History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 54

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358

USA > Missouri > St Louis County > St Louis City > History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men > Part 54

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ELEVATORS AND WAREHOUSES .- The immensity of the grain-trade of St. Louis requires unusually ex- tensive and complete terminal facilities ; hence it is that the chain of elevators and warehouses in St. Louis and suburbs provides most amply for the hand- ling of grain in bulk. The river-front of nearly six- teen miles is dotted here and there on both sides with elevators, having all the modern appliances and appa- ratus for storing, weighing, cleaning, receiv- ing, and delivering grain into barges, which are towed alongside by tow-boats belonging to the elevator companies. Double tracks and sidings from the Levee also run into these for loading and unloading cars, and the addi- tional chain of elevators on the lines running out from the Union Depot supply ample ter- minal facilitics to the Western trunk lines.

There were warehouses of primitive build and limited capacity and conveniences in St. Louis nearly half a century ago, but it was not until about the year 1860 that the ne- cessity of changing the plan of handling grain consigned to St. Louis began to be strongly felt by the commission houses and millers, and it was proposed that sacks should be dis- penscd with and the grain transported in bulk. The great difference between high- and low- water level-some forty feet-presented a dif- ficulty, but not an insurmountable obstacle. In 1860 several meetings were held by influ- ential dealers in grain, at which, while no definite results or plans were arrived at, the conviction was generally expresscd that bulk grain transportation must supplant the sack before St. Louis could successfully compete with Chicago as a grain market. The proposition of Messrs. Henry and Edgar Ames and Albert Pearce to construct an elevator was vetoed by the mayor after the ordinance empowering the construction of the elevator had passed the City Council, and it was not until 1864 that an elevator was erected. This was the present building, save the additions since erected, of the St. Louis Elevator Company, on the Levee, between Biddle and Ashley Streets.

The St. Louis Elevator Company, which now con- trols four elevators, when organized in 1864, was believed to be in advance of the then demands of trade. It did not prove profitable in its earlier management,

nor indecd until its control was obtained by the pres- ent officers,-John Jackson, president ; and Capt. D. P. Slattery, secretary and general manager.

Only those who are aware of the almost incalcula- ble impetus which the grain trade of St. Louis has received from the utilization of the river route to New Orleans for shipment to Europe and South America can appreciate the work that has been done by such far-seeing and ardent spirits as Eads and Jackson and their associates.

John Jackson was born in County Down, North Ircland, April 21, 1821, of Scotch-Irish parents. The father, a farmer, trained the boy to habits of in-

ST. LOUIS GRAIN ELEVATOR.

dustry, and gave him all the school privileges which the country then afforded. When nineteen years old young Jackson entered a wholesale grocery establish- ment at Belfast, and remained there twelve years. He then followed a younger brother's example and came to America, landing at New Orleans in 1852. For three years he was connected with the house of Dyas & Co., and then (in 1855) removed to St. Louis and established the branch house of McGill, Jackson & Co., of New Orleans, who dealt in salt, etc. The business was well managed, and Mr. Jackson made money. His energy, honesty, and ability attracted the attention of his fellow-merchants, and they sought

1228

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

his advice and aid in matters involving the industrial development of the city.

Mr. Jackson early gave much thought to the open- ing and development of lines of traffic from St. Louis to outlying regions, and was a director in the Wabash system of railroads west of the Mississippi, reaching to Kansas City, Omaha, and the rich grain-fields of Iowa, etc. When it had been demonstrated that the grain trade of the Northwest was not henceforth to be completely monopolized by Chicago, and that ship- ments of grain to the Atlantic from the South and West could be made advantageously by way of St. Louis, he was an earnest and practical advocate of the introduction of improvements, such as elevators, steam- car transfers, etc., by which grain could be handled quickly and economically at St. Louis.

From the first he was an earnest advocate of the great bridge, and became prominently identified with its construction. In the many dark days of the en- terprise, when the project seemed at a hopeless stand- still, no man gave it more cheering or more energetic support.

When the bridge was finished, Mr. Jackson realized that the time had come to make a determined effort to improve the Mississippi River and establish its su- premacy as the " water-way of the continent,"and he be- came the president of the South Pass Jetty Company, and labored devotedly at the side of the heroic Eads in his audacious engineering feat at the mouth of the Mississippi.

