History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 64

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 64

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The number of establishments engaged in the busi- ness of furnishing railroad supplies in St. Louis in 1882 was 11; number 'of hands employed, 1560; capital invested, $981,000; value of products, $1,925,000.

The trade in stoves, tinware, and house-furnishing goods lias long given St. Louis especial prominence throughout the Western and Southern States. In 1881 there were nine firms engaged in the wholesale trade, with a business aggregating five million five hundred thousand dollars per annum, and ninety-five firms engaged in the retail trade.

The saws produced in St. Louis have a very high reputation ; in fact, there are none enjoying a higher one. Most of the mammothi saw-mills in the Wis- consin pineries and other portions of the Northwest are provided with St. Louis saws, and the same may be said of the South and Southwest ; and it is claimed that St. Louis would not stand at the head of cities possessing the largest number of saw-mills, as she does, if it were not for the excellence of the cutting tools used. There are few wood-working establish- ments west of the Mississippi River that do not usc St. Louis made saws. In connection with the manu- facture of saws these establishments also make all of the machinery, both iron- and wood-work, for saw- mills, and complete outfits are furnished, including boilers, engines, etc., ready to put the saws at work cutting lumber. There are but two establishments in the city that manufacture saws, but there are several that manufacture saw-mill outfits. The number of establishments last year was five ; number of hands em- ployed, 175; capital invested, $350,000; value of product, $500,000.

There are half a dozen or more concerns in the city which make boilers exclusively, and the business of 1882 was much better than it was even during the previous year. The excellence of the work done in the boiler-works of St. Louis has established a good trade, and employment is given to nearly five hundred hands at good wages. There is no part of the Western country where St. Louis boilers are not in use, and there is no river or navigable stream in the West where the steamboats are not driven by power gen- erated in St. Louis made boilers. These boilers are also used in thousands of industrial establisliments in all parts of the country, in breweries, mills, coal- mines, sugar refineries, factories, etc. The year's operations showed that there were eight boiler· facto- ries running ; number of hands employed, 435 ; capi- tal invested, $140,000; value of product, $565,000.

There are seven establishments in the city engaged in the manufacture of agricultural implements, giv- ing employment to four hundred and seventy-five hands last year, and producing articles that are well known all over the country, besides reflecting the greatest credit on the manufacturers. St. Louis manufactures more agricultural implements than Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, or Cleveland, and owing to the vast territory to be supplied in future from this market and the splendid facilities afforded here, this industry is destined to become a great one. The number of establishments operated in 1882 was five ; capital invested, $420,000; value of product, $700,000.

The volume of business done in those cstablishments in St. Louis making a specialty of manufacturing ar- chitectural and ornamental iron-work has been gratify- ingly large, though, considering the possibilities of the trade, it would seem that it ought to have been larger. The erection of more than five million dollars' worth of buildings in the city during 1882 of itself should have called for very large quantities of architectural and ornamental iron-work, and there is a large extent of country tributary to St. Louis, to which other large quantities might have been supplied. Number of es- tablishments in the city last year, seven ; number of hands employed, 315; capital invested, $250,000; value of product, $435,000.

Hardware .- There is no line of business in St. Louis in which more enterprise is displayed than in the hardware trade. The men engaged in it are energetic and possessed of ample capital, and as a result their business extends east as far as Ohio, north as far as Minnesota, west as far as the Pa- cific coast, and south as far as the Gulf of Mexico. No class of business men have done so much, per- haps, in exploring new territory and in widening the

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field of St. Louis trade. It would astonish one to look into the order-books of some of the St. Louis hardware establishments. He would sce that St. Louis supplies hardware to over one-half the territory embraced in the United States and Territories, and that her houses send goods to Indiana, Illinois, Ken- tucky, Tennessee, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Min- nesota, Kansas, Arkansas, Dakota, Wyoming, Oregon, Utah, Indian Territory, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, and Washington Territory. There is a single

been a wonderful increase in the last few years. While the mineral trade does not as yet amount to as much as the other two mentioned, it is most im- portant and is rapidly increasing.

The agricultural region, the cotton region, and the mining region contiguous to St. Louis are each capable of supporting a great city, so that with them all St. Louis is secure. If the cotton fails the grain may not, but if both fail the mineral remains. It is hardly possible, however, that any misfortune will ever occur to deprive St. Louis of the benefits of more

SIMMONS HARDWARE COMPANY.

