George Luke Scobie Bain

Background

He was born on May 5, 1836 at Stirling, the son of Robert Scobie Bain and Charlotte Murdoch Brown.

Education

He received his early education at Stirling.

Career

Despite the fond hopes of his mother, who desired her son to become a minister of the Free Church of Scotland, he ran away from home at the age of fifteen and obtained employment as a cabin-boy on a ship whose destination was Montreal, Canada. When young Bain arrived in that city, he decided to remain, and was soon at work in an accountant's office.

Three years later he removed to Portland, where he obtained his first knowledge of the flour business while employed by the commission house of Mackintosh & Company. In 1856 he succumbed to the lure of the West and removed to the growing young city of Chicago, where he secured a position in the flour department of a prominent commission house. The following year, at the age of twenty-one, he made his début in the business world by organizing a commission house under the name of Bain & Clarke. After a varied business career in Chicago, he moved to St. Louis in 1865, and there shortly afterward established the commission house of George Bain & Co. This firm did a successful business in flour, grain, and other products.

But in 1871 Bain severed his connection with the commission house, and purchased a half interest in the Atlantic Mills, then one of the largest establishments in St. Louis. During the next twenty years he was actively engaged as a manufacturer and shipper of flour, contributing in no small degree toward making St. Louis one of the greatest milling centers in the United States. He was the pioneer in developing the direct exportation of flour from St. Louis to foreign countries. He was one of the organizers of the millers in Missouri and throughout the country. In 1874 the Missouri Millers' Association elected him its first president, and in the same year the Millers' National Association chose him its first vice-president. In 1875 he was elected president of the latter body, and held that position for eight consecutive years. While he took a prominent part in the business life of St. Louis, he was also active in politics, fraternal circles, and philanthropic work.

He died on October 22, 1891.

Achievements

• He is remembered as a successful businessman and philanthropist.

Personality

Possessed of great energy and initiative, Bain had, according to a eulogy delivered in 1891, "positive views on all questions that had two sides, and hesitated not to express them, regardless of numbers or consequences. "

Connections

On November 5, 1857, he married Clara Mather at Chicago.

Father:

Robert Scobie Bain

Mother:

Charlotte Murdoch Brown

Wife:

Clara Mather