James A. Troy, secretary of the foreign trade bureau of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce, was born October 22, 1876, in the city which is still his place of residence. His father, Edward J. Troy, was a native of Ireland and came to America prior to the Civil war, settling first in Grand Rapids, Michigan, whence he removed to St. Louis about the time of the close of hostilities between the north and the south. He followed agricultural pursuits and stock raising and passed away in this city when sixty-nine years of age. His wife, also deceased, bore the maiden name of Julia Foley and she, too, was born on the Emerald isle, coming to the new world with a brother about the middle of the nineteenth century. After the Civil war they settled in St. Louis, where she met and married Mr. Troy. Her death occurred in this city in 1907, when she had reached the age of sixty-three years. They were the parents of seven children, three sons and four daughters, and five of the number are yet living.
James A. Troy, who was the third in order of birth in this family, obtained a public school education in St. Louis, pursuing his studies to the age of sixteen years and then started out to provide for his own support by securing a clerical position with the firm of B. Nugent & Brothers, retail dry goods merchants. Later he was associated with the St. Louis News Company in a clerical capacity and in 1908 he became assistant secretary to the Manufacturers Association, continuing with that organization to the time when the Business Men’s League was formed. He then took charge of the foreign department of the latter, which in time was reorganized into the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce and through the intervening period he has continuously been secretary of the foreign trade bureau of the St. Louis Chamber. In 1917 he received the appointment to the honorary post of consul to Salvador and still fills this position. When he took charge of the foreign trade bureau the business coming under the jurisdiction of the bureau approximated fifty million dollars annually. Today the foreign trade exceeds one hundred million dollars and the result is attributable in no small measure to the efforts and enterprise of Mr. Troy. There is no feature of development and progress in St. Louis in which Mr. Troy is not deeply interested and many projects have received his helpful support and cooperation. He is the secretary of the Million Population Club and secretary and treasurer of the World’s Trade Club of St. Louis. He has ever taken a deep interest in civic, industrial and commercial matters, studies these questions from every possible standpoint, and his activities have been productive of splendid results. During the war Mr. Troy represented the tanners council and later had all the allotment of leather to the United States.
On the 30th of November, 1905, Mr. Troy was married in St. Louis to Miss Alice S. Kleinert, a native of this city and a daughter of the late Albert and Katherine (Seeker) Kleinert, the latter a representative of an old Louisiana family, while the Kleinert family has long been represented in St. Louis. Mr. and Mrs. Troy have one daughter, Christine Helen, born in St. Louis, August 22, 1906.
Politically Mr. Troy is a democrat where national questions and issues are involved but casts an independent local ballot. He turns for diversion and recreation to tennis, motoring and fishing, and this outdoor life finds an even balance for his intense activity in connection with the official position which he is so acceptably filling.
