| Francis Marion Posegate |   | Born: 1837 | Died: 1917 |
| Father: John H Posegate | Mother: Elizabeth Kean | ||
| Children: Allie P Posegate , Mary (Mamie) Posegate , Ella P Posegate , Kate Posegate | |||
| Siblings: Mary Posegate, Palthea Posegate, Almeria "Allie" (Posegate) Nils, Winfield Scott Posegate, Charles Posegate, John H Posegate | |||
| Spouse: Unspecified | |||
| Partners: Sarah Ann (Johnson) Posegate | |||
Capt. Francis Marion (Frank) Posegate, (1837-1917)
By Stephen E. Williams
Dedicated to Stephen Asa Williams (4/24/1913-12/19/2000) grandson of F. M. Posegate and son of Dorthea Posegate Williams
Thanks are due to Dixie Painter for her excellent library research
“Franklin was undoubtedly, a master of the art of printing in his day, but did his reputation rest on that alone, we [printers], perhaps, would not be so willing to clarm him as a Patron Saint, for there were better printers, even in that day, than was Benjamin Franklin. His claim to our regard lies more in the fact that he was able, not only to print, but to also furnish the matter to be printed.” -F. M. Posegate 1876
In January 1917 the St. Joseph News Press printed an obituary for an old St. Joseph printer. It states: “No figure was more conspicuous in St. Joseph in the early days than that of Capt. Francis M. POSEGATE, whose death at a ripe age is announced today. Captain POSEGATE came to St. Joseph as a boy and was actively identified with every forward movement of the city during his long residence here. As a printer and publisher he fought unselfishly for St. Joseph. He was an indefatigable booster all the time and had the quality of leadership that made him a valuable asset to the community. He loved the town and its welfare was his hobby. The younger generation knows him only as a figure in the history of St. Joseph, but the older residents remember him well. It was the grief of his life that misfortune compelled him to reside elsewhere, but his spirit and his good will were forever with St. Joseph. For
his enduring loyalty both during his days of activity and in his exile, St. Joseph owes him a grateful memory.”
Frank POSEGATE had two “exiles”. The first was during the Civil War when “‘The war broke the country up’ and with it.. .every St. Joseph newspaper”. The second occurred when his business, The St. Joseph Steam Printing Company, failed in the depression of the 1890s and simultaneously his political fortunes declined. He was a printer and editor by trade, a politician by inclination, and a gifted writer and speaker able to “express himself in good language of which he has a ready command”. In St. Joseph, after the Civil War, he was called Capt. POSEGATE. This title was earned on the battlefield in the 48th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, a Union regiment that saw a lot of hard fighting.
Captain POSEGATE saw many remarkable things during his life: his father’s gun shops in Liberty and in Boonville, Ft. Des Moines and St. Joseph. Missouri, the virgin tall grass prairie of Iowa, the immigration west through St. Joseph during the Gold Rush, the cowboys who had just completed cattle drives through Kansas in the streets of a town with the Wild West at its doorstep, the first Pony Express rider to leave St. Joseph, the Missouri-Kansas Border War, some of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, California in 1896 and Oklahoma in its early days. He was a colleague of Eugene FIELDS and he was in St. Joseph when Jesse James was shot. If Jesse James read the St. Joseph newspapers some of his last reading would have been about the hotly contested mayoral election that Capt. POSEGATE won. Some of these events are recorded in his printed speeches and newspaper articles. As much as possible, it is through his voice I hope to present his story.
Boyhood in Little Dixie and Iowa
Francis Marion POSEGATE was born October 5, 1837, in Lafayette, Indiana where he spent the first three years of his life. His father was gunsmith Isaac F. POSEGATE (1802-10/4/1863) whose biography appears elsewhere in this volume, and his mother was Elizabeth KAIN (KEAN) POSEGATE (b. abt 1809). The POSEGATEs moved to Liberty, Missouri in 1840, to Boonville in 1843 and to Ft. Des Moines, Iowa in 1858. In Iowa as an 11-year-old boy, Francis got his first taste of printing and newspaper work as a carrier and printers “devil” with that city’s first newspaper, the Iowa Star. According to Stephen A. Williams, his grandson, POSEGATE said that he worked for General Sherman’s brother and indeed three of Sherman’s brothers were in Ft. Des Moines at this time and one, Lampson Sherman, founded the Iowa Star. In Iowa, his family separated into two parts. In his biography in the 1881 History, he speaks of each previous move as the family moving but of the move to St. Joseph he says, “I moved” despite the fact that he was a thirteen-year-old boy accompanying his father and brother. He was soon in an apprenticeship under the
care of Emery LIVERMORE.
