The Wholesale Town 1870-1925

Population

1870 - 19,565 U.S. Census 		1886 - 65,000 *

1876 - 30,000 * 			1887 - 70,000 *

1880 - 32,431 U.S. Census 		1890 - 52,324 U.S. Census

1881 - 38,000 * 			1900 - 102,000 U. S. Census **

1882 - 40,000 * 			1910 - 77,403 U.S. Census

1883 - 43,000 * 			1920 - 77,939 U.S. Census

1884 - 50,000 * 			1970 - 72,000 U.S. Census

1885 - 57,000 *

* Estimates of St. Joseph Board of Trade.

** This figure cannot be regarded as accurate.

By 1870 it was obvious that St. Joseph was overcoming the great setback to its development brought to a halt by the Civil War. The channels of trade were resuming; a number of mercantile establishments were developing a wholesale trade to the entire West. The acknowledged leader of the great wholesale dry goods business was Milton Tootle. The original Smith, Bedford & Tootle of 1849 became Tootles & Fairleigh after the death of George Smith. The death of Milton Tootle's youngest brother, Joseph, in 1860 and the withdrawal from the firm of Thomas E. Tootle to enter the banking business left the firm Tootle & Fairleigh. William G. Fairleigh withdrew in 1872 and the firm became Tootle, Craig & Company. The 1848 store of Donnell, Saxton & Duvall had been taken over in 1855 by their clerk, R. L. McDonald, when Donnell and Saxton left to enter the banking business. Mr. McDonald ably expanded his wholesale dry goods business and by December 1880 was able to move into his imposing new building on the northwest corner of Fourth and Francis Streets. In February 1874 a new wholesale dry goods firm, Brittain & Overman, was formed by John S. Brittain who had come from Forest City to join John S. Lemon & Company.

While the wholesale dry goods firms were pre-eminent, the wholesale grocery businesses were close seconds. The outstanding leader was James McCord, who ably spread the reach of Nave, McCord & Company over the entire West. Other firms in the wholesale grocery business were Turner, Frazer & Company and C. D. Smith & Company. Boots and shoes were handled by Victor B. Buck and Company, and Hundley, Judd & Company. In the hardware field, led by Wm. Wyeth & Company, were Talbot Fairleigh & Company and Shultz & Hosea. Hats were the business of S. Lockwood & Company, from which grew a millinery business which was to influence the styles of women's millinery for the entire nation. In the clothing field were A. N. Schuster & Company and Lemon, Hosea & Company. For saddlery and harness there were the businesses of R. R. Wilson & Company, Wm. M. Wyeth & Company, and Israel Landis' Saddlery. Drugs were represented by H. M. Garlichs, and wines and liquors by H. R. W. Hartwig & Company, Westheimer Brothers, and J. D. McNeely. J. Pfeiffer & Son developed a large stoneworks, providing the material for many buildings. Louis Hax developed the largest furniture factory west of the Mississippi River. George Buell established the Buchanan Woolen Mills. The brewers included J. Kuechle & Company, Henry Nunning, Goetz & Max, and the New Ulm Brewery. In the lumber business were Dougherty, Ray & Company and George T. Hoagland & Son. Lewis Huggins & Company established a soap business.

In the banking field were the State National Bank with Albe M. Saxton, president, and Charles B. France, cashier. This bank eventually had $1,000,000 paid in capital and the stock was traded on the New York Stock Exchange. There was The Buchanan Bank with George T. Hoagland, president; and A. Beattie & Company with partners Armstrong Beattie, mayor of St. Joseph, James Wilson, and Thomas B. Weakley. There was The German Savings Bank and The Colhoun Bank with William Zook as president and John Colhoun as cashier. The First National Bank with Thomas E. Tootle as president ceased operation in 1878 and was succeeded by The Merchants Bank. The Burnes brothers came from Weston in 1873 and started the Bank of St. Joseph. In 1883 The Saxton National Bank was organized by Albe M. Saxton and J. W. McAlister. The German American Bank was organized in 1887 by Henry Krug, J. G. Schneider, and John Donovan, Jr. In 1887 also the Commercial Bank started operation in the stone building on the southeast corner of Sixth and Edmond Streets.