Mr. Jackson gave liberally of his means to this vast work, which has taken its place as one of the great achievements of the nineteenth century, and he has now the satisfaction of knowing that the time and money of himself and his associates have been instrumental in solving the problem of cheap trans- portation for the West and Northwest. Their success entitles them to be classed as the preservers of the commerce of the Mississippi valley, and statistics jus- tify their right to this proud title ; for while during the past decade the shipments of grain from St. Louis have increased over one hundred. per cent. and those by rail about fifty per cent., the shipments by way of river have increased within the same period five thou- sand per cent. (being only 312,077 bushels in 1871, and 15,762,664 bushels in 1880). ] In 1881 they were very nearly fifty per cent. of the whole grain ship- ments of the year.

While thus largely interested in questions affecting transportation, Mr. Jackson has necessarily been brought to face the important subject of the terminal handling and transfer of grain, and it is to a great extent due to his labors that the problem has been

solved so satisfactorily for St. Louis. He was one of the first subscribers to the St. Louis elevator, and the company of which he is president also controls the East St. Louis and Venice elevators, and occupies the St. Louis salt warehouse.

These immense establishments are connected by wires with each other, and although the East St. Louis and Venice elevators are on the Illinois side of the river, the entire business is transacted with the utmost promptness and regularity from the general office, where Mr. Jackson is the directing mind. The grain handled by these three elevators has in some years reached as high as sixty per cent. of all the grain received at St. Louis, and this system of eleva- tors is justly regarded as a most important agent in giving a permanent and healthy stimulus to the grain trade of St. Louis.

Early in 1880 it became apparent that the existing barge lines in operation between St. Louis and New Orleans were inadequate for the rapid and economical transportation of grain, and Mr. Jackson united with other capitalists in the establishment of the St. Louis and New Orleans Transportation Company, with a fleet of five tow-boats and thirty-five barges. Sub- sequently a consolidation of this company and the Mississippi Valley Transportation Company was ef- fected, and the result of the union, the St. Louis and Mississippi Valley Transportation Company, employs thirteen tow steamers and nearly one hundred barges, with capacity for four million nine hundred thousand bushels of bulk grain, and the ability to move to New Orleans monthly three million bushels of grain.

Mr. Jackson's efforts to build up the grain trade of St. Louis by furnishing suitable terminal facilities for the handling of grain, and by providing cheap trans- portation to Europe, have not lacked recognition .on the part of his fellow business men. He has been vice-president of the Merchants' Exchange, and is one of the most influential and honored members of that body. In 1880, when the jetty system at the mouth of the Mississippi had proved its utility, and ships of deep draught were loading at New Orleans with St. Louis grain, a party of Mr. Jackson's friends (some of whom had been his associates in the South Pass Jetty Company) visited him at his elegant home in St. Louis, and presented him, as a testimonial of their apprecia- tion of his public-spirited labors in behalf of St. Louis, a handsome and costly watch, which bore the inscrip- tion, "The stockholders of the South Pass Jetty Company to their esteemed president, John Jackson, in grateful remembrance of his fidelity to these inter- ests in the darkest hours of the enterprise." The esteem in which Mr. Jackson is held by those who

Enga JAHR. he

Al Larimore

1229

TRADE, COMMERCE, AND MANUFACTURES.

have been closely associated with him in these great works is shared by the public generally, among whom his name is a tower of strength, and a synonym of that strong faith in St. Louis and that patient and progressive energy which have made her the queen of the Mississippi valley.

Since Mr. Jackson has been president of the St. Louis Elevator Company the original elevator has been enlarged to its present capacity of two million bushels of bulk grain and two hundred thousand sacks, and is a marvel of conveniences, having double capacity and room for forty cars at a time to discharge or receive, besides meeting the demands of the barges along its river-front. The other elevators controlled by this corporation are :

The East St. Louis elevator, recently enlarged and now having a capacity of one million bushels. Seven tracks run through the building, capable of ac- commodating forty-six cars at a time, and discharging or loading thirty-two.

The Venice (Ill.) elevator, with ample rail and water conveniences, and a capacity of six hundred thousand bushels.

The North St. Louis elevator, formerly a salt warehouse only, but now arranged for elevator pur- poses, with a capacity of seven hundred and fifty thousand bushels. Thus this corporation supplies an aggregate storage capacity of nearly five million bush- els, and employs a capital of one million five hundred thousand dollars.

