August Robert Meyer (August 20, 1851 – December 1, 1905) was an American mining engineer, founding organizer of

Leadville, Colorado Leadville ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Statutory city, statutory city that is the county seat, the most populous community, and the only List of municipalities in Colorado, incorporated municipality in Lake County, Colorado, Lak ...

, and developed the park and boulevard system for

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

as first president of the Commission of Parks.

Background

Early life

August Meyer was born in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, on August 20, 1851. His father was Heinrich Peter Meyer (1815–1864), and his mother was Anna Catharina Margaretha Kraft (1812–1898). They were residents of Hamburg, Germany, and immigrated to the United States before their marriage on July 29, 1844, in St. Louis, Missouri. Heinrich Meyer was an enterprising man: by 1850, the Federal Census shows he was manufacturing lard oil and boneblack. Later, he partnered with Jacob Tamm (1815–1893), founding a company which soon became the St. Louis Woodenware Company, a highly productive and profitable corporation which existed until 1907. (Tamm may have been a long-time friend of Heinrich Meyer; they were both born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1815.) After Heinrich Meyer died, (listed as one of the wealthiest manufacturers in St. Louis at his death,) Anna Meyer sent her son to Europe to begin his education. August Robert Meyer studied at the College of the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, and after graduating, began a course of study at the School of Mines in Freiberg, Germany, graduating in 1870.

Mining career

August R. Meyer returned to the United States, and to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1873. He worked for a coal mining operation in Illinois for one year, and then went to Colorado in 1874. In 1875, he started an ore-crushing mill at Alma, Colorado and struck it rich in the

Colorado Silver Boom The Colorado Silver Boom was a dramatic expansionist period of silver mining activity in the U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each st ...

. He and other investors including Horace Austin Warner Tabor founded Leadville and Fairplay, Colorado. His home in Leadville, called Healy House, is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a museum. He married Emma J. Hixon in 1878, and they had four children.

Life in Kansas City

In 1881, Meyer moved to Kansas City, Missouri. He established the Kansas City Smelting and Refining Company in the Armourdale section of

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City (commonly known as KCK) is the third-most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As ...

. The company was taken over by the Guggenheim-owned American Smelting and Refining Company, and he joined the board of directors. Later, he became president of United Zinc Company.

City Beautiful Movement

In 1887, Meyer became inspired by the

City Beautiful Movement The City Beautiful movement was a reform philosophy of North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of introducing beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. It was a part of th ...

and began pushing for a new park system in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1892, Mayor Benjamin Holmes appointed him president of the city's first park board. Meyer and Holmes hired George Kessler to design the extensive and noteworthy system. Meyer's home, called "Marburg", was a three-story, 35-room Germanic castle on eight and one-half acres. After his death, Howard Vanderslice bought the house and estate and donated it to become the

Kansas City Art Institute The Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) is a private art school in Kansas City, Missouri. The college was founded in 1885 and is an accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and Higher Learning Commission. The institute ...

(where after a Wight and Wight addition) it is the school's administration building. It is now called Vanderslice Hall and is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

Death

August Robt Meyer by DC French-Kansas City

Meyer died in Kansas City on December 1, 1905, at age 54. He was buried in Elmwood Cemetery. Meyer Boulevard is named to honor his great work to create the boulevard and park system in Kansas City. A bronze bas-relief sculpture by

Daniel Chester French Daniel Chester French (April 20, 1850 – October 7, 1931) was an American sculpture, sculptor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His works include ''The Minute Man'', an 1874 statue in Concord, Massachusetts, and his Statue of Abr ...

on an high Knoxville marble marker honoring Meyer was dedicated on June 2, 1909, four years after his death. The memorial is located at 10th and The Paseo in the parkway. The epitaph reads:

Houses and Shops Are Man's But Grass and Trees and Flowers Are God's Own Handiwork Undaunted, This Man Planned and Toiled That Dwellers in This Place Might Ever Freely Taste the Sweetest Delights of Nature.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer, August 1851 births 1905 deaths American people of German descent American city founders Burials at Elmwood Cemetery (Kansas City, Missouri) Freiberg University of Mining and Technology alumni Philanthropists from the Kansas City metropolitan area People from Kansas City, Missouri People from Leadville, Colorado Engineers from St. Louis 19th-century American philanthropists