Biographical Sketch of Israel Landis, St. Joseph, Buchanan County, MO >From "History of Buchanan County, Missouri, Published 1881, St. Joseph Steam Printing Company, Printers, Binders, Etc., St. Joseph, Missouri. ********************************************************************** Israel Landis a pioneer and representative citizen of St. Joseph, was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, October 17, 1808. He was one of a family of ten children, five of whom were sons. He clerked in the store of his father, a general merchant, till he was eighteen years of age, when he learned the trade of saddle and harness making. He deter- mined, with that spirit of enterprise which has marked his course through life, to seek an ampler fortune in the West, and in 1833, he landed in St. Louis, Missouri, then a town of about six thousand. Here he established himself and soon built up a prosperous trade, continuing in the business of saddle and harness making for about eight years, when he sold out and purchased a farm, eight miles from the city, to which he removed. He continued to reside here till the spring of 1844, when he again made a westward move, landing and settling upon the site of what is not the city of St. Joseph. With an abiding faith in the future of his then newly adopted home, a faith which he has lived to see confirmed in the splendid development of 1881, he opened a small shop. With the growth of the town his business increased, till from $3,000 it has reached the aggregate business of $30,000 per annum, and given steady employement to twenty or thirty men. Mr. Landis has con- tributed in no insignificant degree to building up the business portion of the city. Among others, the large double brick store on the corner of Fourth and Felix, now owned, and until recently occupied, by R. L. McDonald & Co., was built by him in 1857. Subsequently he erected other business blocks, among which are included some of the best appearing of that character of buildings in the city. He is probably the oldest business man actively engaged in the state, and certainly the oldest engaged in the city of St. Joseph, having been forty eight years in the former and thirty seven years in continuous business in St. Joseph. His capital, when he embarked in business in St. Louis, was fifty dollars. His general and ultimate success in life are due to uniform habits of industry, economy and a fairness of dealing, which has always commanded for him friends. Among other investments, Mr. Landis was one of a company of three, which also included Reuben Middleton and Simeon Kemper, who laid out, for the purpose of a cemetery now known as Mount Mora, in the northwest corner of the city, a tract of twenty acres of land. This beautifully improved spot after- wards became, by purchase, the individual property of Mr. Landis, who subsequently sold it to the association who now own it. Israel Landis early took a lively interest in the public affairs of his town. He was an active member of the first city council of St. Joseph, and a representative Odd Fellow, contributing largely, both in time and means, to the erection of that splended building, the Odd Fellows' Hall, on the southeast corner of Fifth and Felix Streets, which afterwards be- came his by purchase, and was subsequently destroyed by fire, as re- ferred to in our notice of that order. He married Miss Sarah Stibbs, in St. Louis, May 3, 1836. She was a native of Berkshire, England, and was born April 23, 1809. At the age of sixteen she with her parents to the United States, settling in Brooklyn, New York, where she received the advantages of a finished education. In 1834, her father moved with his family to St. Louis, where Miss Stibbs, with her three sisters, established a female seminary on a superior scale, then known as the St. Louis Female Institute, the first school of the kind of importance organized in that city. She remained connected with it till her marriage to Mr. Landis, as above stated. On their removal to St. Joseph, Mrs. Landis taught the first school established in the city, a reference to which enterprise will be found in our chapter on schools. Mr. and Mrs. Landis have, from the earliest settlement of St. Joseph, taken an especially active part in advancing the scholastic, literary and religious interests of the city, and their efforts have been uniformly crowned with success. They have a family of five children living: John C., Benjamin F., Mary E., wife of George Connell, Anna Stibbs, wife of Dr. McDonald, Jr. and Lila. Colonel John Landis, the eldest of these children, served with distinction in the late civil war. In 1861, he left St. Joseph in command of an in- dependent company of infantry. He was afterwards appointed, by Gov- ernor Jackson, major of a battalion of artillery in the state service. This position he subsequently resigned and organized a battery of artillery in the regular Confederate Service. This he commanded till he was appointed chief of the Missouri division of artillery with the grade of lieutenant colonel. He held this rank at the siege of Vicks- burg. He was afterwards inspector of artillery for the Department of the Gulf, with headquarters at Mobile, Alabama, which position he held tell the close of the war, when he returned to St. Joseph, where he has since continued to reside. ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. 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