The Central Elevator Company, of which N. G. Larimore is president and J. W. Larimore secretary and treasurer, was organized in 1873, and has two capa- cious elevators, Central A and Central B, located re- spectively at Eleventh and Austin Streets and on the Levee and Chouteau Avenue. In 1879 that on the Levee was burned, but speedily re-erected with in- creased capacity and added conveniences. The com- pany also owns the St. Louis Warehouse, on Fifth Street and Chouteau Avenue, which has a capacity of two hundred thousand bushels, and which, though one of the oldest, is one of the most complete in the city, and is used for " overflow" in bulk grain over the Missouri Pacific. The Missouri Pacific Elevator, just completed at Carondelet, has a capacity of one million five hundred thousand bushels, and is also managed by the Messrs. Larimore.

N. G. Larimore, president of the company, was born in Bourbon County, Ky., Aug. 29, 1835. His ancestors resided in Maryland and Virginia, and his Mr. Larimore has been identified with many other important enterprises, and he and his brother were the largest individual subscribers to the St. Louis and grandparents were among the pioneers of Kentucky. He was reared in good circumstances. In 1844 his family settled on a farm in the northern part of St. New Orleans Transportation Company, by which was

Louis County, Mo., and were well-known and in- fluential people. He enjoyed good educational ad- vantages, attending Wayman Institute and a college in the interior of Missouri. Soon after leaving col- lege in 1855 he married Miss Susan Ashbrook, youngest daughter of Levi Ashbrook, Sr., a well- known pork-packer, and bought a farm near Belle- fontaine, on which he resided until 1865, when he, with his brother, J. W. Larimore, G. G. Schoolfield, and D. H. Silver, built the warehouse on Fifth Street and Chouteau Avenue, which was completed just in time to hold the Southern Relief Fair, at which over fifty thousand dollars was realized and distributed to the sufferers from the ravages caused by the civil war. This building was afterwards converted into a warehouse for the handling of grain in special bins. Millers at that time were unwilling to buy grain by grade, but insisted on having each car-load stored by itself, and the Larimore Brothers undertook to ac- commodate them. These beginnings were compara- tively modest, and they could hardly have foreseen the development and present magnitude of their busi- ness. They handled the first bulk grain that was received in St. Louis from the Missouri Pacific Rail- road, and were among the earliest to appreciate the stimulus that might be given to the grain trade of the city by the elevator system. Accordingly in 1873 they organized a company and built " Central Ele- vator A." At that time this was a great stride forward, and the friends of the brothers declared it to be a "great business mistake," and predicted failure ; but the foresight of the Larimores was abundantly verified, the elevator was crowded, and their business increased to such a volume that in 1876 they were obliged to build another elevator (" Elevator B"), on the river at the foot of Chouteau Avenue, with a capacity of two hundred thousand bushels. As previously stated, this elevator was de- stroyed by fire in 1879, but the brothers immediately rebuilt it with a capacity of nine hundred thousand bushels. The capacity of Elevator A was originally five hundred thousand bushels, but increasing busi- ness has compelled its enlargement to seven hundred thousand bushels. In addition the company has leased and is now running the Missouri Pacific elevator at Carondelet, built in 1882, with a capacity of one million five hundred thousand bushels. The total storage capacity of the elevators controlled by the Larimore Brothers is over three million bushels.

1230

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

triumphantly demonstrated the great economy of a water-route to the sea. The brothers are also largely interested in the Elk Valley Farming Company, which controls fifteen thousand acres of farming land in Da- kota, on which a prosperous town of two thousand in- habitants, only a year old and named " Larimore," has sprung up. The brothers regard this as one of the most important and promising of their ventures.

Mr. Larimore was also president of the Iron Moun- tain Bank, and has been for four years an efficient member of the City Council. He is also a member of the St. Louis Club and of the St. Louis Legion of Honor. He has long been a member of the Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church.

J. W. Larimore, brother of N. G. Larimore, was born July 16, 1837, in Bourbon County, Ky., and removed to Missouri with the family in 1844. The time occupied in making this journey was two weeks, the household goods being brought in wagons and the family in a carriage; now the trip would require only ten or twelve hours. His father, W. L. Larimorc, had purchased a large tract of land in St. Louis County. Being a man of unusual foresight, he predicted a bright future for himself and family, as he looked upon St. Louis as the coming metropolis of the Mis- sissippi valley, although the population at that time was only about thirty-four thousand. He at once set about opening up his large and magnificent farm, which in 1864 took the premium offered by the St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical Association for the most highly improved and best cultivated large farm, there being nearly one thousand acres, most of which was meadow land. This farm was bought at from ten dollars to twelve dollars per acre, and was sold by him in 1865 in small farms for from one hun- dred and twenty-five dollars to two hundred dollars per acre, and was known as "The Model Farm." It was on this farm that J. W. Larimore considers he received the most valuable part of his education, having had the management of it for seven years, although his father gave him all the advantages of the best schools in the city. In 1865, with his brother, he removed to St. Louis, and his subsequent prosperous career is embraced in the sketch of that of N. G. Larimore.

