John Townsend

In the 1700s Peter Townsend, great grandfather of John Townsend, was living in Maryland. After his marriage, he moved to Virginia for a few years, then to Kentucky, and finally to Ohio. His son, Thomas Townsend, born in Maryland, was taken on these moves and when grown became the owner of a farm in Clinton County, Ohio, about fifty miles northeast of Cincinnati. He was married to Sophia Truitt who survived him, and died in Greenfield, Indiana, at the age of ninety-five. His son, John Townsend, Sr., was born at the farm at New Vienna, Ohio, about 1806. He was married to Rebecca McElwain and in 1836 they migrated to McLean County, in central Illinois, by ox-team. The family spent several years there, and in 1843 moved west again to Buchanan County, Missouri, homesteaded a tract of government land four miles east of St. Joseph on the Pickett Road, and built a log cabin. There were raised six sons, of which the second was John Townsend.

John Townsend was born on the farm in McLean County, Illinois, on February 18, 1837, and was only an infant when the family reached Missouri. He grew up in pioneer surroundings, the family log cabin having a puncheon floor and a chimney made of sticks and earth. The cooking was done at the open fireplace and his mother carded, spun, and wove the homespun from which she made clothes for the family. John's education was in the local log schoolhouse, with its slab benches which had wooden pegs for legs and no backs or desks.

John went to work in the dry goods store of John and Isaac Curd in St. Joseph as a clerk, thus making his start in the mercantile business. He later clerked for R. L. McDonald & Company. On December 17, 1863, he was married to Miss Annie H. Banes. The next spring he decided to take a wagonload of goods to the newly opened gold regions of Montana. He joined a wagon train for the trip across the plains, and his trip to Virginia City took two-and-a-half months. There he opened a store in Alder Gulch, putting in groceries of all kinds, many of which sold at exorbitant prices, flour at times bringing $2.oo a pound. At the end of two years, John Townsend returned to St. Joseph with a team, arriving in November 1866.

Back again in St. Joseph, he formed a partnership with Preston Lowell and opened a dry goods store at 403 Felix Street. Lowell retired from the firm, so the name was changed to Townsend & Wood, and the store moved to 319 Felix Street. About 1879 Mr. Townsend took in as partners J. Cavan Wyatt and John D. Richardson, Jr., and in 1881 the store was moved to the three-story building on the southwest corner of Fourth and Felix Streets which had just been vacated by the wholesale dry goods firm of R. L. McDonald & Company. The First National Bank is on that corner today. In 1890 the business was consolidated with the Emery Dry Goods Company under the name of Townsend, Wyatt & Emery Dry Goods Company, occupying a six-story building at Sixth and Edmond Streets, where they remained until the building was destroyed by fire in September 1893. After the fire, the store was moved to the southeast corner of Fifth and Felix Streets to the building now occupied by Einbender's and the name again became Townsend & Wyatt Dry Goods Company. Also in 1893, Mr. Townsend joined with James McCord and George C. Smith to start the wholesale business of Smith-McCord-Townsend Dry Goods Company in Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Wyatt died in 1911 and in May 1914 the name of the St. Joseph business became Townsend, Wyatt & Wall Dry Goods Company. The golden jubilee of the business was celebrated in 1916.

Miss Annie H. Banes, who was married to Mr. Townsend in 1863, was the older sister of Dr. Artileus V. Banes and step-daughter of Colonel John A. Dolman. She had come to St. Joseph from Ohio in 1858. There were three children: Dr. Milton B. Townsend and John R. Townsend, both of Kansas City, and Mrs. Lewis M. Smith of St. Joseph. The Smith grandchildren of Mrs. Townsend were: Mrs. Bickley McCaskey, Mrs. Sarah Stacy, Mrs. Anne Lentz, Lewis M. Smith, and John T. Smith, now president of the C. D. Smith Drug Company.

Mr. John Townsend died on April 23, 1919, at his home, 1301 Ashland Avenue. The press wrote of him: “He was one of the most widely known and prominent men in this section of the country. He was nationally known in Dry Goods circles, Personally, he was unassuming of manner, kindly, considerate and gifted with a courtesy that was habitual. He was well beloved by his employees. As a citizen, he was broad and liberal, always ready to cooperate in any civic movement for the betterment of our city. Many times he declined public honors of office but he gave heartily of his moral and financial support to the upbuilding of St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri and the nation.'