This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 13, 2012 - After leaving the world of high finance, Lee Niedringhaus, the great-grandson of one of the founders of Granite City, Ill., and Granite City Steel Co., returned from Indonesia to unearth and share a family history that turned out to be an important sliver of American history.
A memorial service will be Tuesday St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Ladue. In the midst of collecting artifacts and sharing a family’s legacy that stretched from New York to Montana, Mr. Niedringhaus died unexpectedly on Sunday (Oct. 7, 2012) at Barnes-Jewish Hospital of recently diagnosed colon cancer. He was 70. Mr. Niedringhaus’ quest to find his heritage has enriched museums and libraries throughout the nation, and has given Granite City a new measure of pride.
“The pieces that he gave us – graniteware, a 1900s catalog, framed pictures of the Niedringhaus brothers – are a very important part of our history,” said Jeanette L. Kampen, assistant director of the Six Mile Regional Library District in Granite City. “We are very proud of our exhibits; they are wonderful pieces.”
The pieces were from National Enameling & Stamping Co., the first company established by Mr. Niedringhaus’ great-grandfather, William F. Niedringhaus, and his great-uncle, Frederick G. Niedringhaus. It was named the St. Louis Stamping Company when it began making enamel kitchenware in 1866. When the company expanded, it moved across the River, billing itself as “a new manufacturing suburb of St. Louis.”
The brothers built an entire town to accommodate their workers and named it Granite City.
The banker
The family businesses were no longer in the family when Mr. Niedringhaus became of age.
After serving two years as an Army officer in Korea, he began his banking career at the old St. Louis Union Trust Co.
In 1969, he joined Marine Midland Bank in New York and two years later, established the bank’s first and eventually its most profitable overseas office, in Singapore. He was later assigned to the Merchant Banking Group in London, serving the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia/Pacific countries.
From 1985 to 2002, Mr. Niedringhaus worked for several financial firms, including serving four years as a partner with Ernst and Young. He managed financial services for clients in Malaysia, Mexico, France, Japan, the U.K., as well as the U.S. The final assignment in three decades of working in New York and abroad was in Jakarta with the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency.
As his banking career began to wind down, Mr. Niedringhaus began searching for his roots.
The historian
A chance remark by a cousin whetted Mr. Niedringhaus’ appetite for his family’s history.
To his surprise, he was told and his research confirmed that the family had owned one of Montana’s largest cattle ranches in the 1800s. It was an investment for the fortunes amassed by the graniteware company.
In the late ‘90s, Mr. Niedringhaus followed the N Bar N Ranch trail in an old Jeep Cherokee from Pampa, Texas, where the cattle began the long journey north to Montana. In retracing the cattle drive, he visited rural historical societies, libraries and museums, gathering papers and photos to compile the story.
“He was captivated by the ranch,” said Mary Helland, president of the Valley County Historical Society board in Glasgow, Mont. “It was kind of a romantic endeavor.”
After a decade of research, Mr. Niedringhaus had become a meticulous scholar and recognized historian. He published a monograph of the ranch that included stories of the young men from Texas who froze in the Montana winters, the cattle rustlers and gunslingers, and a cowhand who became one of the best known and most prolific western artists in America.
Charles “Charlie” Russell, a native St. Louisan, worked at the N Bar. The Niedringhaus family was the first to commission his paintings.
He gave the monograph to all the libraries and museums he had visited.
In 2010, he wrote an article that was published in Montana: the Magazine of Western History, for which he won the SPUR Award of the Western Writers of America.
In the late ‘90s, Mr. Niedringhaus began visiting his hometown more regularly. He joined the Missouri History Museum in 1996, and in the mid-2000s, he returned to live. That made it easier to research the family’s graniteware business.
He began collecting and exhibiting the company’s wares, including the well-known speckled “cowboy” coffee pot, once so widely used at the N Bar N.
“Lee’s St. Louis heritage was a lifelong inspiration for his personal research and collecting activities,” said Ann Woodhouse, curator of domestic life at the History Museum. “Many libraries and museums have benefited from his generous sharing of his time, research, and collections.”
Mr. Niedringhaus lived near the History Museum’s Research Center on Skinker and would often stop in with items.
Woodhouse said he developed “a collector’s zeal” for his family’s original granite enamelware.
“He was just so proud of the interest that he created in the products of his family’s company,” Woodhouse said.
“He not only gave us things in his collection, he would find things for us,” Woodhouse said. “He asked what piece I would choose if I could choose anything and I picked a pot scraper because it was a very common object, but an ephemeral object that would get used up and thrown away.”
He found the pot scraper online, bought it and gave it to the museum.
Home again
Lee Irving Niedringhaus III, who said he always considered St. Louis his home, was born here on March 17, 1942, the son of Lee and Jane Switzler Niedringhaus. He attened Rohan-Woods School in St. Louis and the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn., and St. Louis Country Day School. He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia in 1965.
He had recently joined the Mercantile Library Art Board and was a member of the Lambert Airport Transportation Board.
Mr. Niedringhaus was once widowed and twice divorced.
"He had no children," said his cousin Suzanne Bowman, "but he was amazing with children.
Friends recall his pleasure in playing the piano and his appreciation of jazz, evidenced by his willingness to sleep on the beach at the Newport Jazz Festival in the 1950s.
In addition to his cousin, Suzanne, of Providence, R.I., Mr. Niedringhaus is survived by his sister, Carolyn Maricle of Nantucket, Mass.; another cousin, W. Delafield (Linda) Niedringhaus of St. Louis; niece Caroline Weld; nephew Garneau Weld and godson Hunt (Elizabeth) Niedringhaus.
His memorial service will be at 3 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 16, at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Ladue, 110 North Warson Road at Ladue Road. Interment will be private at Bellefontaine Cemetery.
Contributions may be made to the Valley County Pioneer Museum, P.O. Box 44, Glasgow MT. 59230, or The Six Mile Regional Library District, 2001 Delmar Ave., Granite City, IL 62040-4590.
Gloria Ross is the head of Okara Communications and the storywriter for AfterWords, an obituary-writing and production service.