History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 59

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 59

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).

In 1854 the statistics of the lead product were as follows :

STATISTICS OF THE LEAD TRADE OF THE UPPER MIS- SISSIPPI.

Year.

Pigs Produced.

Equal to Pouuds.

Price 1000 Price 100 Pounds Lead. Pounds Mineral.

Value at Galena.

1842

447,909

31,353,630

$12.85

$2.24

$702.321.31

1843

559,261

39,148.270

12,60

2.34

916,069.51

1844

624,672

43,727,040

16,88

2.80

1.224.357.12

1845

778,498

54,494,860

17.67

2.96

1,613,047.88

1846 ..

732,403

51,268,210

17.33

2.89

1,481.651.26

1847.

772,656

54,085,920

19.16

3.17

1,714,523.68

1848

681,969

47,737,830

19.82

3.24

1,546,705.69

1849

628,934

44,025,380

22.18

3.67

1,615,7:1.44

1850.

568,589

39,801,230

24.10

4.20

1,671,651.66

1851.

474,115

33,188,050

25.51

4.08

1,354,062 44

1852

408,628

28,603,960

25.87

4.12

1,178,483.05

1853.

425,814

29,806,980

34.41

5.50

1,639,383.90

Total ... 7,103,448

497,241,360

16,657,988.94

SHIPMENTS OF LEAD from the upper mines during the season of 1853, from March 21st to December 1st.

Ports from whence Slilpped. Shipped via the River.

Pigs.

Pounds.

Value.

From Galena ...

318,543

22,298,010

$1,226,340.55

Dubuque.

43,852

3,069.640

168.830.20

Potosi.

23,086

1,616,020

88.881.10

Cassville ...

14,186

993,020

54,616.10

Buena Vista.

2,676

187,320

10,352.60

Shipped via the lakes.

23,471

1,642,970

90,363.35

Total.

425,814

29,806,980

$1,639,383.90

The receipts at St. Louis aggregated 441,889 pigs in 1854, against 409,314 in 1853. Of this 5315 came from the Missouri, and the balance from the upper and lower Mississippi. The Galena table gives the quantity shipped per river at 402,343; deduct from this the Missouri receipts, and the balance, it is fair to suppose, came from the lower mincs, say 34,231 pigs. A pig of lead has the average weight of eighty pounds.

Hon. John Hogan, in one of his lucid pamphlets about the past, present, and future of St. Louis, always in his thoughts, had the following in regard to the city's lead business :

"Some sixteen months ago one establishment commenced the making of lead pipe and sheet-lead here. They, like all similar untried experiments, had to feel their way along. The machi- nery was costly ; workmen at first difficult to be obtained; the field of sale preoccupied by those longer engaged, more expe- rienced, possessed of ample capital.

"But these young men possessed the energy, the probity, felt the field was vast, and were content with small profits on large sales.

"They pushed their battle to the gate, and now what is the result ?- they supply with these articles the entire valley of the Mississippi. South they include the trade of New Orleans ; east, all the region to Pittsburgh; north, the whole region of the up- per lakes. Within the last twelve months they have manufac- tured of lead pipe alone over two million pounds. This has been shipped in immense casks and on large reels to supply the demands of the great West and South ; while of sheet-lead they have made one million two hundred and fifty thousand pounds in the same period, besides bar-lead.

" Now, these articles were not included in our exports of 1851, before presented, for the works were not in existence then, and these figures are now given to show that St. Louis is a suitable place for manufactures, and also what may be done by industry and intelligence.

"In the said government returns no mention is made of shot, although that article was then manufactured here, but, like everything else, has grown considerably in that period.

" There is but one 'shot-tower' here, but it is fully qualified to supply the vast extent of country dependent on us, or which our skill or ability may bring within the reach of our operations. The region supplied from here with shot embraces nearly all the valley of the Mississippi.

" I deem the operations of this concern to be important, and was anxious to furnish in this place some indication of its ex- tent, which I am enabled to do by the kind courtesy of Capt. Simonds, one of the enterprising proprietors.

" I take an aggregate statement, furnished me by him, of its business during the five months commencing January 1st and ending June 1, 1854, as made up from their books, viz .:

Total amount of shot of all sizes manufac-

tured and sold during said five months, 79,775 bags, or ..

1,994,375 pounds.

