The praiseworthy businessman of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was involved in many activities. He worked hard at his business. He probably served on the boards of other businesses and was involved in civic activities. As a result, society believed he should be rewarded with a fine home.
Henry W. Meuschke was just such a businessman. In 1904 he owned Meuschke’s Dry Goods Store. His past experience contributed to his success.
According to the Sentinel pamphlet, Meuschke first worked as a clerk in a Sedalia general store.
He began his career in the dry goods business as a partner with his father-in-law Louis Messerly in Messerly and Meuschke’s Dry Goods Store located on West Second Street.
He opened Meuschke’s Dry Goods Store in 1895 in a building at 232 South Ohio Avenue.
The Sentinel Pamphlet noted that the store was “one of the largest and most widely known” dry goods stores” in Missouri.
The store sold bed linens and towels, as well as fabric for sewing clothing and upholstering furniture. It also sold cloaks and furs.
In 1904, Meuschke’s Dry Goods Store employed fourteen people.
The local business was very good. The store served people from Sedalia and those from the surrounding Pettis County area and the nearby towns.
The company also filled orders from most of the states and territories in the United States.
The Sentinel pamphlet attributed the store’s success to the high quality and large variety of the goods the store carried, as well as to the promptness with which employees filled orders and to the courtesy of Meuschke and his employees.
The Sentinel pamphlet acknowledged that Meuschke served on a “formidable array of offices and occupations” in a “practical and methodical manner.”
He served as president of the Sedalia Trust Company located at the corner of South Ohio Avenue and West Fourth Street.
He served on the Board of Directors of the Sedalia National Bank located on South Ohio Avenue.
He served as president of the Mutual Benefit Building and Loan Association.
Meuschke also participated in community activities.
During the 1880s, he served in the Sedalia Rifles, a predecessor of the National Guard.
During the 1890s, he served on the Sedalia City Council where he represented the First Ward. He chaired the City Council’s finance committee.
Meuschke once occupied a large apartment in the Messerly Flats owned by his father-in-law. It was located on West Third Street between South Osage Avenue and South Kentucky Avenue.
By 1900, according to the United States Census, Meuschke lived in a house at 714 West Fourth Street in Sedalia.
The large, fine house faced south. The house had a front porch with a gabled roof. The front wing of the house was square, with a batwing roof, meaning that the edges of the roof flared out and a bit upward.
The rear wing of the house extended to the east and west beyond the front portion of the house; it also had a house with a batwing roof. The corners of the sides of the back portion of the house were clipped so as to give the end rooms of the back wing of the house three sides similar to what would appear in a bay window.
The house had three corbelled brick chimneys.
The census reports that Meuschke and his wife Anna, his son Henry who was fourteen years old, his son Arthur who was twelve years old, and his daughter Louise who was ten years old, lived in the type of house that society of the time believed befitted a man who had worked hard to achieve success.
The couple entertained using a service for twelve china dinnerware in the Blue Brompton pattern.
Many aspects of Meuschke’s life remain today.
The building where his business was located still stands. Older readers will remember it as the J.C. Penney’s store and then the Commerce Building. It now houses apartments.
The house still stands, though it has been altered somewhat. The family's china is a part of the Pettis County Museum’s collection.
Next week’s column will describe other Sedalia businessmen.
Rhonda Chalfant is active in the Sedalia/Pettis County chapter of the NAACP and the Pettis County Historical Society.