Mr. Livermore’s Red Haired Apprentice
(From F. M. POSEGATE’s 1876 New Years Speech; The events occurred about 1850 at the office of the Adventure, an early St. Joseph Newspaper) ” … when I arrived here in 1850 the Gazette [owned by RIDENBAUGH] was a handsome nine columned paper, with, I think, Charles M. THOMPSON as foreman.”
“The second newspaper, The Adventure was started by Emery LIVERMORE. LIVERMORE was not a practical Printer but Geo. LEADER, who was his foreman, and L. D. CARDER, the only other journeyman in the office, got out a very handsome sheet. The first apprentice on The Adventure was he who is tonight our most honored president, Col. J. H. R. CUNDIFF. LIVERMORE had no children, and decided in starting the paper, that he would employ no apprentice, as he feared to take the responsibility of a boy’s moral and religious welfare. Jim, however, applied for the place and LIVERMORE was so much taken with him that he could not say no, so he concluded to refer the matter to his wife, and to her decision-the decision of one of the most estimable women it has ever been my pleasure to know, we owe the fact that Col. J. H. R. CUNDIFF is a printer.”
“LIVERMORE never regretted the taking of Jim as an apprentice, … I can not, however say as much for the succeeding apprentices, for it seems to me now, to look back on those apprentice days that we were all perfect savages, and it must have been only through the mercies of a forgiving God that any of us ever reached the years of maturity. Sam CUNDIFF, William HAND and myself, respectively succeeded each other as apprentices …. When I entered the office Jim CUNDIFF was foreman. I had worked a year at printing, having carried the first paper printed in Des Moines, Iowa, and knew something of the art, but with these two little rascals over me, you may believe I had a sorry time of it. I was red headed, freckle faced, and the boys let no opportunity pass to twit me with my ugliness. Jim was kind, and to this day memory often reverts to his many acts of kindness toward me. He kept the boys from spilling me out of the window, till I became naturalized in the office and then told me to stand up for my rights, and if the others did not let me alone to go for them. The almost immediate result of this advice was a set-to between his brother Sam and I, which
resulted in one of us being thrown down two flights of stairs. No bones were broken, but the fight settled my status, and ever after that I was a tolerable fair looking youngster in the eyes of all the boys, though I was never able to make any of the girls think I was even passably good looking. [The future would show that Frank POSEGATE made up in charm what he lacked in looks. He convinced two women to marry him on fairly short notice.]”
“The days of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ were good ones. Wages were a secondary consideration. I think I received fifty dollars and board per anum, and took up the fifty dollars in store orders. As to money we boys never had any, except such as we received from the jours for any little odd job we might do for them, and occasionally an odd quarter or so given us by the bosses during the holidays. Not having any money became habit with me in those early days, and it stuck to me closer than a friend even down to the present day-for I haven’t got any now.”
The First Telegraphic Press in St. Joseph
“The Gazette and Adventure were then both on Main Street, in the third story of the building now [Jan. 1, 1876] occupied by John ALBUS and his Oregon House. Only a narrow hall intervened between the two offices, and all the material was used pretty much in common …. The two offices remained in this building until 1855. The first telegraphic press report that ever reached St. Joseph was, I think, the Inaugural address of Franklin Pierce as President of the United States. The two offices joined forces in getting out this address and the type-setting was done by Charles M. THOMPSON, Adam KIPPEL, now of the Holt
County Sentinel, George LEADER, L. D. CARTER, Henry PATCHEN, .J. H. R. CUNDIFF and myself. Billy HAND, the youngest apprentice, being considered too young to work nights. l well remember the jokes that were cracked that night, and more especially do I remember the lunch after the work was completed. Even then I had a hankering after free lunches. That was an eventful night, not only for us apprentices, but for St. Joseph herself. It was supposed by us that only a first-class printer could get a way with a take of telegraph-we had done that thing and were consequently first-class printers. With St. Joseph it was the village taking on metropolitan airs.-if not so large as St. Louis she was at least on the same footing with her so far as the news was concerned.”
