William G. Fairleigh

William G. Fairleigh was born in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, on February 9, 1830, the son of Andrew Fairleigh and Jane Tolbert. The father was a silversmith, and examples of his work are still in the hands of his descendants. In 1843, when William was thirteen years of age, the family moved to Weston, Missouri, then a busy Missouri River port to which settlers of the new Platte Purchase were coming. William's first job was selling apples to the passengers on the steamboats. After a brief stay in Weston the family moved to Savannah, where William secured a job as hotel clerk, and later as clerk in the store of Felix Robidoux, the son of Joseph Robidoux, founder of St. Joseph.

In the spring of 1846 the Fairleigh family came to St. Joseph, a small town of eight hundred, which had been laid out by Joseph Robidoux only three years before. George Smith and Robert Washington Donnell were just opening a new store and William secured a job as janitor. His industry was apparent and he was promoted to the job of clerk. In 1848 Donnell withdrew from the business to form a new partnership with Albe M. Saxton. The business became known as Smith & Bedford, until the Donnell interest was sold to Milton Tootle, then in Savannah. Tootle, aged twenty-five, was well known to Smith, having been in his employ for some years and having gone from Jerseyville, Illinois, to Savannah, Missouri, with him in 1842. The business became known as Smith, Bedford, and Tootle. The next July-1849-Mr. Smith died and Milton Tootle brought in as partners his two brothers, Thomas E. and Joseph W. Tootle, and William Fairleigh, then aged nineteen. Mr. Fairleigh's investment was $600. The business became Tootles & Fairleigh.

Gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in California in January 1848, and news of the discovery was first reported in the St. Joseph Gazette in October. Early in the spring of 1849 the gold rush was on. The files of the Gazette reflect the mounting excitement and traffic as the flood of emigrants began. They came by steamboat and bought their wagons and supplies here. The business of Tootles & Fairleigh boomed. Mr. Fairleigh's father was attracted by the gold excitement, so he took his family to Sacramento, California, where he died.

In 1853 Tootles & Fairleigh was the first firm west of St. Louis to start a wholesale trade. The original store, near the river front, was succeeded in 1856 by a large brick store on Second Street between Felix and Francis. In 1860 Joseph W. Tootle died and Thomas E. Tootle withdrew from the firm to go into the banking business. In 1872 Mr. Fairleigh withdrew from the firm. When he had invested his $600 in 1849 the total capital was $20,000 and the annual business was $75,000. When he left the firm the capital was $100,000 and the annual business was six times that amount.

Mr. Fairleigh had also participated in other businesses. He was interested in another mercantile concern, Lemon, Hosea & Company, and with his brother, Talbot, he had in 1857 started a hardware business, Fairleigh & Company. This business he sold to William M. Wyeth in 1872. It was added to the Wyeth business started in 1859.

Mr. Fairleigh had married Alice O’Neill in 1867. They had three children: James L. O'Neill Fairleigh, born in 1868; Jennie (later Mrs. Enright), born in 1870; and Mary Logan (later Mrs. Davis), born in 1872. Concern about his health caused his retirement from business affairs in 1872 and Mr. Fairleigh embarked upon several years of travel abroad. He visited England and the Continent, then returned to Canada, Colorado, and California. Returning to St. Joseph in 1879 he made a start at going back into business but again his health interfered, and after six months he sold the business to Lemon, Overman & Company, a concern that eventually evolved into the John S. Brittain Dry Goods Company. He then joined the partnership of Bailey & Weil, a wholesale and retail dry goods business which erected the building on the southeast corner of Fifth and Felix Streets, now occupied by Einbender's. With his addition the firm name became Bailey, Fairleigh & Weil.

In 1880 Mr. Fairleigh's fourth child was born, William G. Fairleigh, Jr. In the same year he invested in a mill at Blue Rapids, Nebraska, and with Joseph Knight he invested $40,000 in the cattle business at Salt Lake City. He also put $22,500 in two thousand Texas cattle which was a successful move. He invested $10,000 in the St. Joseph Valley Packing Company and at one time had the opportunity to sell out at a profit of $60,000. He waited, however, and eventually lost $120,000. In 1881 Mr. Fairleigh and Milton Tootle backed George W. Buell in establishing the Buell Woolen Mills. At one time that company manufactured blankets for the Pullman sleeping cars. The buildings are now incorporated into the plant of the Quaker Oats Company on South Eleventh Street.

Mr. Fairleigh's real estate investments were also profitable. Back in 1846, his father, on arriving in St. Joseph, had purchased for $250 the southeast corner of Third and Felix Streets. In 1856 William Fairleigh erected a two-story building there which he replaced in 1867 with an office for the Calhoun Bank. Forest City was laid out in 1856 by Mr. Fairleigh, Milton Tootle, and others who bought eight hundred acres for the purpose. Mr. Fairleigh, even earlier, had helped establish Laramie City in the Nebraska Territory. He was a director of the Schuster-Hax National Bank and a stockholder in the Saxton National Bank. His last active investment was in the Kennard-Daniel Grocery Company.

In the late 1870s Mr. Fairleigh had purchased a large house on twenty-eight acres of land on the south side of Frederick Avenue between Twenty-sixth Street and what is now Noyes Boulevard. After 1900 he was handicapped by poor health, and his brother, Talbot, was his constant companion. They spent a good deal of time away from St. Joseph and at the time of his wife's death in January 1911 Mr. Fairleigh was at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. He died one year later on January 2, 1912, at his home.

William G. Fairleigh was one of St. Joseph's pioneer businessmen, who participated in its rapid and profitable growth years. He operated as a private banker and investor. He became a source of capital for the starting of new businesses, and participated in nearly twenty of them. If an undertaking seemed promising, he was willing to put money into it, but after the enterprise was well launched and successful he was inclined to sell his interest. He then maintained his cash position ready to invest in the next undertaking he thought promising.