Bar-lead for same period, 1714 kegs, or. 428,460

Total shot and lead in five months.

2,422,835 66

" During that period of five months the works were run but one hundred and four days, thus the amount of pig-lead con- sumed each day averages twenty-three thousand two hundred and forty pounds."

The manufacture of shot near St. Louis dates back to 1809, when it was announced in the Mis- souri Gazette of March 1st that " at Herculancum a shot manufactory is now erecting by an active and enterprising citizen of our Territory ; the situation is peculiarly adapted for the purpose, having a natural tower, or rather stupendous rock, forming a precipice of about one hundred and sixty feet, having the lead- mines in the neighborhood, and one of the finest har- bors for vessels. We presume the proprietor will be enabled to supply the Atlantic States on such terms as will defeat competition." The proprietor referred to was J. Macklot, who on the 16th of November, 1809, "commenced casting shot equal to the best

1253

TRADE, COMMERCE, AND MANUFACTURES.

English patent." In 1810, also at Hereulaneum, " a new and flourishing little town on the Joachim, about thirty miles from this (St. Louis) place," Mr. Austen erected a shot-tower, and then Herculaneum " boasted of two towers capable of supplying the Union with shot of all sizes." 1

The shot-tower of Ferdinand Kennett was opened in February, 1847. The tower was built by Messrs. Kayser & Carlisle, and was thirty-one feet in di- ameter at the base, seventeen feet at the top, and one hundred and seventy-five feet high. Previous to the ereetion of this tower, Mr. Kennett had been en- gaged in the same business, having a tower on Elm Street, which tumbled down, wounding several persons. In 1858, Mr. Kennett's shot-tower passed into the hands of an incorporated company, since which time it has been regarded as a most successful enterprise. During the war the shot-tower company suffered se- verely in a pecuniary sense, much of its work being declared contraband.

The tower is one hundred and eighty-six feet in height, twenty-one feet above the tallest steeple in the city. At the base it is thirty-one feet in diameter, at the pinnacle seventeen feet. It is built of hard burnt briek, cemented, and is regarded as thoroughly substantial in every particular. The wall at the base is four feet through ; at the summit of the tower it is twenty-two inches.

In 1850 the capital invested was forty thousand dollars, employing ten hands, with an annual product of six thousand dollars.

RECEIPTS AND EXPORTS OF LEAD, IN PIGS OF 80 POUNDS EACII.

Year.

Receipts.

Exports.

1882

1,197,395

687,219

1881.

925,406

625,266

1880

764,887

495,036

1879

817,594

408,123

1878

764,357

523,964

1877

790,028

473,281

1876

665,557

404,300

1875

579,202

320,668

1874.

479,448

218,538

1873

356,037

216,040

1 The manufacture and sale of powder were also established in St. Louis at an early date. On the 15th of October, 1814, William Sullivan published the following advertisement :

" Owners of powder, take notice that I, the subseriber, have rented the powder magazine from its proprietor, and that from the date of the present advertisement I will charge twenty-five eents per month for storage on every keg, provided it does not contain more than one hundred pounds, and on every keg or barrel that contains more than one hundred pounds to pay at the rate of one dollar per hundred."

Maj. James Barry commenced the manufacture of powder in the neighborhood of St. Louis in 1823 ( Republican, March 5, 1823), and in 1833 " Maj. Philips' Eagle Powder-Mills had just been put in operation" (Republican, July 9, 1833).

The latter mills were soon after destroyed by an explosion.

Year.

Receipts.

Exports.

1872

285,769

62,862

1871

229,961

50,660

1870

237,039

62,674

1869

228,303

57,281

1868

185,823

40,358

1867.

144,555

IS,674

1866

149,584

13,553

1865.

116,636

1864

93,035

...

1863

79,823

1862

95,800

Of the receipts during 1881, 300,000 pigs (equal to 24,000,000 pounds) were received for conversion and manufacture. In the conversion of lead to ear- bonate the metal of Missouri is peculiarly easy and profitable to work, yielding one hundred pounds of ceruse for every hundred pounds of metal, besides a proportion of red lead and litharge made from the refuse. This manufacture, moreover, produces lin- seed-oil, cotton seed- and castor-oil, and oil-cake for exportation and fattening stoek, and it encourages the manufacture of vitriol. Thus one industry, by utilizing a produet which is among the donations of nature to St. Louis, provides employment for capital and labor in a dozen other industries which grow out of or are allied to it. The control of almost inex- haustible supplies of cheap lead by St. Louis makes it one of the leading manufacturing centres in the country for paints.