In the 1870s building was proceeding rapidly under the direction of W. Angelo Powell, Stigers & Boettner, and E.J. Eckel, architects, while John DeClue was one of the most active contractors. In 1872 Milton Tootle built Tootle's Opera House on the southeast corner of Fifth and Francis Streets. The architect was Mr. Powell and the cost of the structure was $165,000. It was regarded as the finest theatre west of the Mississippi River. Its superb accommodations and the appreciative audiences attracted the best theatrical companies of the day. The press stated: "The most magnificent building erected in St. Joseph is Tootle's Opera House. The pediment above the main front cornice contains the name “Tootle's Opera House” which is surmounted by three graceful, full-sized figures, representing music and the fine arts. The entire structure will stand long after the present generation has passed away, as a monument to the princely liberality of our fellow townsman, Milton Tootle, Esq.

In 1871 it was decided to build a new Buchanan County courthouse. The old brick courthouse had been built in 1846 and was now regarded as unsafe. The hill on which it stood, about thirty-five feet higher than the level of Jule Street, was graded down and the present monumental building erected. The architect was P. F. Meagher and the builder was John DeClue. The cost was $173,000. The ceremony of laying the cornerstone was held on August 20, 1873. Colonel John Doniphan, a leading attorney, made the principal address in which he said: “From the progress we have made in thirty-five years, and the evidence of permanency around us, with such an active and enterprising population, we may be permitted to anticipate a magnificent future for our County and City. This magnificent building will doubtless stand as a monument to the great energy of the men of 1873.

In 1867 a railroad line was built from Kansas City to join the Hannibal & St. Joseph line at Cameron Junction. At the same time work was started at Kansas City on a railroad bridge ("The Hannibal Bridge) across the Missouri River. That bridge was opened and the first train crossed on July 3, 1869. In January 1871 a bond issue of $500,000 for the purpose of constructing a railroad bridge across the Missouri River was submitted to the voters of St. Joseph. It was passed by almost unanimous vote and the bonds bearing 10% interest and payable in twenty years were sold. Bids for the construction were opened on June 10, 1871, and building proceeded. On May 20, 1873, the first locomotive crossed the bridge and on Saturday, May 31, a grand civic celebration was held, with an estimated twenty-five thousand visitors from out of town on the city streets. The final cost of the bridge with approaches was estimated at $1,000,000. The Omaha-Council Bluffs Union Pacific Railroad bridge had been completed in February 1872.

In August 1871 a fair was held in St. Joseph. The program stated: “No city in the Union suffered more serious consequences of the War than did St. Joseph. Her growth and trade were retarded by circumstances which had to be encountered by all border cities, but the greatest blow to her progress was the location of the Pacific Railroad at another point, while she was the natural and most favorable Eastern terminus of that great thoroughfare. Being without influential friends in Congress, where she was assailed by selfish and interested enemies, only little influence could be brought to bear in her favor, and she lost the great prize.'

By the end of 1871 the local press reported: “Never at any previous period in her history has St. Joseph been favored with as large a wholesale trade as during the past year. In some branches the increase has been fully twenty per cent. The gas works have been greatly enlarged, the streets are nearly all supplied with mains, and the principal thoroughfares are brilliantly lighted at night. St. Joseph is steadily gaining in population and possesses a greater amount of capital and commercial activity than any other city of its size west of the Alleghenies. Year by year we have steadily advanced in all the elements of metropolitan grandeur and now stand without a commercial or financial rival in the State of Missouri, excepting only our older sister, St. Louis.'

Although the private businesses of the city were in prosperous condition, the municipal finances were not in equally good state, as city expenditures were made on the basis of anticipated tax receipts rather than actual taxes collected. As the result, deficits resulted and in 1878 Mayor Joseph A. Piner and the Council authorized the issuance of “City Scrip' which had the appearance of $1.00 and $2.00 currency, to a total amount of $100,000. This 'St. Joseph money circulated locally and was paid off over a period of years from 1885 to 1889.