Frank Posegate’s First Press
According to the 1881 History Frank POSEGATE finished learning his trade in the Commercial Cycle office with James A. MILLAN, becoming a journeyman printer at nineteen. In 1″856 he and MILLAN became partners. Two years later at the age of 22, POSEGATE started the weekly newspaper The Weekly West. POSEGATE, in his 1876 Speech, states: “Mr. James A. MILLAN and myself bought the first exclusive job printing office to this city in 1856, and were together until 1858, when I sold out and embarked in The West newspaper, running the same for two years.”
The West
The West was a staunchly Whig newspaper which referred to the Democratic party as “the Democracy” in derisive tones and called the newly formed Republican Party, which Frank POSEGATE would ultimately join, “Black Republicans” in equally derisive tones. The editorials would have met with the hardy approval of Henry Clay who was idolized by Frank POSEGATE were he alive to read them. Frank POSEGATE’s The West, was, as is inferred by its name, aimed at an audience far larger than just St. Joseph. News from the mining camps in Colorado, the skirmishes of the Army with Indians and Mormons, and other news from the frontier was carried in The West which was in turn carried west to places without access to news and was sold by agents in Kansas and Iowa as well as North East Missouri. Frank POSEGATE was a great champion of all technological progress such as railroads, the telegraph, the steam printing press and the Pony Express as is evidenced by his article describing the first rider to leave St. Joseph. The article shows that leaders in St. Joseph realized that the Pony Express would soon be replaced by railroads and telegraph lines.
The First Ride of the Pony Express
Several articles in The West mention the Pony Express. One describes the first rider to leave St. Joseph. It can not be said with certainty that Frank POSEGATE wrote it since at least two other men, Washington JONES and Edward Y. SHIELDS wrote for The West.
From: The Weekly Nest, St. Joseph, Missouri, Saturday Morning, April 7, 1860. p.2 F.M.POSEGATE & Co.
(From our Daily Wednesday Morning.[4/4/18591)
ST. JOSEPH STILL IN ADVANCE!
The Missouri and Pacific United!
THE GREATEST ENTERPRISE OF MODERN TIMES!!
At a quarter past seven o’clock, last evening, the mail was placed by M. Jeff. THOMPSON, on the back of the animal, a fine bay mare, who is to run the first stage of the great through Express from St. Joseph to her sister cites of the Pacific shore. Horse and rider started off amid the loud and continuous cheers of the assembled multitude, all anxious to witness every particular of the inauguration of this greatest enterprise which it has as yet become duty, as a public journalist, to chronicle. The rider is a Mr. RICHARDSON, formerly a sailor, and a man accustomed to every description of hardship, having sailed for years amid the snows and icebergs of the Northern ocean. He was to ride last night the first stage of forty miles, changing horses once, in five hours; and before this paragraph meets the eyes of our readers, the various dispatches contained in the saddlebags, which left here at dark last evening, will have reached the town of Marysville, on the Big Blue, one hundred and twelve
miles distant-an enterprise never before accomplished even in this proverbially fast portion of the country.
Previous to the starting of the mail, and while the crowds were anxiously waiting, brief and appropriate addresses were delivered by Mssrs. MAJORS of the Express Company, Mayor M. Jeff. THOMPSON, and others, setting fourth the advantages to be derived by the country generally and our city in particular, from this magnificent undertaking, characteristic of the energy and enterprise of those representative men of the great West, Messrs. MAJORS, RUSSELL, WADDELL & JONES. This is but a precursor as Mr. MAJORS justly remarked, of another, a more important, and greater enterprise, which must soon reach its culmination, viz: the construction of the road upon which the tireless iron horse will start on his long overland journey, opening up as he goes the rich meadows of nature, the fertile valleys, and crowning the eminences of the rocky range with evidence of civilization and man’s irresistible mania of progression; diversifying the prairies with lowing cattle herds, and making them lovelier by the dwellings of the pioneer, cheered in his western pilgrimage by the loved ones of his household, and aided by the fair hands and bright eyes of woman. Of a truth “the desert shall blossom as the rose.”
The messenger from New York with the through dispatches, left that city on Saturday morning; but was detained twenty-four hours in Detroit, reaching this city at five o’clock last evening, via the Palmyra Branch and Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, making the distance from the Mississippi to the Missouri in the unprecedented time of four hours and fifty one minutes, including stoppages. The train consisted of only the engine and one passenger car, running something over forty miles an hour, the distance being stated as two hundred and eight miles. This we may venture to assert, is better time than has ever before been made on a Western railroad, at all events.
