Biographical Sketch of Albe M. Saxton, St. Joseph, Buchanan County, MO

>From "History of Buchanan County, Missouri, Published 1881, St. Joseph
Steam Printing Company, Printers, Binders, Etc., St. Joseph, Missouri.
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Albe M. Saxton was born near Cleveland, Ohio, February 12, 1821.  He
received his education at the common schools and at a private academy
in Cleveland.  In 1841, he went to St. Louis, but not finding the em-
ployment he expected, he commenced trading in country produce on a
capital of $56, all the money he possessed, a venture which proved
successful and was the first of a long series of commercial operations
which have been the means of building up an ample fortune.  During the
summer of 1842 he was clerk in a steamboat running up the Illinois
River.  He lost no opportunity of improving his mind and fitting him-
self for business.  In the winter of 1841, he attended the night 
session of a commercial college in St. Louis and graduated from the
institution.  In April, 1843, meeting in St. Louis, Charles A. Perry,
who was desirous of starting a mercantile business at the Black Snake
Hills, as the site of St. Joseph was then called, in connection with
C. Perry's younger brother, Elias H., he went to that point, and on
May 1, 1843, opened a store there.  It was the first store established
in St. Joseph for the purpose of trading with white inhabitants.  In
1843, he pre empted a quarter section of land near the lunatic asylum,
which he entered at $1.25 per acre.  This land he afterwards sold for
$100 per acre.  In 1848 he formed a partnership with Robert W. Donnell,
now a banker of New York City, and with him continued the mercantile
business.  This partnership continued until 1858 at which time the
transactions of the firm had grown from a retail trade to a large 
wholesale business, the most extensive at that time conducted in St.
Joseph.  Closing up the mercantile business in 1858, the branch of the
Bank of the State of Missouri at St. Joseph was organized, of which
Mr. Saxton was made cashier.  This institution was merged into a 
National Bank in 1865, under the title of the State National Bank, Mr.
Saxton retaining the position of cashier.  In 1870 the affairs of the
State National were closed up voluntarily and profitably and the State
Savings Bank was organized with Mr. Saxton as President, a position 
which he retained until the summer of 1881.  Besides his connection 
with banking and mercantile business he has been interested in other
public enterprises.  In partnership with T. D. Hastings he built some
eighty miles of the Kansas City and Northwestern Railroad, and two
hundred thirty nine of the St. Joseph and Denver.  In company with 
Milton Tootle and others in 1853 he built and launched on the Missouri
River two steamboats, the Silver Heels and Omaha.  Mr. Saxton has never
aspired to a public position, but in 1874 when the State was building
the Lunatic Asylum No. 2, he was appointed treasurer and still retains
the office.  His residence is near Saxton Station, on the H. & St. J.
Railroad, where he owns a large body of land, well improved, making
one of the finest farms in the Platte Purchase.  His business career
has been an enviable one, confining himself to regular transactions.
Speculations have never tempted him.  He has always aimed to be safe
and cautious, deeming to the greatest credit which any business man
can claim to go through life without failure.  He married Mrs. Sarah
E. Flint, of Dorchester County, Maryland, in 1856.

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