Anthony Ittner

As printed in 1899

Ittner, Anthony, manufacturer, and ex-member of Congress, was born October 8, 1837, in Lebanon, Ohio, son of John and Mary Ittner. His father was a native of Bavaria, who came to this country in 1832, when twenty-one years of age. He established his home in Cincinnati in 1833, taking out his first naturalization papers there, when William Henry Harrison, afterward President of the United States, was clerk of the County Court of Hamilton County, Ohio, and casting his first vote for Martin VanBuren for the presidency. At Cincinnati the elder Ittner married his wife, who was born on Fayal Island, one of the Azores, in 1818. The parents of Mrs. Ittner, who were natives of Baden, Germany, left the Azores for America, and upon their arrival in this country settled in Dayton, hio. After his marriage John Ittner moved to Lebanon, Ohio, where he lived until 1844. Removing then with his family to St. Louis, he continued to reside here until 1853, when he died, leaving a wife and seven children.

His son, Anthony Tttner, was put to work at the early age of nine years, and the only opportunity which he had to attend the public day schools of the city was such as he enjoyed prior to that time, Afterward he attended

‘night schools as much of the time as he could, and after he began business for himsélf took a course in a commercial college. While his educational advantages in youth were limited, he acquired the habit of observing closely and reading carefully, and thus, by ‘a process of self-education, he gained the practical Knowl-

‘edge and broad general information ‘which have made him an accomplished man of affairs and given him well-deserved distinction in public life. His earliest employment was in the Glasgow Lead Factory, then situated at

‘the corner of Fourteenth and Papin Streets, where he worked for three years. Leaving there at the end of that time, he went to’ work im a-brickyard, and thus gained his earliest knowledge of that branch of manufacturing with which he has since been so prominently identified. The last brickyard in which he was employed was owned by a man named John Snyder, who was also engaged in the bricklaying business, and after a time Mr. Ittner apprenticed himself to Snyder for a term of three years to learn the trade ofbrickmason. After serving a year anda half of this term Snyder retired from business, giving the young apprentice the balance of his time. After receiving some further instructions from an artisan named Samuel Taylor, he worked as a journeyman bricklayer until he was twenty-one years of age, when, in company with his elder‘brother, he established himself in the brickmaking and bricklaying business. This business he continued until 1888, when he quit bricklaying and turned his attention entirely to the brick manufacturing department of the business which he had built up.

“Since then he has become one of the most prominent of Western brick manufacturers, having at the present’ time—1898—two large plants having a capacity of fully millions of brick a year, which are operated at Swansea, Illinois. Closely identified as he has been for many years with the building trades and building interests of St. Louis, he is by them held in the highest esteem, and has been a member of the Builders’ Exchange of this city ever since it was organized. He has served three terms as president of this Exchange, and has served also one term as president of the National Builders’ Association, and one term as president of the National Brick Manufacturers’ Association, of which he was one of the charter members. Being a man of active and vigorous mentality, thoroughly in touch with the masses of the people, and having well-defined opinions on all matters of public moment, it was natural that he should interest himself in politics and governmental affairs, both local and general. In his young manhood he served through the Civil’ War as a member of the Missouri State militia, doing duty both in the city and State in that connection. A strong Unionist, he allied himself with the Republican party, and has ever since been conspicuous in its councils, having served as chairman of the Republican city central committee of St. Louis for a number of years. In 1867 he was elected to the city council, and was re-elected to the same body in the spring of 1868, and in the fall of the same year to the lower branch of the State Legislature of Missouri. In 1870 he was elected to the State Senate, and re-elected in 1874 a member of that body, from which he resigned in 1876 to accept from his party a nomination for Congress as representative of the First Missouri District. As a result of the ensuing canvass he was elected and served with credit to himself and his constituents in the Forty-fifth Congress. At the end of his term he retired from public life, feeling that he had given a sufficient amount of his time to the public service, and to official duties which were not altogether congenial to him. As a legislator and congressman, he was distinguished for his practical, common-sense views on all public questions, and the city has rarely been represented by a more capable man, and by none more thoroughly conscientious and patriotic. While a member of the Legislature he was conspicuous for his labors in behalf of the establishment of a State Reformatory and trade school for juvenile offenders. Liberal in his religious views, he is a member of the Church of the Unity of the Unitarian faith, and he is a helpful friend of charities and humanitarian institutions. Progressive in all things, he was one of the promoters of the Louisiana Purchase Centennial movement, and was made a member of the original committee having it in charge. In fraternal circles he is known as one of the pioneer Odd Fellows of the city, and is a member of the Grand Lodge of that order in Missouri. He is also a member пев Workme Rot Ord and is a life member of the Mi oyal А belle Butte 1862 һе married Min N e tts, daughter of Willian ait ls Kentuckian by birth. Mr; hin А. Bu Is, 4 the incorporators of the South Si WAS One y scry Association, of whic ide Day Nu.