The extension of the St. Louis, St. Joseph, and Salt Lake telegraph line will further facilitate this undertaking, bringing us even nearer our brethren to the west of the Sierra Nevada, until, at no far distant day, we shall have a continuous electric chain from one Ocean to the other. And the transmission of intelligence will be almost instantaneous. A proud era it will be for journalism, when the papers of the southern and eastern cities are enabled to publish important events of the Golden State simultaneously with its own journals; and when we here on the banks of the Missouri, intermediate, will be made aware of the fluctuations of the markets, lucky strikes in the mines, and of disastrous fires ere the ruins have ceased to smoke.
The Eastward express, we understand, will leave San Francisco today, and we will expect its arrival in twelve days at furthest. We shall regard the arrival of this express as by far the most important event which has occurred since the settlement of our city, and would suggest that a suitable and appropriate demonstration be gotten up to testify our appreciation of the enterprise which has conceived and this far successfully carried out the undertaking.
The West and the Controversy Over the First Pony Express Rider
This article generated some controversy because it names “Mr. RICHARDSON,” who is usually identified as William RICHARDSON, as the first Pony Express rider to leave St. Joseph as opposed to Johnny FRYE, a young man from St. Joseph. The controversy is
discussed in Tales of Old St. Joseph by Hazel Faubion who favors RICHARDSON as the rider. Jackie Lewin of the St. Joseph Museum cites eyewitnesses that say Johnny FRYE was the first rider and states that historian, Glen Bently of the University of Toledo, author of The Pony Express, has said in a letter that FRYE was the first rider. The topic seems to generate more heat than light and it is not clear what the truth is, but whether The West article is right or wrong about who the first rider is, the following can be said with certainty.
- The report originated in The West. It was set in type and printed within hours after the first rider left the city so there was not enough time for the story to have originated from an out-of-town source.
- The article identifies only “Mr. RICHARDSON”, an experienced sailor, not “William RICHARDSON”. Thus it infers a man rather than a boy.
- Frank POSEGATE, an unfailing booster of St. Joseph, had lived in St. Joseph for ten years when the article was written. He had worked on newspapers the whole time and was probably as familiar with the residents of St. Joseph as anyone in town. POSEGATE may or may not have written the report but as editor and owner of The West he was certainly responsible for it.
- While it was not unusual for reporters to “enhance” stories at that time this does not seem to have been the practice at The West where sources of stories were usually given and reporting generally seems to have been straight forward. In one West editorial POSEGATE heaps contempt on the editor of another paper who engages in plagiarism.
Trading Insults with Gully-town
In the June 12, 1859 edition of The West Frank POSEGATE exchanged printed jabs with the editor of the Kansas City Western Metropolitan which had referred to St. Joseph “with its rival interests” and “bogus railroad” and touted navigation on the Missouri over the Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad connection which St. Joseph then had. At this time Kansas City remained unconnected to any railroad. After pointing out Kansas City’s efforts to get the Pacific Railroad to pass through Kansas City POSE GATE replies “We had expected better things of the Metropolitan” and that “Kansas City is doubtless a very nice place, though its closest neighbors do style it ‘gully-town’ and ‘West-port’ landing”.
A War of Words with the Free Democrat
In his 1876 speech POSE GATE states:
“About this time [1860] the Free Democrat [an abolitionist paper] was started and ably conducted by Capt. Jos. THOMPSON Dr. GRANT, Frank and Bob TRACY, and I think, Web WILDER.”
POSEGATE’s The West took a strong antiabolitionist position and carried on a war of words with the Free Democrat which referred to Frank POSEGATE as a “Mobcrat” in some of its editorials. Frank POSEGATE and his family never owned slaves, indeed his father had been raised as a Quaker, but advertising announcing “Negroes for Sale” regularly occurred in the pages of his paper and he clearly opposed abolitionists as outsiders trying to impose their ideals on St. Joseph. The incident of Dr. Doy, who was arrested for “stealing neg roes” during his actions as part of the underground railroad received a good deal of negative press in The West, when Doy escaped from the St. Joseph Jail with the aid of a group of armed Kansans.
A Mysterious Courtship and Beneficial Marriage-How did Frank Meet Sallie?