White Lead and Oils .- The manufacture of white lead, and of its kindred interest paints, and oils is most extensively carried on in St. Louis. The ma- terials required by this large trade are collected almost entirely within the State of Missouri, while the ad- joining States also afford a large supply, enabling its indefinite extension. The manufacture of white lead (carbonate of lead) was inaugurated in St. Louis in the year 1837 by Drs. Hoffman and Reed in a very primitive manner. From a very small beginning, say one hundred tons per annum, the manufacture of that pigment has kept pace with the growth of the city and surrounding country, until it now ranks as one among the important branchies of its manufacturing industries. The annual production and consumption of white lead throughout the entire country is com- puted to be from sixty-five to seventy thousand tons. Of this amount there is manufactured west of the Allegheny Mountains say forty thousand tons, of which St. Louis manufacturers produce at least forty per cent., thus giving to St. Louis a larger pro- duction of that article than any other eity in the Union. There are at present in successful operation in St. Louis four of the best appointed and equipped factories in the country, with a capacity sufficient to supply the white lead demand of the entire Missis- sippi valley for many years to come.

1254

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

The Collier White Lead and Oil Company is one of the largest to be found anywhere in the United States. It was founded by Dr. Reed, and went into operation in the year 1837. It is located on the north side of Clark Avenue, beginning at Ninth Street on the east and extending nearly to Eleventh Street. In 1842 it passed into the hands of H. T. Blow and Joseph Charless. It has three separate departments,-the factory, the cooper shop, and the corroding staeks. All of these are on a large seale and provided with every facility for manufacturing cheaply and extensively. In 1850 the present company became proprietors, uuder the presidency of Henry T. Blow. The annual productions are four thousand tons of white lead ground in oil, two hundred thou- sand pounds of red lead, two hundred thousand pounds of litharge, one hundred thousand gallons of linseed- oil, and one hundred thousand gallons of eastor-oil.

It is not too much to say that among the men whose sagacity grasped and whose energy fulfilled the conditions of the prosperity of St. Louis, none oe- cupied a higher rank or contributed by his individ- ual success more largely to the general welfare than the eminent and honored merchant, George Collier, after whom the Collier White-Lead Works are named.

George Collier, younger son of Peter and Catherine Collier, was born on the 17th of March, 1796, on his father's homestead in Woreester County, Md. His father, who died while he was yet a child, besides carrying on with success the farm upon which he re- sided, was largely engaged in the Atlantic coasting trade, and at his death, which occurred before 1810, left what was in those days a handsome property to his family. His mother was a woman of great force of character, revered as well as loved by all who knew her. After her husband's death she continued to reside at the homestead in Maryland until both her sons, John and George, arrived at manhood, giv- ing to each of them the best education for mereantile pursuits which that part of the country at that time afforded, and for this purpose sending them to Mr. Wylie's academy in Philadelphia, then of the highest repute.

About the year 1816, John Collier, who had just arrived at manhood, came to Missouri, then still a Territory, and settled at first in St. Charles, where he began business as a merchant. His success was such that before long he opened a branch house in St. Louis, which within a few years became the principal establishment. During this time George Collier was completing his education in Philadelphia, where he formed friendships subsequently of great service to him in his business career.

About the year 1818, having completed his eduea- tion, George Collier joined his brother in Missouri and engaged with him in business, before long becom- ing his partner. According to the custom of those times, their business was of a general nature, inelud- ing an assortment of the staple articles most in demand among those who traded with St. Louis. It was at first carried on at retail, but soon expanded into a wholesale business, and extended rapidly throughout the settled portions of Missouri and Illinois.

In 1821 the partnership was dissolved by the death of the elder brother, who had already made his mark as a business man of ability and energy, as well as of high personal character. The younger continued the business alone for several years.

About the year 1825, his business continuing to in- erease, Mr. Collier took into partnership with him Peter Powell, like himself a native of Maryland, and who had been for several years in his employ. The firm of Collier & Powell, thus formed, continued to carry on a general merchandise business until the year 1830, when Mr. Collier retired from the firm, having acquired what was for those days a considerable for- tune.

