Many students have passed through the halls of Steadley Elementary School in the 20 years since it was built.
Twice a year, news accounts talk about grants from the Steadley Memorial Trust going to a variety of local entities, including $1.5 million over 10 years to the Carthage School District in 2018 for the construction of a new student activities center on the Carthage High School campus.
But who were the Steadleys? How did Steadley Memorial Trust come to be?
Bill Putnam, a member of the Kent D. and Mary L. Steadley Memorial Trust’s local advisory committee since 1994, was determined to learn more about the couple whose decision to leave their estate “for the general welfare of the community,” has had such a monumental impact on that community, Carthage, Missouri.
That’s why he compiled histories written by himself, local historian Sue Vandergriff, the family of former Mayor Jim Woestman, with a myriad of Carthage Evening Press newspaper articles and legal documents, including the wills of Fredrick and Stella Steadley and some of the Trust documents, into a 130-page book called “The Steadley Legacy.”
“We picked the brains of as many people as we could who either knew the Steadleys or knew about the Steadleys,” Putnam said. “Some of them had close relationships like the Woestman family. Mayor Jim Woestmen’s father was Kent Steadley’s right-hand-man, so the Woestmans have had a personal relationship with the Steadley family for a long time.”
Carthage Heroes
The trust is famous, but Putnam said history has almost forgotten the childless couple who helped build and maintain a powerhouse manufacturing company, then left their estate in a trust that would eventually give more than $30 million to entities that benefit the citizens of Carthage and will continue to give more than $1.5 million a year to the community for the foreseeable future.
Courtesy Hall of Carthage Heroes
The Steadley Family, Kent D. and Mary L. Steadley, and Kent’s father and step-mother, Fredrick and Stella Steadley, were in the first group inducted in the Hall of Carthage Heroes at the Fair Acres Family Y, so anyone wanting to learn a little bit about the family can read the plaque there and learn a few of the basics.
There a reader will learn about Fredrick Steadley, who lost his first wife in 1896 and was left a widower with two young boys, Kent and Rae Steadley.
He married Stella Hennessey in 1899 and the family moved to Carthage, where Fredrick bought a jewelry store on the west side of the Carthage Square next door to the current Carthage Deli.
Fredrick branched out in business, helping start the quarries that made Carthage marble a staple in construction across the region for the first half of the 20th century.
Then he branched out into the bedspring company and, for a time, competed with the more famous local company, Leggett & Platt.
Fredrick Steadley’s company was renamed the F.W. Steadley Company, then Fredrick died in 1928, leaving Stella and son Kent to manage his company.
The trust is born
Stella Steadley lived in Carthage until she died in 1953.
When she died, she left her estate to Kent Steadley, and this is where Putnam believes the idea for the Steadley Trust was born, although the documents Putnam examined don’t make it clear exactly how or when the family decided to leave its wealth in a trust.
“It’s my sincere belief, after doing my research and all, that at the very least, Fredrick and Stella Steadley, who were Kent’s father and step mother, were just as responsible for the Steadley Trust as Kent and Mary were,” Putnam said. “And that’s a topic and piece of knowledge that most people don’t know.”
Stella’s will left about $1.75 million, about $975,000 after taxes and fees were taken out, to Kent Steadley, but stipulated that the money was for Kent’s use while he lived.
“The directions in her will said Kent was to have the use of the estate during his lifetime, then when he died, it was to go into a trust that benefited the citizens of Carthage,’ Putnam said. “And the language that she used in her will is almost the same language that is in Kent’s trust. The thing that I don’t know is if Fredrick and Stella talked about that before he died in 1928, or if it was her idea. More likely, Kent was advising his mother about her affairs and the two of them decided that this was what they wanted to do.”
Kent Steadley continued to operate the Steadley Company until 1957, when they sold it.
Kent and Mary Steadley moved to California, and Mary Steadley died in October 1959. Her broken-hearted husband died in January 1960.
Putnam said from the documents he’s read, Stella’s will provided about $1 million for the trust, then when Kent and Mary Steadley died, they left as much as $2 million more.
The Bank of Carthage Board of Trustees was named as the trustees of the Steadley Memorial Trust, and for the first 10 years, the Trust paid out benefits to specific individuals who had been helpful to the Steadleys when they were living.
A powerhouse of giving
The Trust has steadily grown in value since its founding, and trustees gave its first charitable grant in 1972. Since then it has given out nearly $30 million.
About half of that has gone to the city of Carthage and Carthage School District. Some projects that benefited from the trust include the 1998 renovation of the Carthage Golf Course, paid by about $3 million in annual grants from the Trust over about 15 years; Steadley Elementary School, built in 1998 with about $2 million in grants paid over several years; the construction of the Fair Acres Sports Complex, paid for with abut $2.7 million in grants over several years; Carthage Technical Center South, paid for with $1.5 million paid out as of 2017, with another $746,000 left on the commitment, and many more.
“Through 2017, the city of Carthage and affiliated entities have received $8.5 million, with the Carthage School District/Carthage R-9 Foundation, receiving over $7.2 million for various projects,” Putnam wrote in the book. “This is obviously of direct benefit to all taxpayers living within these two taxing entities boundaries, given it is a total of nearly $16 million not paid by a tax levy upon the citizens.”
About the book
The book “The Steadley Legacy,” is available for sale at the Carthage Public Library and Mother Road Coffee on the west side of the Carthage Square. Cost for the 130-page book is $6 for the soft-cover version and $12 for the hard-cover book. All proceeds will go to the Carthage Public Library.
