Life History

Other facts

Notes

• Started the F. B. Chamberlain Co. in 1847, rivaling with the PurinaCo.  His parents were prosperous and much esteemed country people ofNew England, who devoted their lives to agricultural pursuits.  Theycame to Ohio when their son, Frederick B. Chamberlain, was thirteenyears old, and settled on a farm in Medina County, where the son grewto manhood.  He was trained to the farmer's vocation, and hisexperiences in early life were those of the average farm-boy in aregion which was then sparsely settled, and in which his parents werenumbered among the pioneers.  As a boy he obtained only a commonschool education, but in his early manhood he, after completing hisday's work, attended night schools and thus increased his stock ofknowledge.  When he was twenty-one years of age he left the Ohio farmand came to Illinois, feeling that in the rapidly growing cities ofthe West he would find better opportunities for improving hiscondition in life than were offered in the neighborhood of his Ohiohome.  After spending a year at Alton he came to St. Louis and enteredthe employ of Smith Brothers & Co., wholesale grocers, with whom hewas connected for three or four years, (1839-1845).  He soondemonstrated the fact that he had energy and an aptitude for business,and, after mastering the details of the trade, he engaged in businesson his own account, in 1847, as head of the firm of F. B. Chamberlain& Co.  This firm dealt in flour, butter and cheese, and soon becameknown for the extent of it's operations.  Mr. Chamberlain remained atthe head of the firm until his death.  For thirty years he was, in hisbranch of business, one of the largest dealers in the West.  Heaccumulated a competency, and, having the instincts of aphilanthropist, as well as of a merchant, made a generous use of hismeans in aid of educational and benevolent institutions.  He wasespecially interested in the progress and prosperity  of WashingtonUniversity.  He hoped that this institution would become the highestseat of learning in the West, an honor to its founders, to the city ofSt. Louis and the State of Missouri.  Appreciating the fact that thegreat need of the University was money, he was as liberal acontributor to its resources as his modest fortune permitted.  TheProvident Association was an institution whose practical beneficencecommended itself to Mr. Chamberlain.  He was for years one of its mostactive supporters.  He was, indeed an enthusiast in his work, and itis probable that he collected more money for its maintenance than anyother member of the association.  He was also a warm friend of theMercantile Library, and did all in his power to promote its interestsand make it the admirable institution which it now is.  The financialtrusts which Mr. Chamberlain held are proofs of his business sense andunimpeachable integrity.  From 1874 to 1878 he was president of theBank of North America, and at different times was a member of thedirectorate of other banks.  For fifty years he was a member of theUnitarian Church of the Messiah, and at the time of his death was oneof the fathers of Unitarianism in St. Louis.  He was a Democrat inearly life, but latter became a member of the Republican party, andwas one of those who, throughout the Civil War, upheld the Union witha brave and unswerving loyalty,  In 1852 he married Mrs. Laura ABeach.  The off spring of this marriage was a family of six children.Edward and Nellie died in childhood.  William F., Eliot H., HarrietE., and Frederick B. Chamberlain are now living and married.  Mrs.Laura A. White is the daughter of Mrs. Chamberlain by her firsthusband.  (Taken from the "Encyclopedia of History of St. Louis.")