From this time he entered upon pursuits eharae- teristie at onee of his energy and his far-sighted views as a business man. Realizing that the river trade of St. Louis, north, south, east, and west, was to be the secret of her prosperity, he began to invest his means largely in the building of steamboats. But a few years had passed since the first steamer eame up from New Orleans to St. Louis (1817), making the weary voyage in twenty-seven days, but demonstrating by the faet of making it that the days of the " broad- horn," the flat-boat, and the keel-boat were at an end. Pittsburgh had become the navy-yard of Western eom- meree, at which then and for years afterwards the greatest facilities for such work existed.

It has been said that the faculty of judging men and seleeting fit agents for important enterprises is characteristic of high ability. The method pursued by Mr. Collier in entering upon this new field demon- strated his possession of that faculty. It was his habit, year after year, to seleet men already experi- eneed in the river navigation and to send them to Pittsburgh to make contracts for the building of steam- ers which they were to command, and in which he often gave them an interest. Instructing them as to the character and purposes of the vessel, he furnished them with credits sufficient to meet whatever eost might be ineurred, and stationed them at Pittsburgh in active superintendenee of the work while it pro- gressed, thus securing the most watchful personal

1255

TRADE, COMMERCE, AND MANUFACTURES.

supervision and assistance from men at once compe- tent for their duties and whose interests coincided with his own. In this way during the twelve or fourteen years following he became largely interested in steam- boats, constantly building new ones of size and ca- pacity suited to the trade either of the upper or the lower Mississippi or the Missouri Rivers, according to their destination. It was one of his maxims to lıold no property which brought no return; and in respect of steamboats it was observed that he rarely held one longer than was necessary to establish its character in the trade, selling those which did not prove profitable in order to cut off further loss, while those which earned a good name he often sold when at their highest repute, thus realizing their highest value and escaping further risks. The limits of this sketch forbid more than a cursory mention of this part of his mercantile history. Suffice it to say that during the years in question he was the owner of a large number of steamers plying on all the waters communicating with St. Louis, and most of which had been built under his directions, often having afloat at one time eight or ten large vessels. The men to whose fidelity, ability, and skill he intrusted the management of these large interests rarely disap- pointed him. Sharing with him the profits of these ventures, some of them thus laid the foundations of their own success. Such men were Sullivan Blood, afterwards president of the Boatmen's Savings Insti- tution, long a highly-respected citizen of St. Louis ; John Simonds, afterwards of the banking-house of Lucas & Simonds ; and N. J. Eaton, who, after re- signing a commission in the United States army, had come to St. Louis, and whose executive ability was early recognized by Mr. Collier, more than one of whose boats he commanded. To these names, long and well known in St. Louis, might be added others, notably that of Rufus J. Lackland, afterwards one of its most prominent and successful merchants, now (1883) president of the Boatmen's Savings-Bank and the St. Louis Gas-Light Company, and who is himself authority for the statement that to his early acquaint- ance and connection with Mr. Collier, and to the as- sistance rendered him, unsought, by the latter in his early business life, his subsequent success is largely due.

An important element in these enterprises was the high reputation for probity, as well as for large re- sources and exemplary business habits, which Mr. Collier had established not only in St. Louis, but throughout all parts of the country where the busi- ness men of that city were known. It was prover- bial that his credit was practically unlimited, and

that whoever he sent to Pittsburgh with au- thority and credit for building a steamboat, or nortlı- ward to purchase lead, or to New Orleans for the pur- chase of return cargoes of groceries on his boat, or to Philadelphia, then the financial centre of the United States, was sufficiently backed by George Collier's name.

It goes without saying that the navigation of the Western rivers was attended in those early days with not less, perhaps with greater risks and dangers than now. But so constant was the good fortune, and so high the reputation of his steamers, that George Col- lier's "luck" became proverbial. Nor is it any dis- paragement to others to claim for him the first rank among those whose far-sighted energy and bold and successful management built up the vast river trade of St. Louis, along whose Levee, before 1860, often lay at one time a fleet of nearly two hundred magnificent steamers, busily loading and unloading side by side the rich and varied products of every zone.

