John Baptiste O'Meara (born St. Louis, Missouri, June 4, 1850; died July 22, 1926) was an Irish-American politician, soldier, and businessman. Elected as a Democrat, he served as the Lieutenant Governor of Missouri from 1893 to 1897.
John Baptiste O'Meara (born St. Louis, Missouri, June 4, 1850; died July 22, 1926) was an Irish-American politician, soldier, and businessman. Elected as a Democrat, he served as the Lieutenant Governor of Missouri from 1893 to 1897.
O'Meara's parents, Patrick (1808-1876) and Mary (Dunn) O'Meara (d. 1895), came to Missouri from Ireland in 1835. [1] O'Meara was educated in the St. Louis public schools and at St. Louis University, where he earned a B.A. He later got a degree in accounting at Jones Commercial College in St. Louis.
O'Meara started his career as a bank teller and then worked for a stock and bond firm, P. F. Kelleher & Co. In 1880 he joined his late father's quarrying and construction firm. His firm became Hill-O'Meara Construction after the addition of Scottish immigrant John Hill. [2] Their firm built many roads in the St. Louis area and a number of Missouri buildings, including the Second Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, the Missouri Supreme Court building in Jefferson City, and the Palace of Mines and Metallurgy for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. [3] [4] Hill-O'Meara built many buildings for architect Theodore Link. The firm also operated at least three limestone quarries in the area. [5]
O'Meara in 1870 joined the first company of Missouri Militia organized after the Civil War and rose through the ranks to serve as adjutant general of the Missouri National Guard. He was prominent in encouraging Congress to pass the National Defense Act of 1916, which among other provisions included the first federal grants for improving state guards. [6]
Without holding previous political office, O'Meara was nominated for lieutenant governor as a Democrat in 1892, on a ticket with former Congressman William J. Stone. He served from 1893 to 1897.
O'Meara was a member of the original organizing committee for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and helped organize financial contributions from fellow contractors. [7]
O'Meara served as a vice-president of the American-Irish Historical Society. [8]
O'Meara married Sallie Helm Ford in 1874; she was a granddaughter of Kentucky governor John L. Helm. [9] He is buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds totaling $15 million were used to finance the event. More than 60 countries and 43 of the then-45 American states maintained exhibition spaces at the fair, which was attended by nearly 19.7 million people.
St. Louis County is located in the eastern-central portion of Missouri. It is bounded by the City of St. Louis and the Mississippi River to the east, the Missouri River to the north, and the Meramec River to the south. At the 2020 census, the total population was 1,004,125, making it the most populous county in Missouri. Its county seat is Clayton. The county is included in the St. Louis, MO–IL metropolitan statistical area.
Dred Scott was an enslaved African American man who, along with his wife, Harriet, unsuccessfully sued for the freedom of themselves and their two daughters, Eliza and Lizzie, in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857, popularly known as the "Dred Scott decision". The Scotts claimed that they should be granted freedom because Dred had lived in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory for four years, where slavery was illegal, and laws in those jurisdictions said that slave holders gave up their rights to slaves if they stayed for an extended period.
William Clark was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor. A native of Virginia, he grew up in pre-statehood Kentucky before later settling in what became the state of Missouri.
Frederick Bates, was an American attorney and politician. He was elected in 1824 as the second governor of Missouri and died in office in 1825. Before that he had served as a justice of the Territorial Supreme Court for Michigan Territory, was appointed by Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of the Louisiana Territory and started to build his political base in St. Louis.
David Rowland Francis was an American politician and diplomat. He served in various positions including Mayor of St. Louis, the 27th Governor of Missouri, and United States Secretary of the Interior. He was the U.S. Ambassador to Russia between 1916 and 1917, during the Russian Revolution of 1917. He was a Wilsonian Democrat.
Karl Theodore Francis Bitter was an Austrian-born American sculptor best known for his architectural sculpture, memorials and residential work.
Forrest Carl Donnell was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator and the 40th governor of Missouri.
Hamilton Rowan Gamble was an American jurist and politician who served as the Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court at the time of the Dred Scott case in 1852. Although his colleagues voted to overturn the 28-year precedent in Missouri of "once free always free," Gamble wrote a dissenting opinion. During the American Civil War, he was appointed as the Governor of Missouri by a Constitutional Convention after Union forces captured the state capital at Jefferson City and deposed the elected governor, Claiborne Jackson.
John Baptiste Charles Lucas was a French-born member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. After meeting Benjamin Franklin, Lucas was so inspired—and so impatient with class injustices in France—that he sailed to America. Armed with a letter of introduction from Franklin, Lucas was made a federal land grant judge by Thomas Jefferson, then elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He eventually resigned and moved to St. Louis, reportedly in part because he and his wife, Anne, missed French society.
The Missouri Historical Society was founded in St. Louis on August 11, 1866. Founding members created the historical society "for the purpose of saving from oblivion the early history of the city and state".
The Old St. Louis County Courthouse was built as a combination federal and state courthouse in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Missouri's tallest habitable building from 1864 to 1894, it is now part of Gateway Arch National Park and operated by the National Park Service for historical exhibits and events.
Marguerite Scypion, also known in court files as Marguerite, was an African-Natchez woman, born into slavery in St. Louis, then located in French Upper Louisiana. She was held first by Joseph Tayon and later by Jean Pierre Chouteau, one of the most powerful men in the city.
Thomas P. Barnett, also known professionally as Tom Barnett and Tom P. Barnett, was an American architect and painter from St. Louis, Missouri. Barnett was nationally recognized for both his work in architecture and in painting.
Benjamin Franklin Ferriss was a Missouri state jurist known for his role as special master in the Standard Oil trust litigation of the Progressive Era. Franklin Ferriss was also the father of Hugh Ferriss.
The history of St. Louis, Missouri from 1804 to 1865 included the creation of St. Louis as the territorial capital of the Louisiana Territory, a brief period of growth until the Panic of 1819 and subsequent depression, rapid diversification of industry after the introduction of the steamboat and the return of prosperity, and rising tensions about the issues of immigration and slavery. St. Louis also played a role in the American Civil War.
Silas Bent Jr. was an American land surveyor, attorney, and jurist who served as a Judge of the Missouri Supreme Court from 1817 to 1821. His son, Charles Bent, was a fur trader and appointed as the first territorial governor of New Mexico during the United States invasion of Mexico in the Mexican-American War. Three of his other sons William, George, and Robert had been in business with Charles and built Bent's Old Fort and other outposts of trade in the American Southwest.
Charles Henry Page (1876–1957) was an American architect. He and his brother Louis Charles Page (1883–1934) founded the Texas firm of Page Brothers, Architects. The firm achieved great recognition when they were commissioned to design the Texas State Building for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The Pages also designed many courthouses and other buildings across Texas.
Frederick C. Gunn was an American architect. In the firm of Gunn & Curtiss with Louis Singleton Curtiss he helped design several county courthouses.
John Scudder Adkins was an American architect who specialized in Beaux Arts, Tudor, and Jacobethan styles in the first half of the 20th century.
