Thomas S. Pagett

PAGETT, COX

Posted By: Jenepher Homer (email)
Date: 10/11/2003 at 09:12:41

Biographical Review of Lee County, Iowa
Hobart Publishing Company
Chicago, 1905

Thomas S. Pagett

An ideal type of success is exemplified in the career of Thomas S. Pagett, who is now retired from active pursuits, but was formerly a prominent representative of Keokuk’s business and commercial life, and by his energy and aggressive, enterprising spirit, contributed much to the up-building of the community in which he resides. Mr. Pagett was born December 25, 1823, in Warren County, Ohio, and is the only living representative of his family. Born and reared on a farm in an undeveloped country, he received only the limited educational advantages afforded by the rural schools of that day, but he possessed a self-reliant disposition, and at the age of twenty-one years we find him leaving the parental roof and securing employment in the city of Cincinnati, making his own way in the world unassisted. Here he worked at the trade of coopering, having mastered that vocation in his boyhood.

On February 6, 1844, M. Padgett wedded Miss Elizabeth Cox, who was born in Warren County, Ohio, September 2, 1826, and in 1849 they removed to Mount Holly, Ohio. In Mount Holly Mr. Pagett successfully conducted a cooperage business until 1855, when he came west and located at Keokuk, making the latter part of the trip on the river by way of St. Louis. Here he was employed for the first year by Connoble & Smith, wholesale grocers, after which for a period of two or three years he conducted a cooperage shop for Albers & Austin, and then, in partnership with George Holt, he established the New York Grocery Store. After two years he sold his interest to Mr. Holt, and began a cooperage business on what was then justly considered a large scale, employing six workmen continuously. The work was all done by hand, and the material was secured from the neighboring forests. Mr. Pagett’s shop was an institution of importance among the early industries of Keokuk, he supplying barrels to the pork-packing houses of the city, and he continued it operation for over twenty-one years. The shop is still standing, a monument to the success of its founder. In 1874 Mr. Pagett went into the pork business on Main Street for one season, and during this time handled one thousand head of hogs. He shortly went into partnership with Mr. Keiser, they buying and curing hams and shoulders. They continued in business together for four years, at the end of which time the suffered the loss of their stock by fire- a loss amounting to about $12,000. Later Mr. Pagett purchased stock in a canning factory and for a number of years acted as overseer in the department of peeling and packing. Some five or six years ago he sold his interest in the company, and since that time he has been living in retirement, enjoying the well-earned fruits of a life of honorable and useful activity combined with sound business judgment and foresight.

To Mr. and Mrs. Pagett has been born only one child, who died in infancy, at Mount Holly, Ohio. To three nephews, however, they have given a home, rearing and educating them as their own children. These are William, of Tacoma, Washington; Harry, who is employed in Keokuk with the commercial agency of Dunn & Company, and Wilfred, who is at the present time in the South.

As the result of a fall last winter Mr. Pagett sustained a painful injury, the bone of the leg being broken; and in consequence he has since that time been confined rather closely to his house. He is a member of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, and in his political affiliation he holds with the Republican party, believing that organization eminently suited to the maintenance of the general welfare. His long and honorable career in Keokuk has won for Mr. Pagett many admirers, and his personal qualities of tact, geniality and strict uprightness and integrity in all his transactions have brought him a host of friends. He still takes a lively interest in the well-being of his adopted city, and in return no one is held in more fitting honor by its citizens then he.