Butler County Mo Biographies James L. DALTON By David B. Deem Submitted by: Sherry Link 2003 Deem's History of Butler County Missouri by David Bruce Deem, Probate Judge, Butler County, MO Biographies James L. DALTON One of Poplar Bluff's most successful business men was the late James L. Dalton who progressed from $12 a month clerk in a hardware store to the presidency of the Dalton Adding Machine Company, a $10,000,000 concern manufacturing upwards of 60,000 machines a year, during his lifetime. J. L. Dalton was born on a Ripley county farm on December 29, 1866, the son of William Marion and Mary Carolina Dalton. He left home at 14 to attend high school at Warm Springs [Randolph Co.], Arkansas and at the age of 16 taught a small school near his home for one year before obtaining employment as a clerk in the hardware store of J. R. Wright at Doniphan. Although Mr. Dalton had many interesting experiences while working at Doniphan and learned much about the store, his business career did not really begin until three years later when he became manager of the hardware store owned by E. W. And J. R. Wright in Poplar Bluff in 1885. After a few months as manager of the business he bought a half interest in the concern which then became know as the Wright and Dalton store. In October of 1887 he married Miss Clara Wright, a sister of J. R. Wright. In his only effort to seek public office, Mr. Dalton was elected to the Missouri legislature by a large majority of votes in 1900. The Wright-Dalton store flourished under Mr. Dalton's dynamic personality and commercial genius, especially during the depression of 1893, one of the worst in history. A year before that depression, Dalton erected a four story building at Main and Poplar streets and organized the Wright-Dalton-Bell- Anchor department store, a merchandising business that ran up to $750,000 a year with a sales force of 125 persons and 20 delivery wagons. At that time, Poplar Bluff had a population of 7000 persons. Folks thought that Jim Dalton had struck his life work when he assumed management of the W-D-B-A store. Mr. Dalton thought so himself and no part of his future plans included dropping his own splendid merchandising business in order to incubate a new-born adding machine venture, into which he put some money purely as a secondary investment. Yet that is exactly what he did and he did it through loyalty to friends who had invested not in the machine but, as one of them put it, in Dalton himself. A friend named Hopkins in St. Louis invented the machine and persuaded Mr. Dalton to help finance its manufacture. Mr. Dalton invested some money in the venture and manufacture started in a building at the northeast corner of Main and Pine street. In 1904 Mr. Dalton became president of the Dalton Adding Machine company, although he did not relinquish his managership of the W-D-B-A store company until 1908 when affairs of the manufacturing concern required his full time. He appointed John Berryman as manager of the department store, although he retained controlling interest in the concern. Mr. Dalton tackled the problems of the adding machine company with the same vigor he had put in his merchandising ventures, always working at least 14, and sometimes more, hours daily. He traveled extensively during his early years with the new concern and became one of the greatest salesmen the nation has ever known. The adding machine company started out with a few die makers as its charter employees but under the guidance of Mr. Dalton grew into a concern with agencies throughout the civilized world employing 2500 persons. Many a man might consider it humiliating to start out selling adding machines with a heavy sample bag packed under his arm and interviewing the same people whose merchandise purchases had helped swell his former business to the $750,000 mark. Perhaps it was hard but Dalton did it just the same. And his sense of loyalty to friends had furnished the kick that forced him through the difficulty to comparative success. Finally in 1914 it became necessary to move the factory away from Poplar Bluff to Cincinnati, Ohio, not because Mr. Dalton wanted to take it away from Poplar Bluff but because it was a matter of existence to the concern. Dalton could see that to remain in the small city, the factory would never grow beyond the status it maintained when it was located in the building which later became the Hamilton-Brown shoe factory and that he could not interest financiers in investing money in the plant while it was in Poplar Bluff in that early day. Mr. Dalton's dreams were realized and the concern flourished in Cincinnati becoming one of the biggest successes the manufacturing world has ever seen. His machine out-classed all others and his line served all business from the smallest retailer to the billion dollar corporation. In later years he organized an international distribution system and his machines were sold throughout the world until foreign exports consumed 20 per cent of the output of the immense factory. Mr. Dalton's dream was a reality at the close of 1925 but the dream was not entirely complete. Hje had never in life thought of stopping short of supremacy in his career as a leader of men and an organizer of business. While still a young man in appearance and vitality, Mr. Dalton was stricken with acute appendicitis at the age of 59. With his passing on January 11, 1926 not only Poplar Bluff and Cincinnati, but the entire nation lost a great business builder and a benefactor of mankind. From every corner of the nation and from foreign lands messages of regret and condolence came to the family. Mr. Dalton was returned to Poplar Bluff for burial. Mr. and Mrs. Dalton were the parents of four children, Grover W. Dalton who resides at 433 North Main street and Miss Phoebe Dalton and Miss Mary Dalton who reside with Mrs. Dalton at the family home at 421 North Main street and Charles Dalton who died in 1926. Although Mr. Dalton in his early days in Poplar Bluff spent most of his time in his mercantile business he erected a number of business buildings in the city. He erected the buildings on Broadway from the present location of the Gibbons hotel to the Bramur oil firm headquarters and the large four story building which stood where the Dalton building is now located and the buildings next door continuing south to the Saracini building in addition to the building housing the Stovall store and the present Dalton home on North Main street which was purchased in 1896. All of the Dalton children were born in Poplar Bluff. As long as time shall last the name of James L. Dalton will be among those illustrious Poplar Bluffians who achieved. During his residence here he was Deputy Grand Master of the Masonic Lodge and Master of the Blue lodge. He was zealous in every worthy civic undertaking and an active member of the presbyterian church where he was an elder and superintendent of the Bible school for several years. [Note: more information about the DALTON ancestors can also be found on the Randolph County, AR site at http://www.rootsweb.com/~arrandol/ ************************************************************************ PLEASE READ THIS NOTICE USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, material may be freely used by non- commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. Unauthorized use for commercial ventures expressly prohibited. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ******************************************************************