Alvah Patee Clayton

Alvah Patee Clayton was born at Ashley, Delaware County, Ohio, December 27, 1860. His mother, Almira Patee, the daughter of Alvah Patee, had been born in Delaware County in 1832, and had married there James Wellington Clayton. They had two children, Frankie Clayton born in 1858 and Alvah Patee Clayton. In 1865 the Claytons decided to move to St. Joseph where Almira's uncle John and her father, Alvah, were well established. James Wellington Clayton went on ahead, and when Almira and her children arrived she was surprised that he was not at the railroad station to meet her. Her father, Alvah Patee, then told her that her husband had died suddenly a short time before. Almira later married Samuel Russell who had come from Shenandoah, Virginia.

Alvah Patee Clayton, nicknamed “Pet,' grew up in St. Joseph, attended the public schools, the Christian Brothers College, and Bryant's Business College. As a young man he worked in a grocery store at Eleventh and Penn Streets, near his home. He then was employed by a wholesale stationery firm, and later was a salesman for the R. T. Davis Milling Company.

In 1888 he joined the Ashton-Sheridan Paper Company, acquiring a third of the ownership while his second cousin Frederick Blackford Griffin acquired another third. The name of the company was changed to the Sheridan-Clayton Paper Company, with J.J. Sheridan, president; Fred B. Griffin, treasurer; and A. P. Clayton, secretary. The business was that of wholesalers of paper products and was successful. The first location was in the basement of 516-518 Francis Street. They then moved to a building at Second and Charles Street, which in 1902 was sold to the Douglas Candy Company. They then purchased the large building of Turner, Frazer & Company at the southwest corner of Third & Charles Streets for $48,000. Mr. Sheridan retired from the business in 1903 and Mr. Clayton became president. He was a vice-president of the Park Bank, director of the Bartlett Trust Company, and director of the Meuller-Keller Candy Company. He was president of the Lotus Club.

Mr. Clayton was exceedingly popular, a wonderful salesman, and he could hardly avoid prominence in public affairs. Magnificent in appearance-six feet, three inches in height; weight 265 pounds meticulous in his dress-he was a commanding figure and in great demand. Active in Masonic affairs, he was elected imperial potentate of the Shrine in North America in 1906. In that capacity, he went to Mexico City to confer the degree of noble on Mexican President Diaz. He was elected mayor of St. Joseph twice, serving from 1908 to 1912, and making a speech almost every day. He was defeated in 1912 on a program advocating parks and boulevards and the elimination of grade crossings.

Mr. Clayton married Miss Mattie Gunn on June 15, 1888. They had three sons: Robert G. Clayton, Edward S. Clayton, and Alvah Patee Clayton, Jr. “Pet Clayton's sister, Frankie, married her second cousin Frederick B. Griffin in 1888, and he, too, was part owner of the paper company.

Mr. Clayton was an accomplished public speaker and had an endless supply of anecdotes with which to enliven his audiences. It is told that on one occasion he was in a distant city for some Shrine meeting. He was introduced as from St. Joseph, Missouri. One of the group said to him: "St. Joseph-isn't that where Jesse James was shot? I suppose you are not very proud of him?” “On the contrary, said Mr. Clayton, Jesse James was like everything else in St. Joseph, the best in his line.

Mr. Clayton died on November 11, 1916, at the age of fifty-five, and was buried at Mt. Mora. His son, Robert, succeeded him as president of the paper company, and at his death in 1966, Jack W. Clayton, the son of Edward S. Clayton, became president. The Sheridan-Clayton Paper Company is now the oldest paper house on the Missouri River, and one of the wholesale businesses of the “Golden Age of St. Joseph business that has carried on in the same family ownership.

Newspaper account, published in the 1880s:

“THE PATEE HOUSE

Facts and Reminiscences Regarding

a Once Famous Hostelry.

Where Wm. H. Seward Made His Celebrated Speech

The Pony Express The Raffle

Its Several Managers and Varied Career.

The pioneer years of St. Joseph have furnished many interesting pages of history which read like romance to the latter-day inhabitants of the great Western city, to many of whom some of the important events of early history are almost unknown. That once well-known argonaut, John Patee, was the father of an enterprise which has cut a conspicuous figure in the affairs of this city. He was the owner of a half section of land in what is now known as South St. Joseph, and after platting it put it upon the market under the name of Patee's addition. Mr. Patee went about the matter on a most liberal scale, setting apart a block of ground between Ninth and Tenth streets for Patee park, donating about twenty acres of ground to the Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad company for depot and yard purposes, and giving ample ground to the Platte County railroad on Fifteenth street. These events took place during the years of 1855 and 1856.