In 1879 the press reported: "The wholesale trade of St. Joseph surpasses that of any city in Missouri except St. Louis, and is unequalled by any city of its size in the entire United States. Every department of commercial activity is represented by her mammoth jobbing houses, which number some fifty or more, and all of which have abundant capital and are possessed of facilities for controlling the entire trade of the West. There is not a State or Territory lying between the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean to which the merchants of this City do not ship goods. In the magnificence and beauty of its private residences St. Joseph is not equalled by any city of its size East or West. Some of the most elegant have been erected during the past year.

In 1886 the Chicago Times reported:

‘ST. JOSEPH A MODERN WONDER.

‘St. Joseph is a modern wonder-a city of 60,000 inhabitants, eleven railroads, 70 passenger trains each day, 170 factories, thirteen miles of the best paved streets, the largest stockyards west of Chicago (440 acres), a wholesale trade as large as that of Kansas City and Omaha combined. This is the place for investment of all Western towns, and its advantages are rapidly being recognized by Eastern capitalists. There is no locality in the West where money can be so profitably invested as there and one can hardly doubt the prediction, from the remarkable importance just now being attested to the place by such railroads as the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, as well as by large Eastern enterprises, that it will inside offive years be head and shoulders above any of the Western cities, and number 150,000 to 200,000 inhabitants, with manufacturing interests larger than those of any town West of the Alleghenies.’

On December 9, 1886, Milton Tootle, the leading businessman and capitalist of St. Joseph, suffered a stroke. He died on January 2, 1887, shortly before his sixty-fourth birthday. More than two years later, in July 1889, Mr. Tootle's brother, Thomas E. Tootle, with John S. Lemon, James McCord, and Samuel M. Nave, organized the private banking firm of Tootle, Lemon & Company.

In 1888 the Board of Trade of St. Joseph reported on the gross business of the seven classifications of trade in St. Joseph, Kansas City, and Omaha. The largest trade-in wholesale groceries-showed that in the year 1887 St. Joseph’s business totaled $15,200,000 as compared with Kansas City's $13,000,000 and Omaha's $7,100,000. In the second-largest category-wholesale dry goods-the St. Joseph trade was $13,200,000, Kansas City's $4,800,000, and Omaha's $7,100,000. The totals for the seven leading groups: groceries, dry goods, hardware, furniture, lumber, boots and shoes, and drugs were St. Joseph $45,300,000, Kansas City $31,800,000, and Omaha $21,500,000. St. Joseph's trade was almost equal to those of Kansas City and Omaha combined.

In 1889 the Handbook of Northwest Missouri stated: “One of the wealthiest and most prosperous of all the cities between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean, is St. Joseph. Its geographical position combines more advantages than any other inland city of the West. It is central to a territory vast in extent and of wonderful productive capacity. As a wholesale mart and jobbing center St. Joseph has no rival in the Missouri Valley. Its wholesale trade is of no sudden growth and millions of dollars of capital are now invested in this traffic. Nearly a thousand commercial travellers are calling upon the retailers of the great Western area of the country every thirty days. There are seven wholesale grocery houses, five immense wholesale dry goods establishments.'

Meat packing had been an active pursuit in St. Joseph from early days. John Corby engaged in the business as early as 1846. In 1861 James Hamilton, Jr., and Pinger & Hauck were in the trade. By 1875 Hax Brothers, the Connett Brothers, and the Henry Krug Packing Company were active. Hogs were driven to St. Joseph from points as far as a hundred miles away. In December 1887 the St. Joseph Stock-yards were opened in South St. Joseph, extending over 440 acres of land and representing an investment of $1,000,000. Charles B. France was president of the Company, Henry Krug, Jr., secretary, and John Donovan, Jr., one of the directors. In 1892 the John Moran Packing Company was active until taken over by Swift & Company in 1895. The Hammond Packing Company started operations in St. Joseph in 1898 when Swift & Company finished its own plant. The Hammond plant was acquired by Armour & Company in 1912. In 1923 Armour purchased the Morris & Company plant. St. Joseph thus became an important meat-packing center and this trade became one of the leading sources of revenue of the city and its surrounding agricultural area.