Alexander, Joshua H.

Born: 1817-XX-XX Pennsylvania

Died: 1879-06-30 Saint Louis, Missouri

Flourished: Saint Louis, Missouri

Joshua H. Alexander was a merchant and businessman, railroad executive, and Presbyterian. In May 1841, he married Mary J. Chappell in Madison County, Illinois. Upon their marriage, she became stepmother to the four children from his first marriage. He and Mary also eventually had at least one child together. Alexander was the senior partner in the firm J. H. Alexander & Company, commission merchants in St. Louis. In 1852, he also became a member of the board of directors for the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad. Then, in 1855, he became a member of the board of trustees for the City University of St. Louis. By 1860, he owned $2,500 in personal property. During the Civil War, he supported the Union and led efforts to oust supporters of the Confederacy from the Pine Street Presbyterian Church of St. Louis.

Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Madison County, 18 May 1841, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), St. Louis, St. Louis County, MO, 477; J. Thomas Scharf, History of Saint Louis City and County (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1882), 2:1182; “An Act to Incorporate the City University of St. Louis,” 2 March 1855, Laws of Missouri (1855), 291; Robert V. Kennedy, comp., Kennedy’s St. Louis Directory for the Year 1857 (St. Louis: R. V. Kennedy, 1857), 12; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 5, St. Louis, St. Louis County, MO, 292; A Correspondence Between Some of the Members of the Pine Street Presbyterian Church and Its Pastor (St. Louis: Pine Street Presbyterian Church, 1862), 10-11; Missouri, U.S., Death Records, 1850-1931, 30 June 1879, St. Louis County (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2018).