Thomas Egleston Tootle

Thomas Egleston Tootle, older brother of Milton Tootle, was born at Marion, Ohio, on April 4, 1820. He attended the schools of Marion and when only sixteen years of age left home to get a job. He was employed in a store at Columbus, Ohio, for two years, and in 1838 went to Jerseyville, Illinois, to join his family, and to work in the store of his uncle. He had contracted malaria and was advised that a life outdoors was desirable. He accordingly left Jerseyville and went on horseback to join his sister Eliza and her husband, Dr. James Livingston, at Glasgow, Missouri. In 1839 the Grand River country was thrown open to settlement, so Dr. Livingston sold his property in Glasgow and took Tom Tootle with him to Livingston County where he purchased a stock of general goods and opened a store. Dr. Livingston practiced medicine while Tom managed the store. This arrangement lasted until 1847.

Tom Tootle then decided to go into business for himself. He had heard of the activity in northwest Missouri, so he headed there, again on horseback. He reached a small trading station called Nishnabotna just across the Iowa line, and there learned that the proprietor of one of the principal stores had died five days previously, and that the administrator of the estate desired to sell the business. He purchased it, and for some time operated the most northerly post office in this part of the country.

His brother Milton was in Saint Joseph, associated with George Smith. After Mr. Smith died on July 8, 1849, Milton offered Tom a partnership in the business. It became Tootles & Fairleigh, and in 1850 Tom Tootle came to St. Joseph. He continued to expand his mercantile affairs, having stores in Denver, Colorado; Helena, Montana; Sidney, Iowa; Glenwood; and other small towns. He established in Kansas City the Tootle-Hanna Dry Goods Company, later known as Burnham, Hanna & Munger Dry Goods Company and in Omaha the business that became the M. E. Smith Dry Goods Company.

After the death of his brother Joseph W. Tootle in 1860, Tom Tootle retired from Tootles & Fairleigh. In 1865 he became interested in the newly organized First National Bank of Saint Joseph and in 1868 became its president. The Bank was located at Third and Francis Streets. In August 1878 the Bank was reorganized as the Mercantile Bank, and Tom remained president until 1886.

In the 1880s Mr. Tootle established a banking business at Plattsmouth, Nebraska. He was also interested in the packing business, having the Valley Packing Company, pork packers, which also had a glucose factory in South Park. He was the owner of a considerable amount of Saint Joseph real estate.

After the death of his brother Milton, in 1889, Tom Tootle, associated with John S. Lemon, James McCord, and Samuel M. Nave, organized the banking firm of Tootle, Lemon & Company. Out of this grew the Tootle, Lemon National Bank, Tootle-Lacy National Bank, Tootle-Enright National Bank, and finally the American National Bank.

Mr. Tootle married Miss Ellen Duffield Bell of Hagerstown, Maryland, in April 1862. They had two daughters, Mary Armstrong Tootle, who married W. K. James, and Ellen Bell Tootle, who married Graham G. Lacy. Their only son died in infancy. Mrs. Tootle died in April 1904. After that Mr. Tootle went to live with his daughter, Mrs. Lacy's family, at 2912 Frederick Avenue. He died on July 28, 1908, at the age of eighty-eight.