Complex sentence: He became a shoe merchant in 1903, he and two other men, E. P. Cooper and P. J. Geary, starting the business of Kuhn, Cooper, & Geary, which earned a reputation as the premiere footwear store in downtown Nashville.
Split into simpler sentences: He became a shoe merchant in 1903, he and two other men, E. P. Cooper and P. J. Geary, starting the business of Kuhn, Cooper, & Geary. It earned a reputation as the premiere footwear store in downtown Nashville.