Frank POSEGATE married Sarah (Sallie) JOHNSON (1/31/1840-7/23/1878) on September 6, 1858. Sarah was the daughter of James JOHNSON (1809-abt 1867) and his wife Hannah (1817-1/11/1903). A mystery in the life of Frank POSEGATE is how he managed to meet his first wife, Sallie, the daughter of James JOHNSON, a relatively well to do Ohio farmer, merchant and postmaster in Highland (also called New Lexington) in Highland County, Ohio. Somehow the 21 year old frontier printer managed to court and marry Sarah in Highland, Ohio, while running a newspaper full time, in a period when St. Joseph was not yet connected by rail. That Highland, Ohio, is in exactly the same area his father had grown up in only adds to the mystery. It is likely that he had never been east of Boonville, MO since he was three and had never been east of Indiana in his life before 1858. How and why he chose his wife from so far away is unknown. It is possible that the need to dispose of inherited property brought him to Ohio where he met Sallie and married her. What ever the reason for the choice, Ohio would be his refuge and his second home during his first exile from St Joseph. His marriage may have had something to do with his ability to afford to buy The West. Certainly his father and brothers never exhibited signs of the wealth needed for such a purchase where as his father-in-law, James JOHNSON, and brother-in-law John W. JOHNSON (b. 1842) both did.
Frank POSEGATE’S “First Exile”
In his 1876 speech, Frank POSEGATE stated:
“‘The war broke the Country up’ and with it every St. Joseph newspaper. What was done in a newspaper way in St. Joseph during the war I shall have to leave to someone else to say, for I was not here.”
The 1881 History gives us a glimpse of the breaking up of The West. “February 6, 1860, F. M. POSEGATE bought out his partners (Washington JONES, and Edward SHIELDS) and became the sole editor and proprietor of the paper, warmly and ably supporting Bell and Evert party [the Constitutional Unionists against Lincoln (Republican), Douglas (Democrat Northern) and Breckenridge (Democrat Southern)].” In the manuscript of his Shiloh speech Frank POSEGATE, who had defended slavery, makes clear the emotional reason why he also defended the Union. “However honest in their belief, however brave the boys of the south might be, (and no soldier of the North ever denied both attributes to the soldier of the South) it was incomprehensible to me how they could be brought to the point of firing upon that Flag-the Flag of all flags-the Stars and Stripes.” The 1881 History says “In August, 1860 he sold The West to James TRACY & Co. The Company of concern included B. Y. FISH, E, Y. SHIELDS and George BAXTER. The paper, under this management, advocated the claims of John C. Breckenridge to the Presidency, and boldly avowed its secessionist sentiments.” It was not uncommon at this time for secessionists to make a unionist an offer he could not refuse for a business or real estate, as others in league with them made anonymous threats. While it can not be certain that this happened in the case of The West, the paper’s radical change in editorial policy to one wholly unacceptable to POSEGATE and the fact that he and his wife left town quickly are the earmarks of such coercion. What is certain is that POSEGATE moved to Memphis, a poor choice considering his Unionist sentiments, and worked as a printer with the Eagle and Enquirer. ” … a few days before the presidential election, he was compelled for his own safety, to leave between two days, owing to his strong Union sympathies.” He went to Highland County, Ohio, the home of his in-laws, where Sallie and his infant daughter Kate remained while he enlisted enough men to enter the 48th Ohio Volunteer Infantry as a second lieutenant. A year later he would return to Memphis as a first lieutenant in General Sherman’s Division of The Army of the Tennessee. He was 23 years old, 5’8″ with Auburn hair, hazel eyes and a florid complexion according to his military record.
The Buckeye from Missouri
An extensive account of F. M. POSEGATE’s military career, including an extensive personal account of the Battle of Shiloh and a link to a personal account to the Battle of Franklin can be found on the internet at: http://vvww.48ovvi.org/oh48buckeye.html and in the POSEGATE file at the NWMGS Library.
A summary of his military career follows:
On April 6, 1862 the 48th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, of General Sherman’s Division was one of the first regiments to meet the Confederate attack near their camp next to Shiloh Church. After the battle of Shiloh where he was wounded, the Union Army marched on Corinth with Sherman’s Division in the lead. The regimental history gives an interesting picture of POSEGATE leading his company during this action. This can also be found at the website listed above. Lieutenant POSEGATE, sent back to Ohio to recruit, missed battles at Chickasaw Bayou and Arkansas Post but returned to suffer through the construction of Grant’s failed Canal opposite Vicksburg and his dramatically successful dash around Vicksburg. Here POSEGATE, now Captain of Company D, participated in the Battles of Port Gibson, Champion Hill, Big Black River and the two frontal assaults on Vicksburg, May 19 and May 22, 1863. Because “Pterygium of both eyes” he resigned his commission near the end of the siege of Vicksburg and returned to Highland, Ohio where he recovered. He recruited Company E of the 175th Ohio. Ultimately he was made quartermaster of this regiment which resulted in the reduction of his rank to 1st Lieut., the rank of a regimental
quartermaster. This explains why “Capt. F. M. POSEGATE’s” grave marker in Jefferson
bears the name “Lieut. F. M. POSEGATE”. As a soldier in the 175th Ohio he participated in the Battles of Franklin and Nashville.