SIMMONS · HARDWARE COMPANY,

WASHINGTON AVENUE

LANDFIL RA

SIMMONS HARDWARE COMPANY. Corner of Washington Avenue and Ninth Street.

house in St. Louis that sells half the sporting goods j sold in Oregon, and about all that is sold in Nevada. With such a wide territory and so diversified, it is not surprising that the hardware trade of St. Louis should be in a most prosperous condition.

St. Louis trade, in general, is not dependent upon any single section of country, and there are tributary to St. Louis a vast agricultural region, a vast cotton region, and a vast mineral region. Attention has already been called to the grain trade and the cotton tradc, and it has been shown that in both there has

than one of these sources of trade at a time. There is no line of business that derives greater or more substantial advantages from this happy combination of resources than the hardware trade. It supplies the agriculturist, the cotton-planter, and the miner, and hence it may be set down as a practical certainty that the enterprising hardware men of St. Louis will be amply rewarded in the future. With the above facts in view it is not surprising that St. Louis should be the best hardware market in the United States. It is not meant by this that it is the largest, for New

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York and Boston are not to be ignored, but St. Louis is a better market to purchase in than New York or Boston. The St. Louis houses carry more varied stocks than they do in either of the above cities, and hence the jobbing trade is better represented. It is more difficult for a dealer to obtain a stock of hard- ware in New York than in St. Louis, for the reason that the New York houses confine themselves largely to special lines of goods, while the houses in St. Louis carry full lines of all the varieties of goods that come under the head of hardware. It is no uncommon thing for a merchant from Texas to go to New York to lay in a stock and come back to St. Louis to pur- chase his hardware, nor is it unusual for a merchant from Kansas or Nebraska to go to Chicago to get a stock of goods and send to St. Louis for his hard- ware. There is at least one house in St. Louis that has received numbers of orders of that kind. But this is not only the most convenient hardware market in the United States, it is also the cheapest. Six houses in St. Louis do an immense business and have an abundance of capital, and a single establishment sells more nails1 than any other two houses in Amer- ica. This is because it has the capital with which to make cash purchases. For the amount of business donc, the hardware men of St. Louis use more capital than any other class.

There has been but onc failure in the hardwarc trade of St. Louis in a quarter of a century, and that was long before the war. Some of the larger estab- lishments occupy an astonishing area of store-room ; indeed, two of the principal houses alone utilize over four acres of flooring each, in display of their wares. Including importers, jobbers, two manufacturers, deal- ers in the heavier class of goods only, and the numer- ous retailers, there are upwards of sixty houses en- gaged in the various branches of the hardware trade in St. Louis, although there may have been small dealers in this line prior to that time. Henry Shaw, of Shaw's Garden fame, is believed to have been the first dcaler in this ware exclusively. His establish- ment on Main Street, fifty years ago, had for rivals only general stores incidentally carrying some hard- ware. The trade has now so increased as to justify the carrying of stocks valued at fifteen million dol- lars. Fourteen establishments employed, in 1882, 1140 lands ; capital invested, $550,000 ; value of pro- duct, $1,296,000.

One of the earliest hardware merchants of St. Louis was James C. Sutton. Mr. Sutton removed to St.

Louis in 1819 from New Jersey, having followed the tide of Western emigration which set in towards Mis- souri about that period, and settling in Missouri, was identified for many years with its pioneer history and progress. Mr. Sutton, soon after his arrival, erccted a blacksmith-shop on the northwest corner of Second and Spruce Streets, and, in company with his brother Joseph, carried on the business many years. The old frame shop has long since disappeared, and the site was occupied in recent years by Haase's grocery, No. 323 Second Street.

There was at that time not much competition ex- isting in the business, there being one other smith's shop on the corner of Main and Olive, carried on by Charles Basroe. The city was then bounded on the west by Third Street, all beyond being fields and ponds. It was not until about 1824 that, through the persistent efforts of the Suttons, iron tires on wagons came into general use, and not until ten years later that carts, which before had not a particle of iron about the whole framework, were ironed, and partook of other improvements in their make-up. Plows, which up to this period were made of the roots of trecs, also changed their form by the substitution of iron points and shares.

