Company Formed
Abram and James formed the wholesale grocery company Nave, McCord & Company in 1857 in St. Joseph, Missouri. By 1860, the company had expanded its operations over an extensive territory and branch offices were soon opened in Omaha, Nebraska (with partner Charles L. Clark), and Kansas City, Missouri. However, despite the company’s growth, 1860 would prove to be a disastrous year. On the morning of July 5, 1860, fire broke out in the upper floor of the Nave & McCord building in St. Joseph. The building’s walls collapsed before the general alarm was given. The debris completely covered the tenement and nine people perished. Two of Nave & McCord’s clerks, who slept in the second story, had a narrow escape. The insurance companies refused to pay the loss on the building upon the grounds that the collapse had occurred before the fire. The case was tried at St. Louis, and after eight years of litigation resulted favorably to Nave & McCord thanks to an eyewitness. A guest at the nearby Patee House had been unable to sleep owing to the hot weather. Seated at his window, he said he noticed the flames and watched the fire for some time before he heard the crash when the building collapsed. Abram and James rebuilt their company and managed to continue its success.
Read more about this topic: Nave & Mc Cord Mercantile Company
Famous quotes containing the words company and/or formed:
“The Bermudas are said to have been discovered by a Spanish ship of that name which was wrecked on them.... Yet at the very first planting of them with some sixty persons, in 1612, the first governor, the same year, “built and laid the foundation of eight or nine forts.” To be ready, one would say, to entertain the first ship’s company that should be next shipwrecked on to them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In short, as a snow-drift is formed where there is a lull in the wind, so, one would say, where there is a lull of truth, an institution springs up. But the truth blows right on over it, nevertheless, and at length blows it down.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)