James McCord

James Walker Field McCord was born January 7, 1826 in Randolph County, Virginia, the son of William McCord and Sallie Moss Field. The McCord family had come from the north of Ireland to Virginia in the early eighteenth century. Through his mother, he was a descendant of Colonel John Field, who was at Fort Duquesne when General Braddock was defeated by the French and the Indians. Colonel Field's wife was Anna Rogers Clark, sister of George Rogers Clark and of William Clark of the Lewis & Clark Expedition of 1804-1806. Both the McCords and the Fields fought in the Revolution and the War of 1812, Mr. McCord's grandfather being a captain in a Virginia regiment.

Both of his parents were born in Albemarle County, Virginia, and his father, William McCord, started his practice of law there. He was prosecuting attorney for Randolph County from 1829 to 1835. In 1836 the family decided to go West so they proceeded by steamboat down the Ohio and up the Mississippi River to Cape Girardeau, Missouri. In 1838 they moved to Versailles, Morgan County, Missouri, where William McCord resumed the practice of law. He died in October 1839, when James was thirteen years of age. After his father's death, James dropped his two middle names.

It was necessary for James to leave school and go to work. He learned that he could obtain a job in a country store at Calhoun, Henry County, which was sixty miles away. His finances not admitting any transportation, he walked from his home to Calhoun. His compensation for his first year was his board alone; for his second year he was paid a salary of $75; and for his third year it was increased to $100. In 1843 he went to Warsaw, Missouri, and received $150; and by 1844 he had advanced to $250. Winning the confidence of his employers, he was sent as their agent to St. Louis and New Orleans. During this period of traveling he visited the newly opened Platte Purchase at Weston, St. Joseph, and Savannah, studying business conditions at these locations.

James McCord's sister, Lucy, had in 1841 married Abram Nave who was engaged in the mercantile business in Savannah. In 1846, James felt himself sufficiently experienced in business, so he entered partnership with his brother-in-law, Nave, at Savannah. The business association and personal friendship was to continue unbroken for the next fifty-two years. The firm opened a business at Oregon in Holt County which McCord operated until 1849, while Nave was in charge in Savannah. In 1850 McCord made a trip across the plains to California and opened a store in Nevada City. He also engaged in the cattle business with Dudley M. Steele. In 1851 he returned to Savannah and resumed the business with Mr. Nave. In 1852 they both made a trip across the plains with Mr. Steele driving cattle. They remained in this business several years, making their return trips to Missouri by the Isthmus of Panama.

One of Mr. McCord's stories of his trips across the plains follows: One evening, when his party had settled down from the day's drive, two men came into the McCord camp saying that they were from a wagon train a few miles ahead. They asked Mr. McCord and Mr. Nave if they would assist the next day by joining a jury. They explained that one of the members of their party had been caught stealing from another wagon. They proposed to give him a fair trial and thought that two men who were complete strangers would be excellent additions to the jury. McCord and Nave begged to be excused. The next day they overtook the wagon train which was halted for the trial. They observed that it must have been completed, for two of the wagons were drawn together at their front ends, the tongues raised and bound together, from which was hanging the body of a man. The verdict of the jury had been 'guilty and the death penalty for stealing on the trail had been carried out. Mr. McCord, in telling the story later, reported that the wagon party had assumed responsibility for the family of the deceased, and that some of the children later became prominent citizens in California. When asked their names, Mr. McCord would never tell.

In 1857 Mr. McCord and Mr. Nave decided to move their mercantile business from Savannah to St. Joseph. Their first location was on Main Street at Francis. Later they moved to the west side of Third Street between Felix and Francis. In 1860 they were burned out but they resumed business on the north side of Felix between Fourth and Fifth. Finally the large building at Third and Sylvanie Streets was built. Primitive business methods obtained in their early days. Drafts and other modern forms of remittance were not available. When sending money to distant creditors it was customary to take $100 bills, cut them in halves and forward one half of each bill. Upon acknowledgement of receipt of the first half of the bills, the other half was sent. Half of a bill was valueless without the other half.

General James Craig wrote Mr. McCord's first lease at Oregon in 1846. It provided that the lessee should pay a stipulated rental for the building if the business proved profitable, if not, he should pay 'whatever was right. The firm of Nave & McCord was proud of the fact that it never borrowed money outside its own owners.

The wholesale grocery business in St. Joseph prospered through its aggressive, thorough, honest, and conservative methods. Additional businesses were established in St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, Pueblo, Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, Topeka, and Hutchinson, Kansas. In 1863 McCord and Nave participated in the organization of the C. D. Smith Drug Company. They were interested in the Henry Krug Packing Company and in the ownership of a 1,000,000 acre cattle ranch in Texas.

Mr. McCord allied himself with no political party. He voted for Stephen A. Douglas in 1860 because he thought Douglas' election would avert war. When Abraham Lincoln ran for the second time, however, Mr. McCord was his supporter.

In 1854 Mr. McCord married at Savannah Miss Mary E. Hallack, who was born in Jessamine County, Kentucky. She was the niece of his associate, Dudley M. Steele. They had six sons and three daughters. All of the men were engaged in one or more of the businesses of Mr. McCord. James H. and Samuel S. McCord were in St. Joseph, W. H. McCord was in Omaha, George L. in Pueblo, and Francis in New York City. Miss Susan McCord and Lucy (wife of J. H. Parker, Jr.) were in St. Joseph and Mary Ada (wife of J. Burnett Collins) was in Fort Worth.

Mr. McCord died at his home, 1851 Clay Street, on September 24, 1903, at the age of seventy-seven. The press stated: "Modest almost to a fault, moving on day after day, attending to his own business and meddling with no other man’s, giving counsel to the younger men who sought his advice, temperate and industrious, kind and gentle, yet dignified and firm, Mr. McCord had been for over half a century the one distinct, leading figure in the world of merchants in the great West, and the pride and admiration of his many friends.