Samuel Cupples
Samuel Cupples (September 13, 1831 – January 6, 1912) was a St. Louis, Missouri woodenware merchant and business partner of Robert S. Brookings. With the Brookings brothers, Cupples enlarged his company to enormous proportions. He also built "Cupples Station" in downtown St. Louis to aid in the transport of goods from the river to the railroad; the station became a most valuable asset to St. Louis merchants.
In 1900, Cupples, with the agreement of Brookings, turned all company assets totaling $4 million over to Washington University in addition to funds for the construction of three new buildings: this building Cupples I, Cupples II Hall and the Cupples Engineering Building, which was demolished in 1967 to make room for Bryan Hall. Cupples also served on the board of directors at Washington University. Samuel was also a millionaire by thirty.
In 1888, he built his residential home on West Pine Boulevard, Cupples House, the cost totaling $500,000, which now would approximately equal $15 to 20 million dollars. The home is now on the United States National Register of Historic Places and has been made into a museum located on the Saint Louis University Campus, at 3671 West Pine Boulevard. The hours are 11-4pm and Mondays by appointment only.[1]
Samuel Cupples married Margaret Amelia Kells in 1854 and had a child, which died in infancy. Margaret died four years after marrying. Cupples married her sister, Martha Sophia Kells, in 1860. They had three children, all of whom died in infancy. This is why he adopted Amelia, daughter of a third sister, Harriet Kells Lowman.
Cupples and his daughter, Amelia Cupples Scudder, were survivors of the sinking of the British ocean liner RMS Republic in January 1909.