George Henry Rea

As printed in 1899

Rea, George Henry, merchant, banker and steamboat owner, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, April 26, 1816, and died in St. Louis, December 24, 1896. His parents were Joshua B. and Hannah (Boynton) Rea, and his father came of a French-Canadian family. His mother belonged to one of the oldest Puritan families of New England and one which has had many illustrious representatives in America. In the infancy of George H. Rea his father died, and he was reared and trained to business pursuits under the guidance of his mother. Leaving school when he was fifteen years old, he learned the tanner’s trade at Weymouth, Massachusetts. For several years thereafter he worked at his trade as a journeyman in New England towns, and when he had accumulated a little capital as a result of his industry and frugality, he looked toward the Southwest as a better field in which to begin business on his own account than the region in which he had been reared. In pursuance of this idea he went to Waynesboro, Tennessee, in 1849. and established there a hide and leather business which grew to considerable proportions within a few years and proved very remunerative. He had, however, the keen foresight so essential to successful merchandising, and in the continually growing bitterness of political controversy between the Northern and Southern States, he perceived a source of danger to the commercial prosperity of the South, ln consequence of this pending danger he disposed of his interests in Tennessee a year or two before the Civil War began, and removed to St. Louis. Here he opened a hide and leather store, which was located at 76 North Levee, and soon had a larger business than any other dealer in these commodities in the city. He was, from the start, a conspicuous figure in the commercial circles of the city, being active as a member of the Merchants’ Exchange, and the helpful friend of every enterprise calcu-

„lated to promote the commercial growth and prosperity of the country tributary to St. Louis, as well as that of the city itself. When the national banking law went into effect he joined with other gentlemen in founding the Second National Bank of St. Louis and became president of that institution. Not long afterward he disposed of his merchandising interests and thereafter devoted himself ‘to banking, and to steamboat and railroad enterprises. His investments in steamboat properties led ultimately to his becoming the president of the Mississippi Valley Transportation Company, which, under his management, became one of the most prosperous corporations engaged in the business of river transportation, and which carried immense quantities of grain and other products in barges to New Orleans and intermediate points on the Mississippi River. For three years he was a director of the Missouri Pacific Railroad acting in the directorate of that corporation during one of the critical periods of its history, and Jater he built the branch railroad from Pleasant Hill, on the Missouri Pacific, 1o Lawrence, Kansas, a distance of sixty-one miles. His interests in railroads, steamboats, and other transportation enterprises required so much of his time and attention that, in 1873, he resigned the presidency of the Second National Bank, but continued to be identified with it as a director for many years thereafter, Indefatigable energy, sound judgment and boldness of operation were among his distinguishing characteristics as a business man, and during all the years of his active life he wielded an important influence

Ca PA

Colonel Marinus Willet's regiment of New York troops in the Revolutionary War.

Rea, Emeline Frisbie, who has been conspicuous among the philanthropic women of St. Louis for her good work,was born March 18, 1823, at Branford, Connecticut, daughter of Lyman and Ann (Barker) Frisbie. Her father was a lineal descendant of a Puritan immigrant, Edward Frisbie, who settled in the town of Branford in the early colonial days. Mrs. Rea spent the early years of her life in Branford, and obtained her rudimentary education in the common schools of that place. In 1837 her father came with his family to Illinois, and thereafter until his death resided in that State. He was among the pioneer settlers at Mendon, in Adams County, Hlinois, and there the daughter grew to womanhood. After coming west she continued her studies for a time under the private tutorship of Rev. Edward Kirby, one of the scholarly pioneer ministers of Illinois, and then returning to the East, completed her education at a private school in New Haven, Connecticut. She was married, in 1851, to George H. Rea, then a prosperous merchant at Waynesboro, Tennessee. In 1855 Mr. Rea disposed of his business interests at Waynesboro, and he and his wife spent the following two years in travel and visiting their early home. They established their home in St. Louis in 1857, and Mrs. Rea became at once actively interested in church and charitable work in the city. During the Civil War she was one of the noble women whose sympathies were most actively enlisted in behalf of the Union cause, and whose feeling found expression through systematic efforts to alleviate the condition of soldiers in the field, and to provide for the care and comfort of the sick and wounded in hos- Pitals. Since the war she has been a leader in the movements inaugurated by the good women of St. Louis designed to better the social and moral conditions in the city, to provide for the care of those in need of encouragement and assistance, and for the education of the rising generation. For several years she has been a member of the board of management of the Girls’ Industrial Home. Her benefactions have extended beyond St. Louis, and Monticella Seminary, of Godfrey, Illinois; Drury College. of Springfield, Missouri: and various other institutions have profited by her generosity. She has long been a member of the First Congregational Church of St. Louis, of which Rev. Truman M. Post was pastor, and in her daily life and acts she has exemplified the real beauties of the Christian religion, She was one of the parties who suggested the idea of the Post Memorial Library, at Monticello Seminary, and not only contributed to it herself, but also collected funds for it and helped make it a success. Having no children of her own, she and her husband adopted and reared a son and a daughter, and nearly a score of dependent children, now grown up and leading useful lives, are indebted to them for their edu-

-national training. Her unselfish nature has made the helping of others and contributing to the happiness of others the chief aim of her life, and at the present time, 1899, although she has passed five years beyond the allotted age of mankind, she is still engaged in the good work begun in early life.

As printed in Encyclopedia of the history of St. Louis, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference (v. 3) (1899). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.