Back to Ohio
He was mustered out June 27, 1865, and returned to the small town of Highland, Ohio, where he served as mayor and post master pre-staging the role he would play in St. Joseph. Sallie had by this time born him four children Kate (6/25/1859-?), Ella b.1/5/1861), Mary 4/23/1864-1894) and Allie b.10/28/1866). Only Kate and Mary POSEGATE survived early childhood. When his father-in-law died in 1867 he returned to St. Joseph bringing Sallie, his two surviving daughters, and Sallie’s immediate family with him.
Return to St. Joseph
In his 1876 speech POSEGATE states: “Returned in [Spring of] 1867 I found the Herald and the Union in existence, Mr. MILLAN soon after starting the Vindicator. The 1-lerald was published by WILKENSON & BITTINGER and the Union managed by J. T. BEACH.” The 1881 History tells us that Capt. POSEGATE joined the staff of the Herald as business manager where he remained for two years. Ultimately he became the partner of C. B. VVILKENSON after buying out John BITTINGER. In 1869 WILKENSON & POSEGATE then sold to HOLLOWELL & BITTINGER allowing POSEGATE to join with his brother-in-law John W. JOHNSON and found the St. Joseph Steam Printing Company. He served as president of this publishing house until its demise in about 1892.
Postmaster of St. Joseph
In December, 1877 Frank POSEGATE was also appointed Postmaster of St. Joseph by President Hayes, a symbol of his rising political star. He remained in this post June 15, 1881, when his campaign for Mayor began. The 1881 History states that “This office he filled with remarkable ability, and his official record is without a stain.”
The St. Joseph Steam Printing Company
When Frank POSEGATE moved back to St. Joseph bringing the Johnson family with him, he apparently brought Johnson financial resources as well. His investment in the Herald, and the St. Joseph Steam Printing Co. are beyond what any savings from his military officers pay or his father’s help might have bought. The 1898 History states “The St. Joseph Steam Printing Company which was organized by Capt. POSEGATE and others in 1870 and which went out of existence February of 1892, was in its earlier days the best equipped, most extensive and most prosperous printing establishment between St. Louis and San Francisco.”. The address of the Printing Co. was the S.W. corner, Second and Felix St. Its location is behind that now occupied by the downtown Holiday Inn. It was within what is now River Front Park. Frank POSEGATE is listed in the City Directory as the President of the Printing Company and John W. JOHNSON is listed as its secretary treasurer.
The Posegate Residence
Upon his return to St. Joseph in 1873 Capt. POSEGATE’s family lived at the corner of Francis and 20th. When streets were numbered this became 1923 Francis. The same year his brother-in-law John W. JOHNSON owned an adjacent lot on 224 N. 20th Street. The Francis and 20th property was the POSEGATE family’s first residence. lt is possible that the large house shown on The Sanborn Fire Maps was expanded as Capt. POSEGATE enjoyed more prosperity. Both the POSEGATE and JOHNSON houses are substantial residences and still stand. More than just Capt. POSEGATE”s immediate family lived at this address. The 1870
census shows, in addition to Capt. POSEGATE, his wife and two daughters, Paultheia POSEGATE, the 18 year old daughter of his deceased brother, John POSEGATE lived at this address. She may have been helping POSEGATE”s invalid wife, Sallie, out with her two daughters. Charlotte WASHINGTON, probably a servant, also lived with the family. The 1880 census shows widower Capt. POSEGATE”s mother-in-law, Hannah JOHNSON, who had previously lived in the house serving as his wife’s nurse, his daughters Kate and Mary, Kate’s husband Robert HUGHART and Kate’s 1 year old daughter, Eva HUGHART, and Jane WINTERSMITH, probably a servant, living at this address. James W. JOHNSON and his immediate family lived on the adjacent lot from 1873 to1894.
