George J. Englehart

(1835? - ??)

George John Englehart was born in Hohensultzen, Germany. He came to America as an infant with his parents and settled near Mansfield, OH on a farm. He worked at a dry goods store in Mt. Vernon, OH by the time he reached 16 years of age, then at a drug store and a dry goods store in Mansfield, and later moving to Cincinnati to work. In 1855 Englehart moved to California due to health problems, worked in the gold mines for three years, and later took passage to New York on a steamer from San Francisco. He worked for a time on the family farm and decided to move to Kansas. He took a steamer, the “Southerner”, which was going up the Missouri River to Iowa Point and walked to Hiawatha, KS, where his brother farmed. In February 1859 Englehart went to St. Louis to purchase stock to open a general store in Hiawatha and paid for it with some of the gold he had found in California. He also spent four years as the treasurer of Brown County, KS.

Six years later he sold his interest in the general store and moved to St. Joseph, MO, where he and Isaac Ballinger bought partnerships in the Tootle & Fairleigh house. In 1866 he partnered with Nelson P. Smith to begin a wholesale hat and cap business, but Smith contacted cholera and died. After two years had passed, Englehart consolidated with Samuel Lockwood, the founder of the first St. Joseph millinery, and later separated the two branches into corporations known as the Johnston-Fife Hat Company and the Englehart-Winning-Davidson Mercantile Company with Englehart as president of both companies.

On May 30, 1867 he married Corolinn Maria Loomis. They became the parents of three daughters: Stelle, Grace, and Bertha.

In 1886 the St. Joseph Republican Party nominated Englehart for Mayor, but he was defeated by Thomas H. Doyle. He was elected president of the Board of Trade in 1887, successfully ran for the Mayor of St. Joseph in 1888, was nominated for state senator in 1890 but declined the nomination, and was president of the first Buchanan County Federal Grand Jury.

It is not known when or where Englehart passed away. His name last appeared in the 1905 St. Joseph City Directory with an East Orange, NJ address.

Combe-Polk Directory Co.’s St. Joseph city directory. (1905). St. Joseph, MO: Combe-Polk Directory.

Eaton, L. K. (1989). Block of warehouses on North Fourth Street. Gateway cities & other essays. Ames, IA: Iowa State University.

History of Buchanan County, Missouri: A history of the county, its cities, towns, etc. (1881). St. Joseph, MO: St. Joseph Steam Printing.

1900 United States Federal Census. Retrieved August 16, 2007, from Ancestry library edition: Discover your family story Web site: http://search.ancestrylibrary.com/cgi-bin/ sse.dll?rank=1&tips=0&gsfn=George&gsln- Engl...

Rutt, C. L. (1898). The daily news’ history of Buchanan County and St. Joseph, MO: From the time of the Platte Purchase to the end of the year 1898. Biographical: George John Englehart. St. Joseph, MO: St. Joseph Publishing.