Louis
116
Elias Michael
is indicated in the fact that he was chosen a member of the presidential party when Theodore Roosevelt, then chief executive of the nation, visited St. Louis. He wore all of his honors with becoming modesty and dignity. He seemed sel- dom to think of self, his mind being at all times engrossed with important busi- ness interests or with many of the grave problems that had to do with sociological, economic and political conditions of the country. He was an extremely broad- minded man, called into consultation with men of authority upon almost every question. While he was still an active factor in the world's work a current magazine said of him in this connection : "He speaks often on all kinds of mat- ters, but he never says a word without seemingly weighing well his thought be- forehand, and then, too, the manner of its expression. However, his wonderful training before various assemblages has given him the ability for rapid conclu- sions which take the cold, studied formalism from his words. They ring true because they are true, and even more so, because heart is buttressed by head in them in such proportion as to make them practical, solid, sensible, sound, and yet not mechanical and lifeless. He talks slowly, carefully and directly to the point, being a good speaker but no orator. He drives the nails and puts the structure together, rather than ornamenting that which someone else has built. IIis words, then, hold together and need no rhetoric or logie other than their own force and vitality. Some have argued that one man can only do a cer- tain amount and do it well, but Mr. Michael has exceeded the limit of capacity for valued accomplishment, and in himself raises the standard of individual effort. In all his work he is conspicuous but not gaudy ; and who shall say that for most men to be president of the Rice-Stix Dry Goods Company would not be a gigantic, nay overwhelming task, in itself? But Elias Michaels are few and far between, for he has the genius-and we may call it that-to do many things well, without giving the impression of strenuous effort, or that appear- ance of intense immersion in thought which grapples so many who succeed in big things, or even only try to achieve them."
Elias Michael made valuable contribution to the world's work and humanity is better for his having lived. He was an honor to every organization with which he was connected and the most prominent men of the country recognized him as a peer. He was ofttimes a dominating influence in settling problems of nationwide importance and stood at all times as the highest representative of American manhood and chivalry.
When Mr. Michael passed away, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States sent to Mrs. Michael the following memorial :
"Elias Michael of St. Louis attended the National Commercial conference of the United States in Washington, D. C., in April, 1912, at which the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America was instituted, and was there chosen a director of the Chamber. At the first annual meeting in January, 1913, he was elected a director. On September 15th death overtook him in the prime of his manhood and of his usefulness. His services on the board en- deared him to all his fellow members. They came to recognize in him a man of force and sterling character, of high ideals and strong purpose, of the best business ability, combined with keen sympathy, great generosity and wholesome geniality. To the organization and support of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America he brought his ripe business judgment and com-
117
Elias Michael
mercial experience and gave without stint to this, as to so many other con- structive and altruistic causes, of the best that was in him. The Chamber grate- fully acknowledges the share he took in the work of creating this national com- mercial organization to be representative of the business sentiment and business interests of the nation. The board of directors mourns the loss from their ranks of a most lovable and helpful comrade.
"HARRY A. WHEELER, President."
A
Jou Loibl.
Louis I. Seibel
INCE 1880, or from the age of twenty-one years, Louis L. Sei- S bel has been identified with the Badger Lumber Company of which he is now the president. He started out upon his business eareer when a youth of fifteen years, and has since been dependent entirely upon his own resources, working his way steadily upward along the line of orderly progression, until he is now a well known figure in the lumber trade eir- eles of Kansas City. He was born March 31, 1859, in Warsaw, Illinois, a son of Edward M. and Dorothea (Kellner) Seibel, who were natives of Hessen, Ger- many. The father was born in 1823, and passed away at Hannibal, Missouri, in 1891, when sixty-eight years of age. IIe was a cabinet maker and millwright in Germany, and eame to the United States in 1848, after which he served with the rank of captain in the Mexican war. He returned to Germany in 1850 for a short time, but in 1851 again eame to the new world and made his way west- ward to Warsaw, Illinois, where he engaged in business as a cabinetmaker, a millwright, builder and arehiteet. When the Civil war was inaugurated he or- ganized a company at Warsaw, but the regiment could not be mustered in quick enough in Illinois to suit him and so he brought his troops to Missouri where they became the Eighth Missouri Volunteer Infantry. While serving in defense of the Union, Captain Seibel was wounded. After the war he located in Quincy, Illinois, and in 1871 removed to Hannibal, Missouri. He was a very progressive man, aetive and efficient in all that he undertook, and wherever he went he en- joyed the respect and friendship of all with whom he came in contact. IIis widow, who was born in Germany in 1836, survived him for many years, passing away in Hannibal in 1919, at the age of eighty-three.