Mr. Sutton introduced a greatly-improved plow, which became widely known as the " Sutton Plow," and which was used for many years by farmers in breaking up prairie and bottom lands. Of course this plow, which was an immense improvement on the wooden machines in previous use, has long since been superseded by others of improved patents. Mr. Sutton's shop, about the year 1820, occupied a loca- tion nearly in the business centre of the city. On Main Street, cast side, about the third house north from Spruce Street, there was still standing in 1877 the old two-story frame building occupied in 1820 by Mr. Sutton as his dwelling-house. The front was once painted white and the sides red, but the white had disappeared, and a few blotches of the red re- mained. In 1835 he moved out to the " League Square" on the Manchester road, where he set up his blacksmith-shop, and bought a farm from Mr. Gratiot, which under his management became one of the finest in the county.

Mr. Sutton married Ann Wells, whose parents lived in the Gravois settlement, and survived her about two years. He died July 19, 1877, leaving five sons and four daughters.

The Simmons Hardware Company, which is onc of the most extensive corporations of its kind in the West, was established by E. C. Simmons, who has long been a prominent member of the hardware trade

1 Sept. 3, 1814, D. Stewart advertised his cut- and wrought- . nail factory in Block 4.

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of St. Louis. Edward Campbell Simmons was born in Frederick County, Md., Sept. 21, 1839, and in 1845, when Edward was seven years of age, his father removed from Maryland, where he had pursued the occupation of a merchant, to St. Louis. In 1856 young Simmons entered the hardware establishment of Child, Pratt & Co. in a minor capacity, at a salary of twelve dollars and fifty cents per month. After remaining with the firm for three years he obtained a position as clerk in the house of Wilson, Leavering & Waters, at a salary of fifty dollars per month. Three years later he was admitted to the firm as junior partner, and at the end of six months, Mr. Leavering having died, the name of the firm was changed to Waters, Simmons & Co. It continued thus through nine years of great prosperity until Jan. 1, 1872, when Mr. Waters retired, and Mr. Simmons associated with him J. W. Morton, and the firm became E. C. Simmons & Co. Two years later a corporation was formed under the name and style of the Simmons Hardware Company, which purchased the interests of Simmons & Co., and has since con- ducted the business with signal energy and success. As president of the company, Mr. Simmons is still the controlling mind of the vast concern, and to the liberality, promptness, sagacity, and untiring energy of his business methods is chiefly due the uninter- rupted prosperity which it has enjoyed. In 1866 Mr. Simmons was married to Miss Carrie Welsh.

Augustus F. Shapleigh, founder and head of the great hardware house of the A. F. Shapleigh & Cantwell Hardware Company, was born in Ports- mouth, N. H., Jan. 9, 1810, of a family who trace their lineage to English stock that settled in Maine in 1663-65, and who during the early history of the country held many important trusts under the British crown. Mr. Shapleigh's father was a well- known seafaring man of that region, the owner and captain of the ship "Granville," who was lost, together with the vessel and a valuable cargo, off Rye Beach. This disaster left his wife and five children in much reduced circumstances financially, but the noble spirit and energy of Mrs. Shapleigh enabled her to raise her children comfortably and give them such education as was common in those days.

When a mere lad of fourteen years of age, Augustus entered a hardware store in the town of Portsmouth, N. H., and worked there about one year, from day- light until dark, for fifty dollars a year, and boarded himself.

The associations of Portsmouth, situated so near the ocean, were largely connected with the sea, and most of the young men at some time or other natur-

ally desired to embark in a sailor's lifc. Young Shap- leigh was not an exception to the rule, and leaving the hardware store, he shipped as a light hand before the mast, and made several European voyages, which consumed three years of his time. Then, at the earnest solicitation of his mother and sisters, he was induced to leave the sea and re-enter the store in which he first served.

