LEON
EMORY DENISON. In every community there are leaders, men of superior
ability, energy, judgment and intelligence, who whether in the professions
or in the business world, not only attain prominence in their particular
line of endeavor, but at the same time are large factors in the advancement
of their community along all lines of progress. One of the foremost business
men of Cairo, Illinois, is Leon Emory Denison, who as president of the
Denison-Gholson Wholesale Dry Goods Company and as a partner in the firm of
W. T. Wall & Company, proprietors of a large department store, has done much
to promote the commercial importance of Cairo.
Mr. Denison was born
in Marion, Illinois, May 29, 1870. His father, the late Hon. Charles H.
Denison, of Marion, Illinois, was a prominent financier and man of affairs
in that locality who had made Marion his home and the scene of his business
activities from 1870 until the time of his death in 1909. Charles H. Denison
was born at Seneca Falls, New York, August 31, 1837, the third of seven
children. His father, Edward Denison, a native of Vermont but of Irish
descent, was born in 1789 and died at Marengo, McHenry county, Illinois, in
1872. At Utica, New York, Edward Denison married Evelina Hitchcock, who was
born in Utica in 1808 and was of 'English lineage. They removed to Huron
county, Ohio, in 1841 and thence to McHenry county, Illinois, in 1849. There
Edward Denison spent his life as a farmer and died in 1872, as stated, but
was survived by his wife until July, 1886, when she passed away at the home
of her son in Marion. Charles H. Denison was reared on a farm in McHenry
county and remained a resident of that county until his marriage, in 1869,
when he removed from the northern part of the state to a farm near
Bainbridge, Williamson county. There he alternated farming and dealing in
live stock with school teaching until 1873, when he took up his duties as
circuit clerk of Williamson county, to which office he had been elected as a
Democrat. In the meantime he had removed his family to Marion, and upon the
expiration of his official term as circuit clerk, engaged in the drug
business with W. H. Bundy, but sold out two years later and gave his
attention to handling real estate and live stock until 1890. In that year he
entered banking', opening a private bank under the firm name of Searing &
Denison, with a capital of thirty thousand dollars. From that time until his
death he was identified with the banking interests of Marion and was a
financier of recognized ability, conservative yet progressive. On July 24,
1902, the present Marion State and Savings Bank was incorporated, with a
capital of sixty thousand dollars, of which Judge Denison, as he was
familiarly called by his friends, was the largest stockholder and was
president. At the time of his death he was one of the wealthiest men of
Williamson county, owning besides his bank interests farm lands in that
county valued at fifty thousand dollars, and other realty of an equal value
in Marion, Illinois, and in St. Louis Missouri. He was for several terms
mayor of Marion, his service in that office beginning in 1903. On March 21,
1869, Charles H. Denison married Mary E., daughter of Dr. Samuel H. and Mary
A. (Smith) Bundy, the former of whom was a surgeon in the Thirty-first
Illinois Volunteer Infantry during the Civil war, which regiment was raised
and commanded for a time by General John A. Logan. Mrs. Denison, who was
born in DeKalb county, Tennessee, in 1848, still survives and occupies the
old home in Marion, where she brought up her family. To this union were
born: Leon Emory Denison, the immediate subject of this review; Edward
Everett Denison, a graduate of Yale University and of his own University of
Illinois, and now a prominent attorney -at-law in Marion, Illinois; Lora B.,
now the wife of Charles E. Lane, president of the Union Station Bank of St.
Louis, Missouri; and Samuel B. Denison, who died at Marion, Illinois.
Leon Emory Denison is a Harvard man, and was graduated from that well
known and historic institution in 1896, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
After his graduation he immediately entered upon an active business career,
first as the associate of his father; then later he aided in founding what
is now the Carterville State and Savings Bank. A few months after that he
engaged in the retail merchandise business at Marion, Illinois, from where
he went to St. Louis Missouri, where he was connected with the Rice Stix Dry
Goods Company. He remained there six years and during that time acquired a
great deal of valuable experience and information bearing on the line of
business he has since followed so successfully. In 1904 he came to Cairo,
Illinois and formed the Denison-Gholson Dry Goods Company, a wholesale firm
with a capital of fifty thousand dollars. This company was composed
originally of Roy Gholson, D. L. Mark, J. F. Roberts and Mr. Denison. A
reorganization was effected in 1910, the capital increased and Mr. Denison
was promoted from the office of vice-president to that of president. In
January, 1911, another reorganization occurred and the capital was made two
hundred thousand dollars. The company erected its own business house of six
stories on a plot one hundred by one hundred and twenty-five feet, is
represented on the road by ten salesmen, and gives employment in the house
to some thirty of Cairo's citizens. Mr. Denison has further emphasized his
faith in Cairo as a commercial city by entering extensively into the retail
trade, being an equal partner in the large department store of W. T. Wall &
Company, one of the fine establishments of its kind in Cairo. Having enjoyed
the advantages of a splendid education and a good business training, and
being possessed of industry and admirable commercial judgment, Mr. Denison
's position in the business circles of Cairo were soon established after his
advent to that city, and today he stands in the fore of its most successful
business men.
Since his residence there he has entered heartily into
every movement which would promote the growth and welfare of the city, and
in this direction he affiliates as a member of the Cairo Board of Trade and
the Commercial Club. His educational attainments and happy social
temperament render him a valued associate in the different clubs and orders
to which he belongs. He is a charter member of the Elks Club at Marion,
Illinois, belongs to the Alexander Club at Cairo, and is a member of the
governing board of the Cairo County Club. Fraternally he is a Royal Arch
Mason and a past chancellor commander of the Knights of Pythias. In
political affairs he is a Republican.
At Litchfield, Illinois, on
June 14, 1905, occurred the marriage of Mr. Denison and Miss Mary E.
Bennett, a daughter of Dr. B. E. Bennett. Mr. and Mrs. Denison have two sons
Richard Charles and Leon Emory.
Extracted 15 Jan 2018 by Norma Hass from 1912 History of Southern Illinois, Volume 2, pages 767-769.
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