Robert Washington Donnell

One of the more distinguished careers of achievement in St. Joseph history was that established by Robert Washington Donnell. He was born December 13, 1816, near Greensboro, North Carolina, descended from ancestors who came originally from the west coast of Scotland. His grandfather, Daniel Donnell, was a major in the Continental Army during the Revolution, and was wounded at the Battle of Guilford Court House, 1781. Robert attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but before he was twenty he moved to Missouri and opened a store in Clay County, near Liberty. There he met and married Mary Thornton, daughter of Colonel John Thornton, who had made the original suggestion of 'Missouri' as the name of the state. Her sister was the wife of Alexander W. Doniphan, later the hero of the Mexican War.

When the new land of the Platte Purchase was opened for white settlement, Robert moved in 1837 to “Rockhouse Prairie' near the present area of Frazier. Soon after the establishment of the new town of Saint Joseph, he came here and in 1845 with George Smith opened the earliest dry goods business, the firm of Smith & Donnell. He sold his interest in the business three years later. The newspaper Adventure carries the following advertisements in June 1848:

'ROBERT W. DONNELL

Having sold my interest in the mercantile business, I intend devoting this Summer exclusively to settling my entire business. Those indebted to me, Donnell & Jones, or Smith & Donnell, are requested to make payment to me, or to William T. Dayoll who is authorized to attend to my business in my absence. I will be found one door above the “BIG SADDL.E.' The debts are all due and many of them of long standing. Cash is expected and will be required to enable me to commence business, which I design doing as soon as circumstances will permit.

Those who may not be prepared to pay the money, are requested to call and make settlements. 'Short settlements make long friends,' which is much to be desired.

Robert W. Donnell 'St. Joseph, May 26, 1848

‘LAND WARRANTS

For Sale or to Loan

“The subscriber offers for sale, at low price, a number of Land Warrants, or will loan them on favorable terms, if application is made. immediately.

'R. W. Donnell June 2, 1848

After three months had gone by the following advertisement appeared in the Adventure:

“LOOKOUT! EVERYBODY!

“I have placed my books and notes in the hands of J. C. Morris expressly to be collected. They may be paid without cost if attended to immediately, otherwise they will be found in the hands of proper officers for collection. Mr. Morris will be found next door to Smith & Bedford.

Robert W. Donnell 'Sept. 22, 1848

Donnell then, in 1848, formed a new partnership with Albe M. Saxton and opened a general store on the southwest corner of Fourth & Felix Streets with the firm name of Donnell, Saxton & Duvall. A young man seeking employment was taken on and Rufus L. McDonald began his business career in St. Joseph at first without any other pay than the opportunity to learn the business. McDonald proved so industrious and able, however, that he was taken into partnership and in August 1855 the newspaper carried this advertisement:

“DONNELL, SAXTON & MCDONALD

At the People's Store are receiving their new goods for Fall and Winter. They will have the largest and best assortment of merchandise, when all is received, ever opened in St. Joseph. Especial attention has been paid to selecting Fine and Fashionable Goods for Ladies. They invite strangers as well as old friends to call and examine for themselves. Nothing that the farmer or citizen needs but what can be procured at the PEOPLE's STORE.'

The next year, 1856, Donnell and Saxton decided to embark on a new project, so they arranged for McDonald to buy them out gradually. They then, in 1857, organized the St. Joseph Branch of the well established and strong Bank of the State of Missouri, which already had five branches in different parts of the state. Donnell became president and Saxton cashier. Operations began in the old store building while their fine new building across the street, the southeast corner of Fourth & Felix, was being constructed by Joseph Pfeiffer. That building has been used for banking purposes continuously since, and since 1900 has been the home of the Missouri Valley Trust Company.

Early in 1860 Donnell was one of the group of twenty-one men who gave city property and made certain pledges to induce the freighting firm of Russell, Majors, and Waddell to make St. Joseph the eastern terminus of their Pony Express operation. Among the group were John Patee, John Corby, F. W. Smith, M. Jeff Thompson, Robert M. Stewart, Felix Robidoux, John Curd, Silas Woodson, John Colhoun, and Preston T. Moss. When the War between the States threatened in 1860-61, Robert W. Donnell was elected to the Constitutional Convention called to consider the relations between the state of Missouri and the federal government.

When the war broke out in April 1861, Donnell as a prominent citizen of Southern origin was called upon to sign the Oath of Allegiance. This oath at first was very stringent, requiring the pledge of the signer to inform upon anyone he knew to be out of sympathy with the federal government. Donnell as well as a number of others in St. Joseph felt that they could not agree to become informers. As the result of their not signing, they were jailed in St. Joseph for several months. The large number of complaints about this requirement of the Oath of Allegiance finally reached President Lincoln, and the oath was modified. Donnell then signed the oath, but he felt that he could make better use of his time away from the difficult tensions of St. Joseph. He turned his place at the Bank over to his brother-in-law, Leonidas M. Lawson, who had married the youngest Thornton sister, Theodosia, and he set out for the newly opened territory of Montana.

