In the forty-six years of his residence in St. Louis, covering the entire period of his life, Lawrence Boogher has measured up to the highest standards of manhood and citizenship, devoted to all those interests which are worth while as factors in the upbuilding of city, commonwealth and country. In business circles, too, he has made a creditable place. He was born April 18, 1874, his parents being Simon L. and Sophia (Hogan) Boogher, who were natives of Frederick county, Maryland, and of Alton, Illinois, respectively. He is descended in both the paternal and maternal lines from ancestors who rendered valuable aid to the country in the Revolutionary war as members of the Colonial army. His mother was a daughter of the Hon. John Hogan, postmaster of St. Louis under President James Buchanan and representative to congress from the tenth district of Missouri. He was one of the distinguished representatives of the democratic party in this city during the middle portion of the nineteenth century. Simon L. Boogher removed from Maryland to St. Louis in 1858 and first engaged in the shoe trade as a jobber, but afterward directed his efforts into other lines becoming one of the organizers of the Rainwater-Boogher Hat Company, a large wholesale hat manufacturing concern. In the development and management of this enterprise he displayed the spirit of initiative in carefully devised plans, combined with marked executive ability in their execution. He became recognized as a dynamic force in commercial circles and was a prominent figure in the business life of St. Louis until his retirement. He and his wife are still residents of this city.
After mastering the branches of learning taught in the public schools of St. Louis Lawrence Boogher went to the southwest and for two years was on a ranch in New Mexico. When twenty-two years of age he returned home and in the spring of 1898 enlisted for service in the Spanish-American war, becoming a member of Battery A, with which he served with the rank of corporal in Porto Rico until after the close of hostilities, when he returned to the United States and was mustered out in November, 1898. He has since been continuously connected with commercial interests in St. Louis, having first entered the employ of the Wear-Boogher Dry Goods Company and remaining with their successors, the Carleton Dry Goods Company, which owns and controls an extensive wholesale dry goods house of this city. Mr. Boogher is one of the stockholders of the company, for which he acts as salesman, displaying marked business enterprise and keen discernment in all of his undertakings.
On the 29th of April, 1903, Mr. Boogher was married to Miss Frances Benton Arnold, a daughter of S. S. Arnold, of Mendon, Illinois. They are now the parents of a son and two daughters, Sarah, Arnold and Frances, who are with the father and mother in a most attractive and beautiful home in the exclusive Parkview district of St. Louis.
Mr. Boogher is prominent in Masonic circles, belonging to Tuscan Lodge, No. 360, A. F. & A. M.; to St. Louis Chapter, R. A. M.; to Ascalon Commandery No. 16, K. T., !o the Scottish Rite bodies and to the Mystic Shrine. He is likewise a member of the Sons of the American Revolution of the Society of Colonal Wars, of the St. Louis Club, the Missouri Athletic Association and the Sunset Hill Golf Club and is a trustee in the Centenary Methodist Episcopal church, South. Politically he is a democrat with strong independent tendencies, voting. according to the dictates of his judgment without regard to party ties. In February, 1919, he volunteered for service with the Red Cross and was sent to Camp Doniphan at Fort Sill, where he remained until July 1, 1918, after which he went to Camp Travis, entering upon the larger and more important work there that continued until January 1, 1919.
He was then called to the St. Louis division office as assistant director on camp service and had charge of all camps in the five states of Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, in which district the activities were larger than in any other section of the country. It was a splendid opportunity to render valuable service in connection with the war and Mr. Boogher fully measured up to the opportunity. He was well fitted for the strenuous outdoor life, his understanding of human nature well qualifying him to conduct the duties entrusted to him and, moreover, he had the keenest interest in the welfare of the men by reason of his patriotic devotion to his country. In April, 1919, he was made a member of Mayor Kiel’s committee to receive the troops returning from the war and was sent to New York, Boston and Newport News to meet the soldiers on their landing from the transports. Such in brief is the history of one who belongs to a prominent and representative family of St. Louis, his personal record at all times being in harmony with that of an honored and distinguished ancestry.