James H. Lucas was an American banker, railroad official and businessman. He was a director and large stock holder in a score of corporations.
Background
James H. Lucas was born on November 12, 1800 at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, the fifth son of John Baptiste Charles Lucas and Anne (Sebin), who came to America from Normandy in 1784. Appointed territorial judge and commissioner of land claims of upper Louisiana Territory in 1805, John Lucas moved with his large family to St. Louis, then "an untamed and unprogressive trading town. " He commenced immediately to purchase large tracts of land in, and adjacent to, the town and to lay the foundation for a great fortune.
Education
Lucas received his early education in St. Louis under unsatisfactory conditions and was sent to St. Thomas' College, Kentucky, in 1814, and later, to Jefferson College, Pennsylvania. He then studied law under the direction of family friends in Poughkeepsie, New York, and in Litchfield, Connecticut, but with no desire to follow that profession.
Career
In 1823 Lucas moved to Arkansas Territory, where he remained for thirteen years and had a varied experience. He was, successively, a school-teacher, a merchant, county clerk, a plantation owner, a lawyer, a probate judge, and a militia officer. Upon his father's request, his four brothers having died, he returned to St. Louis in 1837 to assume the management of the family properties. By this time the "Lucas estate" comprised vast holdings in the city, together with plantations in several counties. With the economic transformation of St. Louis and its firm establishment as a commercial and industrial center, there came a phenomenal rise in land prices and in the value of the estate. The wealth thus acquired enabled Lucas to sponsor numerous enterprises. He early realized the vital need for better transportation facilities in the West, and with other wealthy and public-spirited men of the city he helped organize the Pacific Railroad in 1849. He donated large sums for its construction, served as a director and twice as president, and assisted it in the recurrent financial crises which beset early railroad ventures.
His interests extended to California, but the St. Louis property was the corner-stone. He was not content, however, merely to accumulate money, but was a generous patron of enterprises of an educational, cultural, and religious character. In politics he twice ran for office, serving one term, 1844-1848, in the state Senate, and being defeated for the office of mayor of St. Louis in 1847. He was an effective exponent of the conservative business interests of his city. The grave conditions in Western finance occasioned by the panic of 1857 were successfully met by him, despite considerable losses; but the outbreak of the Civil War precipitated a crisis in the governmental and economic situation in Missouri.
During the critical and uncertain decade following the war, he was chiefly concerned with the economic restoration of St. Louis and in the administration of his estate.
Achievements
Politics
Lucas was a staunch Whig. He supported the Bell-Everett ticket, and in 1861 was opposed both to secession and to coercion of the South. He labored for compromise, and when that failed, steadily and resolutely supported the Union cause.
Connections
In May 1832, Lucas married Mary Emilie Desruisseaux, a native of Cahokia, Illinois, by whom he had numerous children.