POSEGATE remained in the 1923 Francis home for 20 years, until 1893. During this period he, at various times, owned a newspaper, was President of The St. Joseph Steam Printing Company, served as postmaster, served as mayor, was a congressional candidate, and served as Federal Building inspector. Weddings, of Almeria, his sister; Kate, his daughter; and funerals of Isaac, his father; Ann, his step-mother; and Sarah, his first wife, were all held in this home. Carriages were always provided for the public and employees of the St. Joseph Steam Printing Company to bring them up the hill to attend. Clergy from several denominations typically took part in the services. Only Mary POSEGATE, who lived on her own as a teacher for a while, was married in a church.
Mayor POSEGATE 1882-1884
The early 1880s marked the height of Frank POSEGATE’s influence. The account of his nomination together with his acceptance speech by the party convention is described in detail in the Herald 3/28/1882. His reluctant acceptance seems genuine, he was a compromise candidate brought forth when the convention deadlocked. His main promise was to restore the credit of the city by refunding the bonded dept. This refers to the “Ones and Twos” Notes issued by the city and used to pay city employees and contractors. In his acceptance speech which must have been impromptu he concludes “This nomination comes to me unsought, and therefore I am free from all entangling alliances. As Mayor I will go into office with only one aim, the good of the whole people of the city in which I have lived as a man and as a boy, for over thirty-one years. Gentlemen, I thank you for the nomination, and I believe I shall meet you on the morning of April 5th as Mayor-elect. He received 1,031 votes more than his Democratic opponent, incumbent Mayor Joseph A PINER, a very high tally for a Republican in 1882 St. Joseph.
Capt. POSEGATE’s words in The West were brought back by the 3/30/1882 Gazette to haunt him. In 1882 African Americans were nearly all Republicans and a Republican candidate needed their vote. The Gazette trumpeted that “Capt. POSEGATE opened his campaign by a first speech in a special meeting of the colored men. Perhaps he remembered ‘twenty years ago,’ when, as the Hearld recently said, the captain was a mobcrat and a defender of the ‘peculiar institution’ of human slavery.”
The Mayor Remarries
Capt. POSEGATE, mayor of St. Joseph and president of a printing company, somehow managed again to court a woman from far out of town. This time it was Emma CUSHMAN (2/29/1852-3/20/1941), a child of an old New England family. How he ever met her or found time for the long distance courtship is unclear. But he did. An elegantly bound book of poetry by E. A. Poe has the inscription” To Miss Emma P. CUSHMAN With the compliments of her friend F. M. POSEGATE St. Joseph, Mo. Feby. 7, 1882″. From this rather formal inscription from a friend things progressed to a wedding on June 14, 1882. The 6/25/82 Gazette states that: “At the residence of Mr. A. C. CUSHMAN, in Taunton, Mass., occurred a happy event, the marriage of our mayor, Captain F. M. POSEGATE, to one of Taunton’s loveliest ladies, admired not only for her fair face but for beauty of mind and manner. The family being one of the oldest and most prominent in the place, the house was filled with relatives and also fiends from Providence and Boston. St. Joseph being represented by Mrs. HOPGOOD, Mr. John L. CROSBY and Prof. WELD …. Capt. and Mrs. POSEGATE accompanied by Misses Belle and Etta CUSHMAN, left on the train for via Fall River Route, for New York …. ” Emma CUSHMAN was a teacher and the Daughter of a very old and respected New England family. Just as before with Sallie JOHNSON, Frank POSEGATE had again married an intelligent woman from far away.
Emma and Frank POSEGATE had two children Dorthea Papin POSEGATE WILLIAMS (9/12/1884-9/16/1968) and Francis Marion POSEGATE, Jr. (12/20/1886-abt1955). Emma was highly literate woman who passed her love of literature and art to her children. The family wrote poetry, and her daughter was a fine painter. On a military pension form F. M. POSEGATE in 4/5/1915 answered the question “Are you now living with your wife?” with “I am now living with my wife and could not well live without her.”
The Decline of Capt. POSEGATE’s Fortunes and His Second “Exile”
According to the 1898 History, Congressmen Colonel BURNES died in office 1/24/1889 and a special election to be held 2/21/1889 was ordered by Gov. Francis for both the
unexpired term and for the next term Francis M. POSEGATE was nominated by the Republicans for both terms and Robert P. C. WILSON of Platte County and Charles F. BOOHER of Savannah were nominated by the Democrats for the long and short terms respectively. Capt. POSEGATE was defeated in a close election by 618 votes. Capt.