In 1857 a handsome income was yielded to Mr. Patee from the sale of lots in his addition and he determined to erect a hotel that would prove an everlasting monument to his memory. The hotel was to be known as the Patee House. About that time an architect came to St. Joseph from one of the Eastern cities and opened an office. Prior to this there had been no architect in St. Joseph and Mr. Patee viewed the coming of this man as a Godsend to him when he was about to enter upon such a gigantic undertaking. The architect was employed to prepare plans for the building and was instructed to design it with especial regard to sustainability, convenience and elegance. When he went to examine the plans after their completion he found that the main stairway leading to the hotel was designed for the outside of the building. He knew that such an arrangement would never do, and, finding other objections, the first plans were discarded. Mr. L. S.

Stigers, who is still a highly respected resident of St. Joseph, was then employed to make plans for the hotel. Mr. Stigers spent a week in preparing the plans, after which the hotel was finally built, and was employed by Mr. Patee to superintend its construction.

The hotel became famous throughout the entire Western country. Even St. Louis at that time had no caravansary that could Compare with it. The work of construction was commenced during the year 1858 and was completed in the course of twelve months. It Was located on the southeast corner of Twelfth and Penn Streets, and its dimensions were 110 on the front and two sides with a large court in the rear. The materials put into it were of the best qualities money could secure and no expense was spared. Oak joists served for the first story and cottonwood timbers were used for the three upper stories, while the interior was finished with hard pine. Its foundation was built of heavy stone and the brick walls commenced at a width of eighteen inches, reducing gradually to thirteen inches. All of the carpenter work was performed by the day, which secured for Mr. Patee nothing but the most careful workmanship. The house contained about 140 rooms and they were furnished in the most elegant style known to that time.

“In those times St. Joseph was full to overflowing with transient people of prominence and wealth from all parts of the country, emigrants and all grades and conditions of humanity enroute to California, Oregon, Pike's Peak and other Western regions who came here to outfit themselves with teams, wagons and supplies preparatory to starting on their long overland journey towards the setting sun.

The building and furnishings of the hotel cost Mr. Patees 120,000. Its first landlord was Mr. G. W. Alden of Philadelphia, who leased it for three years at the rate of $6,000 for the first year, $8,000 for the second, and $10,000 for the third year. Before the close of the first year Alden gave up the house and was succeeded by a man named Minor of Chicago, who kept it for one year. Mr. John M. Armstrong, who is still doing business in St. Joseph, and T. M. Espy, next leased the house and operated it for two years. Mr. Espy fell from one of the windows and died from the effects of his injuries. Next Elijah C. Patee, son of the owner of the house, kept the hotel for a while, and was succeeded by Dougherty & Worden. Upon the burning of the Pacific house in 1868, James H. Bagwell took charge of the house and operated it for a time.

"It was from this building that the famous Pony Express took its departure during the stirring times of 1860 upon which occasions great crowds of people assembled. Jack Fry and Jack Keitley were the famous riders who alternated between St. Joseph and Kennekuk, Kas., the first express division. The departure of the Pony Express was regarded as an important event, and the scene was exciting and exhilarating in the extreme. A bucking, plunging bronco pony, with glistening equipage, consisting of bridle, saddle, mail bags and pistol pouches, all ornamented with shining buckles, being held by two sturdy hostlers to prevent his breaking away without a rider, was always the center of attraction. When the time for starting arrived Jack Keitley would walk out of the Patee House almost as richly caparisoned as the bronco. With his white hat, pants in his boots, spurs, belt and other accoutrements, he was a man more to be envied than the President of the United States. He would jump astride the pony and amid the thundering of cannon on Prospect Hill the bronco darted off with Jack for the ferry boat General Gaines, which with steam up and bell ringing awaited his arrival. Within a few minutes Jack would be landed on the Elwood shore, and a sorrel streak was the last seen of Keitley by human eye until he arrived at Kennekuk, forty miles distant.

