1915] 



ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION — BANQUET 7 



He retired from business in 1840, and took a trip abroad, 

 the first since leaving his native shore. This trip was evi- 

 dently of short duration, as in 1842 he arranged his affairs 

 and sailed a second time for the Old World, remaining three 

 years, traveling extensively and making the acquaintance of 



botanists and scientists. 



Holding the English idea that a gentleman of fortune and 

 leisure should maintain a town house and country home, he 

 commenced the erection of his country home on the Garden 

 grounds in 1848, completing it in 1849, and in 1851 built his 

 town house at the corner of Seventh and Locust Streets, the 

 site now occupied by the Mercantile Club. 



His last trip abroad was in 1851, and in 1858 he commis- 

 sioned Dr. George Engleman of this city, a noted botanist then 

 traveling in Europe, to procure material and information that 

 he thought would be of service to a botanical garden ; and at 

 the suggestion of Sir William J. Hooker, then Director of 

 Kew Gardens, began to prepare a laboratory and erected a 

 museum building, and this was the commencement of Shaw 's, 

 now the Missouri Botanical, Garden. 



While constructing the garden along the lines suggested by 

 Sir William J. Hooker, he commenced the improvement of a 

 tract of land immediately south of the Garden, now known 

 as Tower Grove Park. In 1857 he had an act of the legisla- 

 ture passed authorizing the city to receive, under certain con- 

 ditions, as a donation this tract for a park. Among them was 

 that the park was to be managed and controlled by a board of 

 park commissioners of his appointment ; secondly, that appro- 

 priations were to be made sufficient to complete it in accord- 

 ance with the plans already adopted ; and the third condition, 

 that an annual appropriation sufficient for its maintenance 

 should be made; and in 1868 he deeded the property to the 



City. 

 Having in mind the conveying to Trustees of his estate to 



be administered by them for the benefit of the Garden, and a 

 question having arisen whether such a trust was legal and 

 could be administered in this state, he had an act of the legis- 

 lature passed declaring his intentions, and authorizing him to 