POSEGATE’s unsuccessful run for congress was the first of a series of circumstances and events that would end his political career and his partnership in business organizations. Francois Chouteau’s Westport Landing, a city that POSEGATE and called “Gully-town” was rising now named Kansas City and it was more than competing with Joseph Robidoux’s St. Joseph as a trade center. Then Omaha, Nebraska took over from St. Joseph as the major meatpacking center in the 1890s. To add to this problem in 1893 a stock market panic led to widespread bank failures.
In the 1890s the St. Joseph Steam Printing Company was no longer as dominate as it had been in its early days. In part this was due to Frank POSEGATE spending more time on politics than on printing but the economic environment must l1ave played a major role. Like any other business, the Printing Company was stressed. No bankruptcy is recorded as it closed its doors in 1892.
For Capt. POSEGATE the problem of his business’s failure was compounded when he Democrats won the White House with Grover Cleveland and he, a Republican, lost his ticket to federal patronage jobs. The St. Joseph City Directory maps the decline of his fortunes.
1992-Just as the Steam Printing Company closed down he was appointed Assistant Building Inspector of the United States until Grover Cleveland’s inauguration
1993-He was selling Insurance and he moved from 1923 Francis Street to a more modest residence at 408 S. 15th.
1994-He was a solicitor with Wm. Humphery who sold real estate and made loans. Then he was appointed Street Commissioner (1894-96)
1896-He was at 1506 Jule and still Street Commissioner when the year begins but later he moved to Kirkwood, California. He was 59 years old.
Growing Oranges in California
The News story about Capt. POSEGATE’s death in the St. Joseph News Press states that in 1896 “he went to California, where he was in charge of a big citrus grove, owned by his brother-in-law, N. 0. Nelson of St. Louis.” The plantation must have grown dates as well because serving these fruits at Christmas often caused his daughter Dorothy to tell her grandchildren about the year her family spent in California when she was 12 years old.
The Final Exile
Editing the Star in St Louis In 1897 Capt. POSEGATE and his family returned to Missouri to the City of St. Louis which, at that time, had three major metropolitan newspapers. The St. Louis Star Times was one of them. Capt. POSEGATE worked as editor of the Star from 1896 until his retirement in 1907. His daughter became a librarian at the St. Louis Mercantile Library. She met John R. WILLIAMS, Jr. (9/10/1883-12/1 /1970), who was to become her future husband, at the First Unitarian Church of St. Louis. Dorothy wrote poetry that her editor father would publish in the St. Louis Star. Frank POSEGATE had once again fallen and landed nimbly on his feet.
A move to Oklahoma
Capt. POSEGATE’s military pension record shows that he left The St. Louis Star Times in 1907 and moved to Oklahoma which was admitted to the union as a state on November 16th of that year. His family first moved to Oklahoma City, then to Tulsa where he remained until 1912. According to Stephen A. Williams, his grandson, his son, Francis M. POSEGATE, Jr. was with him and established himself as a Chiropractor while his father dealt in real estate. F. M. POSE GATE, Jr. married Mary COBB (5/23/188-11/1965) about 1920. They had one daughter, Mary POSEGATE HOFFMAN, (b. 10/17/1919). His daughter, Dorthea (Dorothy)
POSEGATE married John R. \NILLIAMS, Jr. in Tulsa on February 23, 1910.
Last Years
In 1912 Frank and Emma POSEGATE returned Missouri where he wrote editorials for the Star for a period before moving in with his Daughter’s family in Pattonville, St. Louis County. It was there that he died of arteriosclerosis on January 9, 1917. The body of the old soldier was buried in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in a plot overlooking the Mississippi River. The old printer and public speaker lived on in all the printed material that he produced that is preserved in libraries.
References
Some heavily used references are referred to cryptically in the text. More detailed references are given below. Where possible the data was compared to the US Census and The St. Joseph City Directory.
1876 New Years speech- New Years Speech, 1876. to the Printer’s New Year’s Banquet, St. Joseph Daily Gazette, January 4, 1876
1881 History- 1881 History of Buchanan County, Reprinted by Seward L. Lilly. 1973. Litho Printers and Bindery, Cassville, MO.
1898 History- 1898 History of Buchanan County, Press of Ln. Hardman. F. M. Posegate, Shiloh Speech- The Sunday Battle at Shiloh, Unpublished manuscript last revised in 1914 on the Internet at: http://\/!,ww.48ovvi.org/oh48shilohsun.html