Donnell formed a partnership with a younger man, William A. Clark, in his Bank at Fourth & Felix Streets, St. Joseph. In 1863 they took a stock of goods to Virginia City, Montana, and opened a store, Donnell & Clark. The building, of course, was a log cabin. The supplies were in great demand and could have been sold for much higher prices than those asked. A second store was opened at Helena, and a branch at Deer Lodge. S. E. Larabie joined the firm and in 1867 Donnell made again the decision he had made in St. Joseph-to leave the mercantile business and enter banking. In 1867 the banking firm of Donnell, Clark & Larabie was organized. Donnell had also, with Thomas E. Tutt of St. Louis, made some successful strikes of gold so that in 1868 he decided to leave the Montana business to his partners and expand his efforts as far as New York City. He returned to St. Joseph and the newspapers carry his advertisements offering all his local real estate holdings for $100,000.

In 1870 Mr. Donnell organized the New York banking firm of Donnell, Lawson & Simpson. The St. Joseph bank surrendered the national charter it acquired in 1866 and became the State Savings Bank with Albe M. Saxton as president and Charles B. France as cashier. The New York banking firm was the correspondent of four hundred Western banks and had some of the best of the Western business. It served as fiscal agent for the states of Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska. The output of gold in Montana brought gold dust shipped by the Donnell bank in Montana by Wells, Fargo & Company to St. Joseph and some of the deerskin bags containing it are still to be seen at the Missouri Valley Trust Company. Donnell, Lawson & Simpson in New York became the largest dealer of gold and silver bullion in the world. Branch offices were established in London and Paris. The firm participated actively in the financing of numerous railway systems. Mrs. Lawson was presented at the Court of Queen Victoria.

All this success came to a sudden and shocking halt in May 1884 when the dishonest partner of General U. S. Grant of the Stock Exchange firm of Grant & Ward brought down his firm in failure, involving several New York City banks, including the principal depository of Donnell, Lawson & Simpson. The firm was forced to suspend payments and Robert W. Donnell undertook the uphill task of rebuilding. He was forced to sell his third interest in the Butte and Deer Lodge, Montana, banks to his associates, William A. Clark and S. E. Larabie. The shock forced the voluntary closing of the St. Joseph bank in which Donnell was a large stockholder, but he and Charles B. France, by then president, worked out the reopening in a month's time without loss to any depositor.

The blow was a great one, and Robert Donnell was never again the same. He paid off the debts of his firm and continued on in New York until his death of a stroke January 4, 1892. He was buried in Mt. Mora Cemetery, the pall bearers including Judge Silas Woodson, George Buell, R. L. McDonald, Israel Landis, A. N. Schuster, James McCord, John S. Lemon, and Richard E. Turner. Among the throng of people at his graveside were a number of old colored people including an old woman nearly ninety years old. She had nursed him as an infant at his early home in North Carolina, and she had been watching the cemetery for several days to see when her Marse Bob' would come. And truly there were none in that assembly who mourned for her old master more than old 'Aunt Sinai.

The newspaper account of his death read: “The death of such a man as Robert Washington Donnell demands more than a passing tribute to his work and more than a formal obituary. St. Joseph owes to him as much as to any one person her present condition of progress and promise of future greatness. He was one of the first men to systematize the dry goods sales of the City and educated and assisted several of our present foremost business men. After the establishment of the Plattsburg Land Office he was the settlers' friend and aided hundreds of them with money to pre-empt their homes. He was the confidential advisor of Robidoux and John Patee and helped others to start in business. His rare good judgment of young men and his assistance to all such was one of his chief characteristics. In employing them he seldom failed in his selection of young men of ability and integrity, and many of the best and most successful businessmen of St. Joseph and Montana owe their early start in life to his assistance and wise counsel. He was the founder of the State Bank, the first corporate bank in the City, and was its first President. He visited New Orleans, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York and Boston as early as 1848 to induce capital and business to come to St. Joseph. He succeeded in getting many good men to settle here. He was largely instrumental in advertising the advantages of St. Joseph as the best starting point for the California emigration, and was the first to erect valuable and permanent improvements showing his confidence in the future. Those who have known him will cherish his memory with love and affection, remembering his kindness of heart, his unflagging interest in the prosperity and happiness of his friends, and in fact, of all the people of St. Joseph and Buchanan County. He was a Christian gentleman of great ability, integrity, charm, hospitality, courtesy, unselfishness and devotion to the interests of his friends.

After Mr. Donnell had sold his Montana interests to William A. Clark and S. E. Larabie in 1884, the banking business became for a time Clark and Larabie. Later, the partners separated, the Deer Lodge banking firm becoming Larabie Brothers and the Butte bank becoming William A. Clark & Brother. Mr. Clark became interested in the copper mining in Butte, built a very large fortune, and was elected United States senator from Montana.

Mary Thornton Donnell survived her husband for a number of years. Their only child, a son, born in 1849, died in infancy.