Milton Tootle Jr.

Milton Tootle, Jr., was born March 18, 1872, in his parents' home at Fifth and Robidoux Streets. He attended Washington School and the Saint Joseph High School, then at Tenth and Edmond Streets. His father died on January 2, 1887, when the son was about fifteen years old, and from that time on he knew that he had ahead of him the preparation for and the responsibilities of the management of his father's large estate. He continued his education at Noble's School in Boston, Massachusetts; at St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire; and Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire.

In the summer of 1890 when he was eighteen he made an extensive tour of Europe, and in November 1892 he married Miss Lillian Bell Duckworth of Cincinnati, Ohio. He then joined the banking house of Tootle, Lemon & Company, which had been organized in 1889 by his uncle, Thomas E. Tootle, and others. In 1899 the beautiful building of the Bank at Sixth and Francis Streets was constructed. The banking partnership became a national bank in 1902 and, when Mr. John S. Lemon died in 1905, Milton Tootle, Jr., became president. He had many business interests: president of The Tootle Estate; director of Tootle, Wheeler & Motter Mercantile Company; president of the Tootle-Kessler Millinery Company; vice-president of Buell Woolen Mills; director of St. Joseph Gas Company; director of the Chicago Great Western Railroad; and owner of the Tootle Theatre. In 1909 he organized the Tootle, Campbell Dry Goods Company and built its large building at Fourth and Faraon Streets.

Mr. Tootle was very much more than a businessman. He was a great civic leader. He was one of the three Park Board commissioners for twelve years and to a large degree was responsible for the outstanding park and boulevard system of St. Joseph. The new City Hall and Civic Center at Eleventh and Jule Streets was constructed during his administration. He was an officer of the First Presbyterian Church which had been attended by his grandmother, his mother, and his father. He was a generous contributor toward the construction of the beautiful church building at Seventh and Jule Streets. He was a member of the Board of Curators of the University of Missouri for sixteen years. He was head of the Buchanan Hotel Company which owned the Hotel Robidoux.

Mr. and Mrs. Tootle lived in the castle-like home at Eleventh and Charles Streets, now the St. Joseph Museum. Their summer home was a show place on Mackinac Island in Lake Michigan where they had a famous Japanese garden. They had three sons: Duckworth, Milton III, and William D. Mrs. Tootle died in 1938 and two of the sons died before Mr. Tootle. He died at his home in St. Joseph on December 26, 1946, at the age of seventy-four, survived by his son, Milton Tootle III, his brother John J. Tootle, and numerous grandchildren.