Armstrong Beattie

Armstrong Beattie was Saint Joseph's first full-time banker. When he arrived in 1852 the only banking services in the community were being supplied by John Corby in the rear room of his general store at Main and Edmond Streets, where he had the first metal safe in St. Joseph. In 1844 Josiah Beattie, a relative of Armstrong Beattie, had purchased from Joseph Robidoux a nine-room log cabin at the northeast corner of Main and Jule Streets. Josiah Beattie covered the logs with siding and converted the building into a tavern and hotel. He did not make a success of the tavern, so in 1846 he sold the property to William Fowler, who built on the site a brick building which he called the City Hotel. It was in a storeroom under the building that Armstrong her Beattie opened his bank in 1852.

The St. Joseph Gazette of January 28, 1853, carried his advertisment:

‘A. BEATTIE

Banker and Dealer in Exchange

St. Joseph, Missouri

‘Buys and sells exchanges on all the Eastern, Western, and Southern cities and sells on San Francisco, California in sums to suit. Collections made on all the principal cities of the Union and proceeds to promptly remitted for at current rates of exchange. Land warrants bought and sold. Office on Jule Street in the City Hotel Building.’

As his business grew, Armstrong Beattie was able to build his own bank building on Second Street between Jule and Francis Streets, and finally in 1872 he moved to the west side of Third Street, between Felix and Edmond, to the building which in Pony Express days had been occupied by the United States Express Company. That building is now owned by the St. Joseph Historical Society and until very recently it was still possible to read the old sign printed over the entrance: ‘ARMSTRONG BEATTIE & CO., BANKERS.’

Armstrong Beattie was born at Ebing Springs, Virginia, in 1811 and was taken by his family at the age of ten to Howard County, Missouri. There his father died For some years he was a hat maker at Columbia, Missouri He married in 1841 Eliza Snoddy, and they moved to Hunstville in Randolph County, Missouri (near Moberly), where he was a merchant for ten years.

The sister of Mrs. Armstrong Beattie was Margaret Snoddy who married Robert Wilson (U.S. senator 1861-1863). Armstrong Beattie took their son James M. Wilson into partnership in his bank, and after the death of Mrs. Wilson, her daughter Mary Ann was taken to live with the Armstrong Beatties at their home at Main and Aguste Streets, now the Memorial Home. It was there that Mary Ann Wilson was married to Rufus L. McDonald in May 1855. Mr. Beattie also took into this bank his nephew, Thomas Beattie Weakley, who in 1865 married Virginia O’Neill. Having no children of their own, Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong Beattie nevertheless passed their influence along to the future in the McDonald and Weakley families.

Armstrong Beattie was an active participant in the political life of St. Joseph, starting with election to the City Council in 1855 and 1856. The next year, 1857, he was elected mayor. He was re-elected four more times, in 1858,1860,1866,1876. His place in the community was described in the St. Joseph Gazette of January 1, 1878:

‘No man has exercised a greater influence upon the character of business stability, integrity and progress of our CIty than Mr. Beattie. We are all greatly indebted to him. He has made his way in the world by unswerving integrity, energy, industry, and business capacity. No man is more widely or favorably known among the bankers of the West. Excellent in his business judgment and foresight, his business has steadily increased and in this year greater than ever before with Deposits of  $3,170,000 and Discount of $674,000. James Hull is the prompt and capable Cashier of the business. Whatever financial stress may burst upon the country we shall expect to see, pointing out a harbor of financial safety to all, the modest: A Beattie: Banker.’

Mr. Beattie ws active in his business until a sudden and fatal illness on July 26,1878. He was accorded a public funeral attended by city and county officials and business leaders, who marched from his home on Main Street to the First Presbyterian Church at Seventh and Jule. Among the pall bearers were ex-Governor Willard P. Hall, Milton Tootle, Joseph C. Hull, James McCord, John C. Evans, and Silas McDonald. Burial was in Mt Mora Cemetery.