During these years, however, the steamboat inter- est was by no means the only one which engaged his attention. The rich deposits of lead at and near Ga- lena, Ill., as well as those to the southward in Mis- souri, were at that time the great source of supply for that metal. Partly as an independent investment, and partly by way of utilizing his steamboat property, Mr. Collier engaged largely in the purchase and shipment of lead, especially from the north, forming for that purpose a business connection with the house of Thomas Fassit in Philadelphia, in which direction, as well as via New Orleans, great quantities of lead were shipped. Besides purchasing lead from others, he became a large owner in the Galena mines, and the metal from those regions at that time was the chief source of supply, not only for the white-lead factories in Pennsylvania and other Eastern States, but was also shipped in large quantities to France and other parts of Europe. This traffic in lead, since distrib- uted over regions farther west, formed for many years, as we have seen, an important part of the trade of St. Louis, and to its development no man in that city contributed more actively or more sagaciously than George Collier.

Operations so large as these, and requiring the con- stant use of so much capital and credit, naturally suggested to his active mind the combination with them of a banking business. About 1835-36 he formed a partnership with William G. Pettus, whose wife was the sister of Mr. Collier's first wife. For several years thereafter the firm of Collier & Pettus conducted a large business in the way of banking and exchange, deriving an independent source of profit

1256

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

from the dealings in Eastern exchange resulting from the shipments of lead, already mentioned, as well as from large collections which rapidly flowed into their hands from Mr. Collier's Eastern acquaintances, who sold to the merchants of St. Louis their general sup- plies.

In still another direction the interests already men- tioned were utilized. Some of the steamers wholly or in part owned by Mr. Collier were in the Southern river trade, and were constantly engaged in carrying to New Orleans lead shipped by him and his associates, as well as other staple artieles, including flour, in the inanufacture of which at St. Charles he was carly in- terested. The proceeds of such eargoes were invested under his direction in profitable return eargoes of heavy groceries, sugar, coffee, salt, and molasses, for which New Orleans was up to the outbreak of the eivil war the principal point of supply to St. Louis and thenee to the far West and Northwest.

In 1840 the banking firm of Collier & Pettus was dissolved by Mr. Collier's retirement therefrom, though Mr. Pettus for some time longer continued the business. In 1842 Mr. Collier formed the firm of Collier & Morrison, taking into partnership his brother-in-law, the late William M. Morrison, then a . young man, for whom this introduction to business life also proved the first step in a highly sueeessful mereantile eareer. The business of this firm was chiefly commission, but they also dealt largely in lead, for which during so many years St. Louis was the great entrepôt of the West.

In 1840, Mr. Collier, whose health was never robust and had beeome delieate, determined to with- draw from aetive business, and gradually sold out all his interest in steamboats. In 1847 he retired from the firm of Collier & Morrison, which was succeeded by William M. Morrison & Co., the new partners being Rufus J. Lackland and Alfred Chadwiek, whose offiec during the remainder of his life Mr. Col- lier made his headquarters, and to whose very sueeess- ful eareer his adviec and assistance largely contrib- uted. From this time he gradually withdrew from business eares other than the management of his val- uable landed estate and other investments in the city of St. Louis.

It is possible in the brief space at command only to allude to other features of a business life whose thirty years of activity ineluded and so largely in- flueneed the early commercial history and subsequent growth of his adopted eity.

His calm and sagacious judgment, united with singularly elear and quiek preeeptions, both as to men and as to the contingeneies of business, peculiarly

qualified him for financial sueeess, and for many years before his death Mr. Collier was by common consent regarded as the highest financial authority in St. Louis, and was often consulted as such by those in whose affairs he was not personally interested. For several years prior to its failure in 1837 he was one of the direetors in the Branch Bank of the United States at St. Louis. In February, 1837, the Bank of the State of Missouri was chartered, in which the State was a large stoekholder, appointing a majority of the diree- tors. In December, 1840, Mr. Collier was elected one of the direetors who represented the private stockholders, and continued to fill that position for six years, having been twice re-elected, but deelined a third re-election in 1846.

By an aet approved Jan. 12, 1831, was ineorpo- rated the first insurance company in St. Louis, under the name of the Missouri Insurance Company, the name of George Collier heading the list of ineorpora- tors, and for many years of its successful career he was one of its most important members. It was characteristie, however, both of his self-reliance and his customary good fortune-if the result of wise and watchful management is to be ealled good fortune- that he rarely insured his own property at all, though he not unfrequently underwrote risks for others as a private person.

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.

History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 59

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