He was married Jan. 29, 1867, to Bettie R. Car- Jisle, of St. Louis, both being active members of the Centenary Methodist Church, and closely identified with the Methodist Orphans' Home, she being a manager and he secretary and a member of the board of trustees of that worthy and admirably managed institution. He is also one of the board of trustees of the Bethel Association, one of the most useful charities in the city. Here every Sunday are gathered

together from five hundred to one thousand of the poor and their children who are deprived of the privi- leges of a regular church by reason of the long dis- tance from their homes to that portion of the city where most of the churches are. They are provided with competent teachers, and the faithful and zcalous chaplain, Capt. Kitwood, preaches to thiem two or three times every weck.

J. W. Larimorc is also a stockholder and director in the Continental Bank, which is one of the most prosperous financial institutions in the city. He is also secretary and director of the Central Elevator Company, a stockholder and director of several other elevator companies, and vice-president of the Elk Valley Farming Company, on whose farm in Dakota were raised in 1882 some sixty thousand bushels No. 1 hard spring wheat.

Only those familiar with the effect which the in- troduction of the elevator system has had upon the grain trade of St. Louis can appreciate what such men as N. G. and J. W. Larimore have done for the city. Not many years ago the grain trade of the West and Northwest was handled by Chicago, but the Larimores and others of similar courage addressed themselves to the great problem of handling grain economically and expeditiously, the solution of which, in connection with the rapid development of the grain-growing region lying west and south of St. Louis, has amounted to almost a revolution in that line of business. The Larimores have contributed their full share to accomplishing this result, and it is thought that, owing to their intimate relations with the Gould Southwestern railroad system, they handle much the greater portion of the grain that comes to St. Louis.

J. W. Larimore has taken a great interest in the improvement of Pine Street, west of Grand Avenue, where he purchased several large blocks of ground, on which he has erected six large, fine stone-front houses, two of which are double and elegantly fin- ished in hard wood. One of them is occupied by Mr. Larimore as his family residence. His enter- prise has given quite an impetus to the improvement of that part of the city, and the value of adjacent property has advanced from twenty-five to fifty per cent. during the past year. Nor is this all : together with his brother, N. G. Larimore, he has recently (January, 1883) secured a quarter of the block at the southwest corner of Fourth and Olive Streets, and they intend shortly to erect thereon a series of build- ings worthy of the location and a credit to the city.

The Advance Elevator Company (Messrs. McCor- mick) is admirably equipped at East St. Louis, and

J.O. Larimore

LIKEANY UNIVERSITY OF DE NOUS.

1231

TRADE, COMMERCE, AND MANUFACTURES.

has two elevators, A and B, with a total capacity of 1,500,000 bushels.

The Union Elevator, East St. Louis, has been re- cently built on the line of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, and enjoys unusual terminal facilities and a capacity of 1,500,000 bushels, which is to be still further increased. The proprietors, Messrs. Greer Brothers, of St. Louis and Peoria, Ill., have also an elevator at the latter point.

The Union Depot Elevator D is also new, and is most admirably arranged and located. It has a ca- pacity of 750,000 bushels, and John R. Lionberger, the proprietor, has also Union Depot Warehouse, with a capacity of 250,000 bushels.

Central Elevator C has a capacity of 800,000 bushels.

The McPheeters Warehouse Company, so organized last ycar, but in existence as a firm since 1877, has built one of the largest and most complete warchouscs in the West. It has rail and water connections, and occupies a large river-front, from Nos. 1104 to 1115 inclusive, North Levee. The directors are W. L. Wickham, T. T. Turner, and T. S. McPheeters, Mr. Wickham being president and Mr. McPheeters sec- retary and manager. The capital is one hundred thousand dollars. Besides the new building, two hundred and sixty-four by one hundred and two feet with a capacity for eight hundred car-loads, the com- pany has another warehouse on North Main Street.

A recapitulation of the storage capacity of elevators and the larger warchouses makes the following ex- hibit, which no other Western city can boast :

Bushels.