Louis Seibel, whose name introduces this review, was educated in the public schools of Warsaw and of Quincy, Illinois, and when fifteen years of age began working in a book and music store at Hannibal, Missouri. Later he elerked in a groeery store, and in 1880 he entered the employ of the Badger Lumber Company, filling every position from that of office boy to the presidency. IIe was elected the chief executive officer in 1910 upon the death of Alfred Toll and for a decade has been the directing head of the business. He is today one of the best known lumbermen in this section of the country, having closely been associated with the lumber trade for forty years. He has been active in develop- ing interests of great magnitude and importance and aside from his connection with the Badger Lumber Company, he is the president of the Fort Smith (Ark.) Lumber Company and president of the Central Railway of Arkansas. He is likewise a director of the Pioneer Trust Company of Kansas City. He took up his abode in Kansas City in 1886, and from this point has since directed
121
122
Louis L. Seibel
his business activities, which have been of constantly growing extent and im- portance.
At Hannibal, Missouri, in 1883, Mr. Seibel was married to Miss Mary Eliza- beth Price, who passed away at Denver, Colorado, May 31, 1920. Her parents were Edward and Isabel (Clark) Price, both natives of County Antrim, Ireland. Mrs. Seibel was a very active worker in the Presbyterian church, its missions and in different charitable organizations, and she belonged to the Athaneum Club. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Seibel was born one son, Louis Edward, a lumberman of Kansas City, who is married and has two children: Louis Byran and James Edward.
Mr. Seibel is well known in club circles of Kansas City, belonging to the Kansas City, Kansas City Athletic, Knife and Fork and Midday Clubs. He is also a prominent Mason, having membership in Temple Lodge, No. 299, A. F. & A. M .; Orient Chapter, R. A. M .; Oriental Commandery, K. T .; Shakinah Conneil, R. & S. M .; and is a past sovereign master of Mary Conclave, No. 5, of the Red Cross of Constantine, and belongs also to the Consistory and the Mystic Shrine. For twenty-two years he was a member of the board of the Fifth Presbyterian church and now has membership in the Linwood Avenue Presby- terian church. In politics he is a republican, but at local elections where no issue is involved easts an independent ballot. In 1912 he served on the civil service board to give Kansas City a better form of government. His aid and cooperation can always be counted upon for progress and improvement and be- canse of his recognized judgment, his known public spirit and his devotion to the general welfare, his leadership is often followed in matters of public policy.
Warwick Hough
Judge Warwick Dough
IGII on the keystone of the legal arch of Missouri is written the H name of Judge Warwick Hough. Untarnished is his record as lawyer and jurist, for at all times he held to the highest ethical standards of the legal profession, and his splendid mentality enabled him to become a most accurate interpreter of the law. His course is one which refleets honor and credit upon the state in which he so long made his home, for he was but two years of age when brought to Missouri by his parents, continuing a resident of the state practically throughout the entire time until death called him October 28, 1915. The last three decades of his life or more were passed in St. Louis. He was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, January 26, 1836, a son of George W. and Mary C. (Shawen) Hough and a descendant of John Ilough, who removed from Bueks county, Pennsylvania, to Loudoun county, Virginia, about 1750 and there wedded Sarah Janney, whose people had also come from Bueks county, Pennsylvania. John Hough was a grandson of Rich- ard Hough, who came from Cheshire, England, on the ship Endeavor as one of a colony directed by William Penn, reaching Philadelphia in 1683, and of whom Penn wrote: "I lament the loss of honest Richard Hough. Such men must needs be wanted where selfishness and forgetfulness of God's mereies so much abound."
The parents of Judge Ilough were natives of Loudoun county, Virginia, the father born April 17, 1808, and the mother on the 25th of December, 1814. They were married there in 1833. Five years later they came to Missouri and George W. Hongh, who had previously been a merchant, brought with him a stock of goods which he sold in St. Louis. He then removed to Jefferson City, where he continued to engage in merchandising until his retirement from busi- ness in 1854. "Prior to this," wrote a biographer, "he had been prominent and influential in Missouri polities and had served with distinction as a mem- ber of the state legislature. In 1854 he was the candidate of the democratic party for congress and engaged actively in the political controversies of the day, which were then of a very fervid character and plainly foreshadowed the great contest of 1860 to 1865. In conjunction with Judge William B. Napton and Judge William Seott, then on the supreme bench of Missouri, and Judge Carty Wells, of Marion county, Mr. Ilough participated in framing the fa- mons 'Jackson resolutions,' introduced by Claiborne F. Jackson, afterward governor, in the Missouri legislature in 1849, which resolutions occasioned the celebrated appeal of Colonel Thomas II. Benton from the instructions of the legislature to the people of Missouri. These resolutions looked forward to a conflict between the northern and southern states and pledged Missouri to a co- operation with her sister states of the south. The leading democrats of Mis-
125
126
Judge Warwick Dough
souri were then known as Calhoun democrats, chief among them being David R. Atchison, William B. Napton, James S. Green, Carty Wells and Claiborne F. Jackson, and the bitter personal hostility existing between Calhoun and Benton was much intensified by these resolutions, the authorship of which Colo- nel Benton attributed to Calhoun. The result of the canvass was Colonel Ben- ton's retirement from the United States senate. Soon after making his un- successful canvass for congress in 1854, Mr. Hough was appointed by Gov- orner Sterling Price a member of the board of public works of Missouri, which was then charged with the supervision of all the railroads in the state to which state aid had been granted. For several years he devoted his entire time to the public interests in this connection and rendered valuable service in con- serving the interests of the state in these various railroad enterprises. He was frequently tendered positions in the government service, which would have necessitated his removal to the national capital, but he declined to accept such appointments. He was for a time curator of the Missouri University and in conjunction with Mr. Eliot, of St. Louis, did much to benefit that institution. He was one of the founders of the Historical Society of Missouri and a public man who contributed largely to the formulation of legislation essential to the development of the resources of the state. Ile had a knowledge of the political history of the country unsurpassed by that of anyone in the state and a supe- rior knowledge also of general history, constitutional law and literature. He died at Jefferson City, February 13, 1878, respected and mourned not only by the community in which he lived but by the people of the entire state. His wife, Mary C. Hough, daughter of Cornelius and Mary C. (Maine) Shawen, was the first person to receive the rite of confirmation in the Episcopal church at Jefferson City. She was a woman of great refinement, of rare amiability and sweetness of temper, devoted to her husband, home and children, and at her death, which occurred at Jefferson City, January 17, 1876, it was said of her : "The works of this quiet, Christian woman do follow her. They are seen in the character of the children she raised and trained for usefulness, in the number of young persons whom she influenced by her precept and example to a higher life and nobler aim, and in the grateful remembrance of the many who have been the recipients of her kind attentions and unostentatious char- ities."
