The Motter Connection

One Lewis Motter (1775-1839) moved to Emmitsburg, Maryland, in 1798 and the following year married Mary Magdalene Martin. They had a number of children of whom three are of especial interest as parents of people who came to St. Joseph:

1. Barbara Motter, born 1803, married in 1822 Charles Smith. Their son, C. D. Smith, came to St. Joseph in 1859. He was the founder of the C. D. Smith Drug Company.

2. Isaac Motter, born 1805, married in 1836 Mary Ann Snively. Their son, Joshua Motter, came to St. Joseph in 1867 and eventually became a principal in the Wheeler & Motter Mercantile Company. 3. William Motter, born 1817, graduated from Princeton University, married in 1854 Mary Ann Bell, and was a prominent attorney and judge at Hagerstown, Maryland, where he died in 1885. Three of his sons came to St. Joseph: (a) William Duffield Bell Motter, born 1848, married Elizabeth Insley, came to St. Joseph in 1871; he joined Winslow Judson in forming a leading law firm; he died in 1894 (b) Louis Motter, born 1854, moved to St. Joseph in 1874, married Olivia Colhoun in 1880, was in the railroad business until joining Nave, McCord & Company; he was secretary-treasurer of that business at the time of his death in 1926. (c) Isaac Motter, born 1856 in Maryland, moved to St. Joseph, did not marry, died in 1920. The three Motter brothers were thus first cousins of Joshua Motter, and since their mother, Mary Ann Bell, was the sister of Ellen Duffield Bell, who married Thomas E. Tootle, they were first cousins of Mrs. Graham G. Lacy and Mrs. W. K. James.

They were connected with the C. D. Smith family and also with John L. Motter, who came from Maryland to St. Joseph in 1856, was active in various businesses and president of the St. Joseph & Des Moines Narrow Gauge Railroad which was taken over by the Burlington Railroad.

LOUIS MOTTER, 1854—1926

Louis Motter was born September 26, 1854, at Hagerstown, Maryland, the son of Judge William Motter (1817-1885) and Mary Ann Bell. When he was twenty years old, in 1874, he came to St. Joseph. He secured a job with the Kansas City, St. Joseph, and Council Bluffs Railroad, now part of the Burlington System. Two years later, in 1876, he joined the wholesale grocery firm of Nave, McCord & Company, maintaining that association through his life. In the early years he was a traveling salesman. He was once caught in a blizzard and had to walk fifteen miles through snow and ice. Both of his feet Were frozen and he was hospitalized for a time. In 1878 he was made manager of the Atchison, Kansas, branch of Nave-McCord. After six years there, in 1884, he was brought to St. Joseph and made secretary-treasurer of the Company.

On October 19, 1880, he was married to Miss Olivia Colhoun daughter of John Colhoun who was then cashier of the Schuster-Ha. Bank in St. Joseph. Their home was at 545 North Sixth Street, on a high bank on the east side of the street, which has since been graded down. They had six children: William C. Motter, who graduated from Princeton University, and went to St. Paul, Minnesota; John C. (“Coly) Motter, who lived in Kansas City for twenty years before returning to St. Joseph; Louis Motter, Jr., who went to Omaha, joined the Union Pacific Railroad as general freight and passenger agent, then returned to St. Joseph; Marietta C., who married Robert H. McDonald; Olivia C., who married Preston Moss; and Louise Marguerite, who married Marshall L. Carder.

Mrs. Olivia Colhoun Motter died July 15, 1911, and Mr. Louis Motter died December 26, 1926. Among his pall bearers were Frank Boder, Marshall L. Carder, Robert H. McDonald, Preston L. Moss, J. Barrow Motter, J. H. McCord, Jr., Lewis M. Smith, Jr., Samuel S. McCord, John Dolman, J. B. Moss, R. M. Bachellor, Dr. F. G. Thompson, Judge W. K. James, and Graham G. Lacy.

JOSHUA MOTTER, 1846-1917

Joshua Motter was born November I, 1846, at Williamsport, Maryland, the son of Isaac Motter (1805-1877) and Mary Ann Snively. Williamsport is a suburb of Hagerstown, and the handsome residence was called “Cloverport. Joshua attended Gettysburg College at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and in 1867, when he was twenty-one, he came to St. Joseph, Missouri, because others of his family had already gone there.

He secured a job as bookkeeper in the bank of John Colhoun & Company. Later he had brief experiences in the grocery business at Frazier, Missouri, and Wathena, Kansas. In 1875 (aged twenty-nine) he joined the general mercantile business of Tootle, Craig & Company as a salesman, his territory being the state of Kansas. He spent five years 'on the road and in 1880 was made head of the dry goods department. The business at that time was located on the east side of Third Street, between Edmond and Felix. He was made a partner in 1877 when the firm became Tootle, Hosea & Company. In 1884 the building on the east side of Fourth Street between Felix and Francis was built. This was demolished by Urban Renewal in 1973.

Milton Tootle died in 1887 and the business continued on as Tootle, Hosea & Company until the death of William E. Hosea in 1893. At that time the firm was reorganized by Mrs. Kate M. Tootle, widow of Milton Tootle, and W. W. Wheeler and Joshua Motter, as Tootle, Wheeler & Motter. The impressive building on the southeast corner of Fourth and Jule Streets was built. In 1909 the Tootle interests, headed by Milton Tootle, Jr., withdrew to start the firm of Tootle, Campbell & Company, so that the firm of Wheeler-Motter Mercantile Company carried on with Mr. Wheeler as president and Mr. Motter as vice-president. It was the largest wholesale dry goods business in St. Joseph with its distribution reaching over the entire western half of the United States.

Mr. Motter married Miss Katherine Augusta Barrow on December 27, 1873. They had two sons, Samuel I. Motter and J. Barrow Motter, and one daughter, Katherine. The family home, built about 1890, was on the southeast corner of Tenth and Charles Streets. Mr Motter's family had been associated with the Lutheran Church and his wife's family were Episcopalians. He, therefore, attended the First English Lutheran Church and Christ Episcopal Church, though he was a member of neither.

Mr. Motter had three sisters living in Williamsport, Maryland and his old home was still in the family. He had great affection for his childhood home and made it a practice to pay it an annual visit. It was on one of these trips, on September 19, 1917, that Mr. Motter suffered a heart attack and died. He was seventy-one years of age. Samuel I. Motter was born in St. Joseph on November 7, 1874. He graduated from Yale in 1896 and secured his law degree at the University of Michigan. He served as assistant prosecuting attorney of Buchanan County from 1901 to 1903. He was president of the St. Joseph School Board and vice-president of the Library Board, serving both for many years. In 1910 he married Miss Susan Jane Brittain daughter of John S. and Susan Turner Brittain. They had two daughters. He died August 26, 1932, at the age of fifty-seven.

John Barrow Motter was born in St. Joseph September 7, 1881. He graduated from Yale in 1903. He then was employed by the National Bank of St. Joseph and the Burnes National Bank. After a few years he joined the Wheeler-Motter Mercantile Company. He served as a department head for many years and became a vice-president. He remained with the firm until its liquidation in 1929. He married in October 1914 Miss Margaret Bartlett, daughter of William Bartlett. They had one son and three daughters. He died March 21, 1944, at the age of sixty-two. One of the daughters, Miss Virginia Bruce Motter, married in 1948 W. True Davis, Jr.

Miss Katherine Motter married in 1910 Dr. Darwin Walton Hall of Kansas City.