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(Letters chiefly from the Francis collection at the Missou...)
Letters chiefly from the Francis collection at the Missouri Historical Society.
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ambassador governor merchant statesman
David Rowland Francis was born on October 1, 1850 and was the son of John Broaddus and Eliza Caldwell (Rowland) Francis. Both parents were of Kentucky pioneer stock, combining English, Scotch, and Welsh strains. His grandfather, Thomas Francis, was a soldier in the War of 1812; his father had been sheriff of Madison County.
David was educated in Rev. Robert Breck’s academy for girls, the principal desiring to have a comrade for his own son. By the aid of his mother’s brother, David Pitt Rowland, the boy was able to enter Washington University in St. Louis, where he took the four years’ classical course, graduating in 1870 with the degree of B. A.
David Francis had hoped to study law, but the opportunity was lacking and he returned to the Kentucky farm, until this same uncle found a position for him in the commission house of Shryock & Rowland. Here he not only learned the business of commission merchant, but paid off his college debts, and in six years had accumulated enough capital to found his own house, D. R. Francis & Brother, Commission Company, grain merchants.
In 1884 David Francis was made president of the Merchants’ Exchange; and in the same year was sent as delegate-at-large to the National Democratic Convention at Chicago.
In 1885 David Francis was elected mayor of St. Louis, defeating by 1, 527 votes a Republican who had been elected four years earlier by a majority of 14, 000.
He gave the city a business administration, fearlessly cutting expenses and defeating corrupt legislation by his vetoes. At the conclusion of his term of office he was elected governor, serving until 1893.
He carried to this office the same business principles and secured from the legislature a series of constructive measures. On the resignation of Secretary Hoke Smith in August 1896, Francis was appointed secretary of the interior and served through the rest of President Cleveland’s administration.
He was an earnest defender of forest reserves and it was on his recommendation that the president set aside by proclamation some 21, 000, 000 acres, and refused to sign the sundry civil bill which contained a rider that would have given the president authority subsequently to modify or vacate any executive order creating forest reserves.
His opposition to Bryan and free-silver cost him political prestige in Missouri and for a decade he was out of politics. In the meantime, however, he took an active part in promoting the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, was elected president of the corporation, and in a trip to Europe by personal solicitation secured the participation of foreign governments—an experience which he recounted in A Tour of Europe in Nineteen Days (1903).
The history of the exposition he narrated in The Universal Exposition of 1904 (1913).
In 1908, declaring the free-silver issue closed, he sought party harmony by advocating the nomination of Bryan in the Democratic National Convention at Denver, but refused to consider for himself the second place on the ticket.
In 1910, he was a candidate for election to the United States Senate, but was defeated in the Democratic primary by James A. Reed. Though he had declined a diplomatic appointment to one of the South American states, he was nominated ambassador to Russia by President Wilson in 1916, and the nomination was confirmed in open session of the Senate without the customary reference to a committee.
His service began under the old régime. After the Russian revolution, he supported the Kerensky provisional government; and under the Bolshevik régime he still stayed on, although given permission to return.
He moved the embassy from place to place, lived on trains, appealed to the Russians to stand by the allies, warned against German intrigues, and refused to heed threats of personal violence until even his robust health gave way.
On November 6, 1918, he was carried on a stretcher to an American warship and taken to a London hospital for an operation, from which he never fully recovered.
Francis died in St. Louis, Missouri, on January 15, 1927. He was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery.
David Francis's achievements spanned vast areas of his career from business to politics and he was successful in both. He was the Mayor of Saint Louis from 1885 until 1889 when he became the Governor of Missouri, serving from January 14, 1889 until January 9, 1893. He served as Secretary of the Interior from September 3, 1896 until March 5, 1897; during his appointment, President Cleveland set aside 21 million acres of public land as forest reserves. He was the leading promoter the Louisiana Purchase International Exposition (Saint Louis World Fair of 1904) and served as its President from 1889 until 1904. Francis was commissioned as ambassador to Russia on March 9, 1916 and stayed in country until the Czar was overthrown. He published "Russia from the American Embassy, April 1916-Nov 1918" shortly after his official resignation as ambassador was accepted May 3, 1921. Francis Field (a sports field and gymnasium), part of Washington University and the site of the 1904 Olympics, was named in his honor.
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(Letters chiefly from the Francis collection at the Missou...)
In his political affiliation David R. Francis was a Democrat, so in 1884, Francis was elected delegate at large to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
His engaging personality made him a marked man in the community. His biographer, Harper Barnes, summarized his personality: "David R. Francis was a brash, opinionated, stubborn, smart, sometimes foolish, straight-talking, quick-acting, independent-minded, proud, self-made man who represented the United States in Russia for two and a half years, during the most tumultuous era in that country's history. Much of his activity has been shrouded in myth – some of that heroic, more of that comic and tragic. "
In 1876 David Rowland Francis had married Jane Perry, daughter of John D. Perry, a pioneer railroad builder. Six sons were born to them, three of whom followed their father’s business career.
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