Reared in Jefferson City, Warwick Hough attended private schools wherein he prepared for college. It was said of him: "He was a precocious student, and at sixteen years of age, when the principal of the school he was attending was compelled by illness to abandon his place, he assumed charge of the school at the request of its patrons, and conducted it to the end of the term, teaching his former schoolmates and classmates and hearing recitations in Latin and Greek as well as in other branches of study. At fifteen years of age he acted as librarian of the state library while the legislature was in session. Entering the State University of Missouri, he was graduated from that institution in the class of 1854, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and three years later re- ceived his Master's degree from the same institution. As a collegian he was especially noted for his fondness for the classics and for the sciences of geology and astronomy. He could repeat from memory page after page of Virgil, and nearly all the Odes of Horace. In his senior year he invented a figure illus-
127
Judge Warwick Dough
trating the gradual acceleration of the stars, which was used for years after he left eollege by his preceptor, whose delight it was to give him credit for the invention. His superior seientifie attainments caused him to be selected from the graduating elass of the university in 1854 to make some barometrical observations and ealeulations for Professor Swallow, then at the head of the geological survey of Missouri. Later he was appointed by Governor Price as- sistant state geologist, and the results of his labors in this field were reported by B. F. Shumard and A. B. Meek in the published geological reports of Missouri.
Before he attained his majority he was chief elerk in the office of the see- retary of state, and he was secretary of the state senate during the sessions of 1858-9, 1859-60 and 1860-1. Meantime he had studied law and in 1859 was admitted to the bar. In 1860 he formed a law partnership with J. Proctor Knott, then attorney-general of Missouri, which continued until January of 1861, when he was appointed adjutant-general of Missouri by Governor ('lai- borne F. Jackson. As adjutant-general he issued, on the 22d of April, 1861. the general order under which the military organizations of the state went into encampment on the 3rd of May following. It was this order which brought together the state troops at Camp Jackson, St. Louis, the capture of which precipitated the armed conflict between the federal authorities and southern sympathizers in Missouri. Prior to his appointment as adjutant-general, JJudge Ilough had had military experience as an officer in the Governor's Guards of Missouri, in which he had been commissioned first lieutenant, January 17, 1860. Ile commanded the Governor's Guards in the southwest expedition in the fall aud winter of 1860, under General D. M. Frost. His appointment as adjutant-general gave him the rank of brigadier-general of state troops, and his occupancy of that position continued until after the death of Governor Jackson, when he was appointed secretary of state by Governor Thomas C. Reynolds. He resigned the office of secretary of state in 1863 to enter the Confederate military service, and January 9, 1864, he was commissioned a cap- tain in the inspector-general's department and assigned to duty by James A. Seddon, Confederate seeretary of war, on the staff of Lieutenant-General Leonidas M. Polk. After the death of General Polk he was first assigned to duty on the staff of General S. D. Lee, and afterward served on the staff of Lieutenant- General Diek Taylor, commanding the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, East Louisiana and West Florida, with whom he surrendered to General E. R. S. Candy, receiving his parole May 10, 1865. The proseriptive pro- visions of the Drake constitution prevented him from returning at once to the practice of his profession in Missouri, and until 1867 he practiced law at Memphis, Tennessee. After the abolition of the test oath for attorneys he re- turned to Missouri and established himself in practice at Kansas City, entering at once upon a brilliant and distinguished career as a lawyer. He soon became recognized as one of the leaders of the western bar and in 1874 was elected a judge of the supreme court of Missouri. During his ten years of service on the supreme beneh in the course of which he served for two years as chief justice of that distinguished tribunal, he was eonspicuous for his learning, his scholarly attainments and uncompromising independence. Ilis style was sen- tentious and preeminently judicial ; and his opinions, which are noted for their
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.