“Poor Jack Fry has been dead for a quarter of a century. He was killed while fighting with Gen. Blount in Arkansas. Jack Keitley resides in Montana and is superintendent of a rich mining company; a highly respected bachelor and is supposed to be very wealthy. His aged mother lives in St. Joseph and Jack pays her a visit once every five years. He is as bright and cheery today as when a Pony Express rider in 1860.

"From the balcony of this hotel William H. Seward, Secretary of State under President Lincoln, one of America's most famous statesmen, when on his way to Kansas, delivered his celebrated speech on the night of December 22, 1860, to an immense multitude which had assembled. Although his address was brief, in the light of all that has transpired since that time, it reads like a prophecy. On that December night of 1860 he foreshadowed the greatest political and social problem that has ever engaged the attention of the American people. After expressing his surprise and manifesting his gratitude for the kind treatment accorded himself and party by the people of Missouri, he said:

“Let me tell you this simple truth, that though you live in the land of slavery, there is not a man among you who does not love slavery less than he loves the Union. Nor have I ever met the man who loved freedom so much under any of the aspects involved in the present presidential issues, as he loved the Union, for it is only through the stability and perpetuity of the Union that any blessings whatever may be expected to descend on the American people.

“And now, fellow citizens, there is another lesson which this occasion and this demonstration teach. They teach that there is no difference whatever in the nature, constitution or character of the people of the several states of the Union, or of the several sections of the Union. They are all of one nature, if they are not all native born, and educated in the same sentiments. Although many of them came from distant lands, still the very effect of them being American citizens is to make them all alike. I will tell you why this is so. The reason is simply this: The Democratic principle that every man ought to be the owner of the soil that he cultivates, and the owner of the limbs and the head that he applies to that culture, has been adopted in some of the states earlier than others, and where it was adopted earliest, it has marked out the points of higher advancement, of greater enterprise, of greater prosperity. Where it has not been adopted enterprise and industry have languished in proportion. But it is going through; it's bound to go through. [A voice--“It’s not going through here!”] Yes, here. As it has already gone through eighteen other states of the Union, so it is bound to go through all of the other fifteen. It is bound to go through all of the thirty-three states of the Union for the simple reason that it is going through the world.'

Prior to and during the period of the “late unpleasantness” the Patee house was the scene of many good balls and elaborate banquets. On many a gay occasion have Terpsichorean feet glided over the waxen floors of the hotel dance hall, keeping time to the pleasing strains of the violin and the “horse fiddle.'

At the close of the war, Mr. Patee undertook to dispose of the hotel and furniture by raffle. He hoped to sell enough tickets to net him a fair price for the property, and it is said that something like $100,000 worth of tickets were issued. But this project was only partially successful. A great majority of the tickets remained unsold. In fact, he succeeded in selling only about $30,000 worth of tickets. However, he concluded to let the drawing take place and it so happened that the ticket which drew the prize had not been sold, so the hotel reverted to Mr. Patee. Afterwards the building was sold to Dr. Robinson of Danville, Mo., who occupied it for female college purposes for several years. His school had a successful, though brief career, as the doctor died of apoplexy in 1867. As previously stated, the Patee house was used again as a hotel in 1868, when the Pacific hotel burned, by J. H. Bagwell. This management was of short duration only, and the hotel was locked up for several years during the business depression which swept the entire country.

In 1885 Rev. Dr. E. S. Dulin, formerly a prominent Baptist minister of St. Joseph, purchased the building and used it as a female college. He made many improvements in the building and surroundings, and conducted a flourishing school until 1881, when he sold it to Dr. S. A. Richmond of “Samaritan Nervine' fame, whose record is familiar to the people of St. Joseph.

"During the Richmond reign the house was again thrown open as a hostelry under the name of “The World's Hotel.” It was refitted and handsomely furnished. Col. Jere McKibbin, formerly of the Continental hotel, Philadelphia, was to be the manager. Elaborate arrangements had been made for the formal opening. But the very evening on which the opening exercises were to have taken place Col. McKibbin fell dead on the floor from apoplexy. A short time afterwards the property passed out of Richmond's hands and in 1883 was purchased by Mr. C. B. France. He afterwards sold it to R. L. McDonald & Co. Again the big house stood tenantless for several years, until 1886, when it was remodeled by McDonald & Co. at considerable expense, and is now used as a gents' furnishing goods manufactory by that house, and gives employment to some five hundred men and women.