Joshua Motter was born in Williamsport, Maryland. He was educated at Pennsylvania College (later Gettysburg College). In 1867, he moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, and worked as a bookkeeper at the old Colhoun Bank. In 1875, he worked as a traveling salesman for Tootle, Craig, & Co., a dry goods company. He then worked for Tootle, Hosea & Co. for eight years. In 1883, he stopped traveling as a salesman. The business was named Tootle, Wheeler & Motter and operated under that name until 1899 when it was expanded and renamed to Tootle, Wheeler & Motter Mercantile Company. It was incorporated and later renamed as Wheeler & Motter Merchantile Company. He married Gussie Barrow, daughter of Major John E. Barrow, on December 2, 1873. They had three children, Samuel I. Motter, John Barrow Motter of St. Joseph and Mary Catherine Hall of Kansas City. He was a Mason.

(1) "History of Buchanan County and St. Joseph, Mo." (1915) by The History Publishing Company, p. 458 – https://archive.org/details/historyofbuchana00mcdo/page/458/mode/2up

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Son of -

Isaac Motter and Mary Snively

Husband of Katherine Augusta "Gussie" Barrow

Buried 23 Sept 1917

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"Lexington Intelligencer, September 28, 1917

Lexington, Mo.

St. Joseph Merchant Dies

News of the death of Joshua Motter, a St. Joseph wholesale dry goods merchant, at Williamsport, Md. has been received at his home. He was 71 years old. Heart disease was the cause of death."

"The St. Joseph observer., Sept. 22, 1917

St. Joseph Mo.

JOSHUA MOTTER CALLED

The Summons Came Swift But Surely

to One of St. Joseph's Best Business Men.

St. Joseph was shocked Wednesday forenoon when the news reached this city that Joshua Motter, vice-president of the Wheeler-Motter Mercantile Co., had died suddenly at the home of his birth, Wllllamsport, Maryland,at 12:30 that morning. Heart failure was the cause of the removal from life's sphere of one of the best known and most useful of St. Joseph's business men and citizens.

What made the shock all the more acute was the fact that with the exception of a very few, no one knew that Mr. Motter had been ailing. A man of robust frame and great vigor, and always cheerful, no one suspected that when on August 1st he started with his wife and his daughter, Mrs. D. Walton Hall, of Kansas City, for a vacation trip to the East, that he would not soon return to again resume active business and social life; but It was not to be, for death claimed him at the home of one of his sisters In the house in which he was born Nov. 1, 1846.

Mr. Motter leaves beside his wife, two sons, Samuel I. and J. B. Motter, of this city, and a daughter, Mrs. V. Walton Hull, of Kansas City, and three sisters, Mrs. Nannie L. Lemen, Mrs. Mary Kemp and Miss Emma B. Motter, the three residing at Williamsport, Md.

The business career of the deceased was one long continued success, brought about by his splendid qualifications and his faculty for doing things well. Socially, he was a man who was always, sought after and he could fill with credit and dignity any position or rise to any occasion. He will be sadly missed by all St. Joseph where he was loved, honored and respected."

*Obituaries courtesy of Member # 47526185