An important clerkship having been offered him by the old and well-established hardware house of Rogers Brothers & Co., in Philadelphia, he concluded to accept it, and remaincd with that firm many years, obtaining therein a junior partner's interest and a promising start in business. Desiring to en- large their operations, the firm determined to open a branch establishment in the West, and St. Louis was selected for the venture. Mr. Shapleigh was sent there to superintend it, and arriving in 1843, opened the hardware establishment under the firm-name of Rogers, Shapleigh & Co. Eventually Mr. Rogers, who was the capitalist of the concern, died, and Mr. Shapleigh formed a connection with Thomas D. Day, under the firm-name of Shapleigh, Day & Co. This partnership continued for sixteen years, or until 1863, when Mr. Day retired, and the house was known as A. F. Shapleigh & Co., which continued until July, 1880, when the concern was changed and incorporated under the name of the A. F. Shapleigh & Cantwell Hardware Company, the owners and officers therein being A. F. Shapleigh, president ; John Cantwell, vice-president ; Francis Shapleigh, second vice-presi- dent; and Alfred Lee, secretary and treasurer.

The history of the house has been one of steady and continuous growth, a result due mainly to the personal labors of Mr. Shapleigh himself. From a small and modest start in 1843, it now occupies arched and connected floors from Nos. 414 to 422 North Main Street, extending from Main to Com- mercial Street, seven stories high, and heavily stocked with merchandise pertaining to their business, such as cutlery, guns, building material, chains, anvils, mining machinery, etc.

It is well to note here the wonderful progress made in the manufacture of hardware on this side of the Atlantic during the past forty years. When Mr. Shapleigh first commenced business in St. Louis, ninety per cent. of the stock was imported from England and Germany via New Orleans. At the present time exactly the reverse is the case : ninety per cent. of all general hardware sold is manufactured in our own . country, and a large amount of heavy iron and other goods is made in St. Louis of a superior quality and at less cost than from other sources.

ABhaphigh

LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

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TRADE, COMMERCE, AND MANUFACTURES.

Mr. Shapleigh has never held political office, being a man of business, and regarding his business as worthy of his entire attention. Still he has figured some- what prominently in other enterprises besides his own, having been a director for many years in some of the leading banking and insurance companies of the city, in which capacity his judgment has been highly prized, and his name has lent additional strength to the com- panies in which he is interested.

In 1838, while at Philadelphia, Mr. Shapleigh mar- ried Miss Elizabeth Ann Umstead ; eight children were the fruit of this marriage, six of whom are living, five sons and one daughter (now Mrs. J. W. Boyd). The sons are all thriving young men of character and good business capacity, and John is a promising physician of St. Louis.

Mr. Shapleigh was brought up amid Unitarian in- fluences, but is not a member of any church. He, however, gives liberally to religious enterprises, and regards churches as the bond that holds society to- gether. Every enterprise calculated to advance the interests of the city has received his hearty support.

Personally, Mr. Shapleigh is a quiet and unassum- ing man, being content to pursue his business with- out ostentation, and leaving others to plunge into the mad vortex of speculation. Now, toward the close of a career that is remarkable for its uniform success, he derives a just pride from the fact that his prosperity has been won by close attention and strict adherence to sound principles of business. His house has passed through years of war and panics, and yet his estab- lishment has pursued the even tenor of its way, un- shaken by any of those agitations. Mr. Shapleigh makes the honorable boast that during all this period he never asked an extension, and never let a just bill bc presented a second time for payment. It is gratify- ing to note that such punctilious regard for their obli- gations has brought Mr. Shapleigh and his associates an ample reward, and that their house is generally recognized as being one of the most substantial in the Mississippi valley.

Another leading hardware merchant in St. Louis is George A. Rubelmann. He was born in Tut- tlingen, Würtemberg, Feb. 27, 1841. In 1847 the family came to America, settling at Muscatine, Iowa. In 1854 the family was dispersed, and George A., who was next to the youngest of the children, was taken by his father to St. Louis with a view of putting him in a hardware store. The boy, it ap- pears, had cherished a desire to engage in that busi- ness ever since he was ten years old, and his subse- quent success fully justified his predilection.

