tion being the motive for the trip. On his return he settled in St. Louis and resumed the practice of his profession. In 1846 he started on a new expedition, this time toward Mexico, and accompanied a caravan along the Santa Fe trail. His report of the trip appeared as a government publication at the instance of Senator Benton, and Humboldt, in his "Cosmos," alludes to the work and its value. He married in 1850 in Constantinople in the home of George P. Marsh, then American Ambassador, the sister-in-law of the latter, Miss Lucy Crane, whom he had followed from Washington, where he first met her. After the Mexican trip he lived in St. Louis, actively engaged in the practice of his profession and in scientific pursuits. He was a charter member of the Academy of Sciences and his contributions to its published proceedings were numerous. While his inquiries covered a wide range, his main efforts were devoted to atmospheric electricity. For a number of years he made six daily observations, and the results, together with deductions therefrom, as published in the transactions of the academy, were of great interest and value in their line. He died in St. Louis in 1889.

Withers, Webster, for more than a third of a century prominently identified with large commercial and financial enterprises in Kansas City, was born June 28, 1837, in Clay County, Missouri, son of Abijah and Prudence Blackburn (White) Withers. The father, a native of Virginia, was reared in Kentucky, and removed in 1836 to Clay County, Missouri. He was a farmer by occu pation. The mother was a native of Kentucky. The son, Webster Withers, was educated in the common schools near the family home and at William Jewell College. His studies in the latter institution were limited to those of the junior class. His deprivation of higher educational advantages found compensation in his great capacity for acquiring information through self-appointed reading and intercourse with men of intelligence, and his attainments not only qualified him for the conduct of the most important private and public business affairs, but enabled him to take equal place with men of polished education. For some eight months in 1860 he devoted himself to the study of law in Kansas City, desisting on account of the

unsettled condition of affairs immediately preceding the opening of the Civil War, and returning to the home farm in Clay County. His law reading was never resumed, nor did he ever apply for admission to the bar, but his time had been profitably engaged in his acquisition of a fund of legal knowledge which was highly useful to him during all the years of his active business life. In April, 1865, he removed to Kansas City, where has since been his permanent abode. Immediately upon coming he became assistant cashier of the Kansas City Savings Association, then doing business at Third and Delaware Streets, with a capital of $50,000, one-fifth of the entire banking capital in the city. Out of this institution has grown, through numerous changes, the present National Bank of Commerce. He left the bank after seven years' service, and in 1874, in connection with W. A. Vaughan and J. K. Davidson, operating under the firm name of Vaughan & Co., engaged in the elevator business, theirs being the first real structure of its class built and successfully operated in the Missouri Valley. His personal attention was given to this business until 1887, when he retired and became associated with Philip E. Chappell as a member of the brokerage firm of Chappell & Withers. During these various business relations he came to be regarded as a most prudent and capable financier, and he was called in turn to several positions of great responsibility and usefulness. In 1873, by appointment, he served as city collector. In 1893, without solicitation upon his part and almost without his knowledge, he was strongly recommended to the Treasury Department and was appointed collector of internal revenue for the Sixth District of Missouri, after St. Louis the most important of all the revenue districts west of the Mississippi River. His conduct of this office, involving the collection of immense sums of money and responsibility for the acts of numerous subordinates, was characterized by the strictest integrity and remarkable accuracy and punctuality, and notwithstanding the urgent demand for such positions when the Cleveland administration was succeeded by that of the rival party, his successor was not named until he had exceeded his appointed term of four years by some six months, his retirement being in June, 1898. April 28, 1899, by appointment of Judges

Philips and Thayer, of the United States Circuit Court, he became receiver of the Kansas City, Pittsburg & Gulf Railway. The important duties devolved upon him in this delicate position were discharged with scrupulous fidelity to the interests of all parties concerned, in an unusually brief time, and in March, 1900, the property at issue passed to the Kansas City & Southern Railway Company, and his appointment was terminated. Aside from his immediate business concerns he has habitually taken earnest and effective interest in movements to the advantage of the city and the general public. He was long prominent as a member of the Board of Trade, and was a director of that body for some twelve years, from the time when its meetings were held at Fifth and Delaware Streets until the occupancy of its present splendid building. He served as a member of the building committee of the latter named edifice. In politics he is a Democrat, but has never concerned himself with practical party management. He was married to Miss Cara Lee, a daughter of Carey Lee, a merchant at Independence, Missouri. Eight children were born of this marriage, of whom three are deceased. Those living are Webster Withers, Jr., educated at the Kansas City high school and Princeton College, now a clerk in the First National Bank of Kansas City; Prudence, educated at Mesdames Brand and Barstow's private school, Kansas City; Allen Lee, a graduate of the Kansas City high school, who entered the University of Missouri in 1900, and Cara Lee and Katharine Withers, students in the Kansas City public school. For a time Mr. Withers has found a pleasant retirement at his beautiful home in Kansas City. His active life has been one of much usefulness to the great city with whose varied interests he has been concerned during its entire form ative period, and he is held in the highest regard throughout the community, and particularly by those with whom he was so long and intimately associated through years of strenuous effort ultimately crowned with more abundant success than was anticipated by the most sanguine in the days of their early endeavors.

Withrow, James Edgar, lawyer and jurist, was born May, 22, 1843, in Rushville, Schuyler County, Illinois. He served during

the Civil War with the Seventy-eighth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and received several wounds. He came to St. Louis in 1865 and was admitted to the bar in 1868. In 1877 he was appointed assistant city counselor of St. Louis and served in that capacity until 1879. From 1877 until 1883 he was secretary of the Bar Association of St. Louis and occupied the same position in the Missouri State Bar Association during the years 1883, 1884 and 1885. In 1888 he was elected judge of the St. Louis circuit court and reelected to that office in 1894. He takes an active interest in the veteran military organizations, and is a member of Ransom Post of the Grand Army of the Republic. April 25, 1872, Judge Withrow married Miss Addie S. Partridge, and he has one son Edgar P. Withrow.

Witte, Edward H., inventor, was born in 1867, in Cincinnati, Ohio. His parents were August and Julia (Young) Witte, both natives of Bavaria, and now living in Kansas City. The father came to America with his parents when he was three years old, and was educated in the public schools in New York City and in Cincinnati, Ohio. In the latter city he learned thoroughly the trade of a brass finisher and became an adept in other mechanical branches. During the Civil War he enlisted in the Ninth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which he served for more than four years, participating in all the campaigns and battles conducted and fought by Generals Buell, Rosecrans and Thomas, and rising to the rank of sergeant and acting lieutenant. He was wounded in the battle of Chickamauga. When peace was restored he resumed work at his trade in Cincinnati, and was at different times foreman in the brass works of Lunkenheimer & Co. and of Powell & Co. He was so engaged until 1870 when he located in Kansas City and opened a shop for light model work, beginning with one employed man. The business gradually expanded, and in 1890 the works began the manufacture of gasoline engines. In 1896 the Witte Iron Works Company was incorporated, Mr. Witte becoming vice president. While he yet occupies that position, he retired some years ago from active connection with the business to devote his attention to his real estate interests. His son, Edward H. Witte, acquired his more ad