Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/379

 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 319 who was his close friend, his affairs were ar- ranged in Cape Girardeau and he returned. Pie taught school and for a time was associated in the publication of a newspaper. It is said that among his students were James M. White- law and Samuel il. Green. From 1843 to 1846 he was engaged in the mercantile busi- ness with Andrew Giboney, under the firm name of Robert Sturdivant & Company. In the latter year he dissolved this partnership and began in connection with Ben M. Hor- rell, the operation of a mill. This was the "White mill, as it was called, located on the river in the north part of town and was the first steam mill in Southeast Missouri. Later, Mr. Sturdivant established a commission and wholesale grocery house at the corner of Water and Themis streets. This business was exceedingly prosperous. In connection with it Mr. Sturdivant visited all the coimties of Southeast Missouri, becoming accjuainted with the leading men of every community and gain- ing a thorough knowledge of business condi- tions in this part of the state. It is an evi- dence of the sturdy honesty, which always characterized him, that during this period of his life he settled in full all the obligations of the firm of White & Sturdivant, though he was not legally boimd to do so. In 1857 he was elected cashier of the branch bank of the state of Missouri, which was at that time removed from Jackson to Cape Gir- ardeau. He continued with the bank until it was closed up in 1867. Then he bought the assets of the branch bank and continued its operation as a private bank until 1882. In that year he organized a corporation known as the Sturdivant Bank. He was made its president and continued in ofSce until some five years before his death. During the sixty-five years of active busi- ness life, Mr. Sturdivant acquired a comfort- able fortune, but while devoted to his business he never allowed it to interfere with the culti- vation of friendshii) and that kindly spirit of helpfulness which distinguished him. He was always interessted in the public welfare and no man did more to pi'omote the enterprises of his town and community than he. For many years he served as the ti'easui-er of the Southeast State Normal School and on many occasions advanced out of his own private fortune, as a loan, the funds with which to pay the teachers and expenses of that institu- tion. He was very closely associated with Hon. Louis Houek in his railroad enterprises and it is quite probable that but for his assist- ance the railroads of Southeast Missouri could not have been built at that time. IIr. Sturdivant, in spite of the esteem in which he was universally held and the influ- ence which came in part from his real char- acter and in part from his wealth, was a man who avoided all ostentation and display and was of a retiring and modest disposition. He lived simply and plainly and took a great in- terest in the simple pleasures of the time. His name is perpetuated in the great banking in- stitution which he founded. Samuel Stanhope Harris was born in Jack- son December 26, 1836, and died in St. Louis December 6, 1891. His parents. Dr. E. W. and Mary Harris, were natives of North Caro- lina. He came to Missouri in 1821, first lo- cating at Farmingtou and afterwards at Jack- son. Samuel S. Harris was educated in the private academ^^ at Pleasant Hill and later in Lexington college and then studied medicine at Bellevue Medical college in New York, being graduated at the age of twenty-one. He began the practice of medicine at Jackson in 1860 and was successful from the first. When the war broke out, Dr. Harris took the side of the south, organizing a company of cavalry fa-