His father placed him in a small hardware store

kept by William Siever, at what is now 1907 Broad- way. His salary the first year was four dollars a month and board. Mr. Siever was not successful, and in 1857 the store was turned over to Adolphus Meier & Co., who were the largest creditors. Rubelmann, although but a boy of seventeen, was solicited by Meier & Co. to take charge of the store; and at the same time he received the offer from a hardware house at Leavenworth, Kan., of a situation at one thousand dollars a year. He consummated a bargain with Meier & Co., and managed the store until 1860, when, with his brother John G., he purchased the business for six thousand five hundred dollars, giving notes for the entire amount. In those days sales were universally made on six months' time, and the brothers followed the general custom; but the war came on, and on July 1, 1861, the young firm found nearly all their accounts worthless, their balance-sheet showing fifteen hundred dollars on the wrong side. They had but three creditors, from each of whom they procured time on their liabilities. Thencefor- ward they managed so well as to be able, Jan. 1, 1863, to pay all claims up to that date, including December's bills.

Subsequently they devoted their attention specially to cabinet hardware, and after a hard struggle built up a large and flourishing business.

In 1875, George A. Rubelmann sold out to John G. Rubelmann and opened a small store at 627 North Sixth Street ; but business developed so rapidly that in 1877 he doubled the size of the store, and in 1879 the increase of trade compelled him to remove to a large three-story building at 821 North Sixth Street. These quarters also soon proved inadequate, and he began the erection of a large four-story store at 907 and 909 North Sixth Street.

The boy who at seventeen years of age was placed in charge of a store and who could command a salary of one thousand dollars a year is now at the head of one of the largest establishments in his line of trade in the West, and at the age of forty-one, in the prime of a careful and well-ordered life, enjoys a handsome and growing competence. Mr. Rubelmann, who started in life with none of the advantage of station and little of the teaching of the schools, is literally the architect of his own fortunes. His education was mainly ac- quired by study after the day's work was done. On March 14, 1865, he married Miss Sarah A. Guthrie, an estimable young lady of St. Louis.

In 1879, Mr. Rubelmann was instrumental in in- ducing the furniture manufacturers of St. Louis to organize for mutual protection, and the St. Louis Furni- ture Exchange was established. He was not a furni-

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ture man himself, but dealt in furniture hardware, and the readiness with which the furniture men acted upon his suggestions to form a union demonstrates his in- fluenee among his business associates and the respect entertained for his judgment.

Mr. Rubelmann's life has been that of a quiet, modest citizen, thoroughly devoted to business, and enjoying the utmost respect and esteem of all who have come to know him intimately.

Blacksmithing .- There were three blacksmiths in St. Louis at the time of the transfer from the Spanish to the United States authorities,-" Delosier, who re- sided in Main Street, near Morgan ; Rencontre, who lived in Main, near Carr; and Valois, who resided in Main, near Elm, and did the work for the govern- ment."1 In February, 1811, James Baird had a blacksmitlı-shop in J. B. Becquet's old shop on South Main Street, Bloek 36, but removed, November 30th, to John Coon's old house on Third Street, Block 80. On Nov. 6, 1812, George Casner removed his black- smith-shop to "the large shop lately occupied by Beard," and on Nov. 12, 1814, James Barlow adver- tised his blacksmith-shop as located in Beard's large shop on Third Street. In December, 1819, George Casner's new livery-stable and blacksmith-shop were located on the east side of Sixth Street, adjoining Mount's carriage-shop.

The number of blacksmithing establishments in St. Louis in 1881 was 168, giving employment to 400 hands, who received wages amounting to $200,000. The eapital employed was $250,000, and the business transaeted annually amounted to $700,000.

Manufactures of Fire-Brick, Glassware, Pot- tery, China, etc .- The soils of Missouri supply nearly all the mineral constituents of the various pigments. Zinc is produced in great quantities, tin likewise, and there is an abundance, far beyond any probable demand, of ochres, barytes, uranium, manganese, eobalt, red chalk, ehina elay, and terra di siena. The sulphuret of zine is abundant in Southwest Missouri, cobalt exists in quantity at Mine la Motte and other places, perox- ide of manganese in Ste. Genevieve, large beds of purple shales in the coal measures, making an admir- able eheap pigment for outside work, beds of red and yellow ochre exist on the Missouri River, sulphate of baryta is found in large quantities in a very pure white form, and with the ferruginous elays forms the best possible ground for mixture with lead and zinc in the composition of shaded pigments which are at onee both cheap and durable. The manufacture of paints in St. Louis, by the tenth census, employs 13 estab-

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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 64

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