St. Louis Elevator

2,000,000

Central Elevator A.

700,000

Central Elevator B

900.000

Central Elevator C.

800,000

East St. Louis Elevator

1,000,000

Advance Elevator A

500,000

Advance Elevator B.

1,000,000

Union Elevator

1,500,000

Venice Elevator.

600,000

Union Depot Elevator.

750,000

Salt Warehouse Elevator

750,000

St. Louis Warehouse.

200,000

Total,

10,700,000

MePheeters Warehouse Company

500,000

Mills and Milling .- The inauguration of the flour- milling interest in what is now St. Louis antedates the Revolutionary war and the declaration of indc- pendence by ncarly a decade. During the period of Spanish subsidics, on Aug. 11, 1766, Laclede Liguest received a grant of land, " situate on La Petite Riv- ière," afterwards known as Chouteau Pond, on which he caused to be built " two mills for grist purposes," one of them run by water, and the other termed a horse-mill. How long these primitive establishments

existed is unknown, but up to about 1862 a very ancient looking lime-mill stood upon this old site, then fronting Choutcau Pond, which, since filled up, is now occupied by the Union Depot, railroad tracks, freight warehouses, and other evidences of commercial progress.

Precisely when merchant mills took the place of the rude structures of the last century is not disclosed by the early commercial records, and it scems uncer- tain whether the mill erected at the corner of Florida Street and the Lovce in 1827 and afterwards operated by Edward Walsh was really the first of compara- tively modern character. In 1836, Capt. Martin Thomas built a mill in the northern part of the city, which was burned on July 10, 1836, just after it had been put in complete order. Its re-erection was specdily followed by the building of numerous other flouring-mills, so that in 1847 fourteen were in active operation, the foundation being thus laid of the St. Louis flour market, since characterized by uniform excellence of brands and great business enterprise. Of these fourteen mills five remain, though greatly en- larged and improved. A majority of the others were destroyed by fire. The names and capacity of the mills of 1847 are thus recorded :

Barrels a Day.

Eagle ......

200 !

*Missouri

175

Union

200

#Stur ..

200

*Excelsior

100

#Nonantum.

125

#Mound ..

#Centre ....

100

Franklin

125

Washington.

100

#Planters'

125

Camp Spring.

125

Park.

200

*Chouteau ..

100

Those marked thus # are no longer in existence.

In 1850 we find that there were twenty-two mills in operation in St. Louis, whose capacity for manu- facturing flour was about two thousand eight hundred barrels, and whose actual consumption of wheat was not far short of twelve thousand bushcls daily. The mills were as follows:

Mills.

Run of Number of

Stone.

Barrels.

Saxony ...

Mound.

Diamond

Centre ...

O'Fallon

Franklin

Cherry Street

3 100

Nonantum

100

Washington

100

Magnolia

100

Phoenix

100

Eagle ....

100

Excelsior

100

Park

125

Chouteau's

150

Star ...

150

Planters'

150

Agawan

200

Empire

250

United States

250

Me Elroy's

400

Missouri (burnt)

.....

Total

2800

1232

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

The Laclede Mill, the largest at that period, was erected in 1856, at the corner of Soulard and Decatur Streets, with four run of stone and a manufacturing capacity of three hundred barrels a day. Sears & Co., the owners, expended forty thousand dollars in its erection. While there have necessarily been a variety of changes with time, yet a majority of the millers of 1850 are still among the "jolly millers of St. Louis," and participated in the annual excursion of the craft in May, 1882.

The millers of 1849-50 took a prominent part in the organization of the " Merchants' Exchange," and the Millers' Exchange of that period is said to have been the pioneer corn exchange of this country. Prior to that time wheat came to the St. Louis market solely by river and in sacks, and samples were hawked about from mill to mill for sale. The outfit or furnisli- ing of this exchange consisted of two pine counters, and twenty-four tin pans for flour samples. The Millers' Association had already been organized, with Gabriel Chouteau, John Walsh, Joseph Powell, C. L. Tucker, Dennis Marks, Dr. Tibbets, James Waugh, and T. A. Buckland as directors. The prominence then assumed by this interest in the direction of the commercial affairs of St. Louis has since been main- tained in the election of five millers as presidents of the Merchants' Exchange, viz .: E. O. Stanard, in 1866; C. L. Tucker, 1867; George P. Plant, 1869; George Bain, 1878; Alexander H. Smith, in 1880.1

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History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 54

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898 Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1358

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358