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Zn А en i ee аа а u ing and decorating, and during the three succeeding years he traveled extensively through the West and South in this connection. In 1872 he visited Mexico, and upon his ‚return to the United States came to St. Louis, and entered the Polytechnic School of this city, in 1874. as an instructor. During the following year he pursued his studies abroad, and upon his return to St. Louis was made а member of the faculty of Washington University, He at once demonstrated that he had organizing capacity as well as artistic ability, and through his efforts the St. Louis School of Fine Arts was established. He bent all his energies to the upbuilding of this institution, and when, through the munificence of Mr. Wayman Crow, the present Museum of Fine Arts Building was completed, in 1881, Mr. Ives was made director, both of the Art School and the Museum of Fine Arts. Ever since then his time and talents have been at the service of these institutions, and his earnest endeavor has been to enable the one to support and advance the interests of the other, the collections of the museum being regarded by him as an open book of reference for all engaged in the study of art. While full attention has always been given to instruction in those branches familiarly known as the fine arts, Mr. Ives has been especially zealous in his efforts to restore to their proper place those arts commonly called industrial or applied, and for many years he devoted much time and energy to giving courses of free lectures, on Sundays, to the mechanics and artisans of St. Louis. These lectures were fully illustrated by examples from the collections of the museum, and his own private collections. During this time he made frequent trips to Europe, and kept in close touch with every new movement in the art world. When the work of the World’s Columbian Exposition was organized the appointment of Mr. Ives as director of the department of fine arts was greeted with universal satisfaction, and the Splendid results achieved under his direction, and the high standard to which American art Was raised in the opinion of the people of this pr ет ыз у ме e of his services to the American people. In 1894 he was appointed by the Nationa! Bureau of Education to examine and report upon the course of instruction and methods of work carried on by various continental art schools and museums, and beginning at Gizeh, Egypt, he pursued a special work which traced the historical development cf civilization as evidenced in art. Unlike the majority of men of artistic tastes and temperament, Mr. Ives has never shrunk from the discharge of the more commonplace duties, incident to good citizenship. On the contrary. he has taken an active interest in municipal affairs, and since 1895 has served as a member of the city council of St. Louis. In the work which he has done, in connection with the upbuilding of the Museum and School of Fine Arts, he has seemed to have been inspired by the thought to which Peter Cooper, the New York philanthropist and founder of Cooper Institute, gave utterance when he said: "1 desire to make this institution contribute in every way toward the aid of the efforts of youth, to acquire useful knowledge, and to find and fill those places in which their capacities and talents can be most usefully employed with the greatest possible advantage to the country in which they live.” What has been said of his work in the local field of art applies equally well to the services he has rendered to American art in its relation to that of foreign countries, in securing for it that recognition which it merited from the art critics of Europe. As a testimony of their appreciation of his efforts in the direction of art education, he has received from King Oscar, of Sweden, the decoration of the “Order of the Vasa,” and from King Christian, of Denmark, that of the “Order of the Dannebrog,” besides several marks of appreciation from the governments of France, Germany and Japan. Mr. Ives married, in 1887, Miss Margaret Lackland, daughter of Rufus J. Lackland, the well known banker and financier of St. Louis. Their children are Caroline Eliot Lackland Ives and Neil McDowell Ives.

As printed in Encyclopedia of the history of St. Louis, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference (v. 2) (1899). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.