Wilson, Guy

The following data is extracted from Centennial History of Missouri.

Guy Wilson, president of the Traffic Motor Truck Corporation of St. Louis, has in his business career demonstrated the fact that opportunity is ever open to ambition, diligence and determination, for these qualities have been the dominant factors in the attainment of his present position and the success which has rewarded his labors. He was born in Christian county, Kentucky, May 1, 1878, his parents being Richard Henry and Maggie (Smith) Wilson. The father was a planter, who was descended from a long line of ancestors engaged in the same pursuits in Virginia. He had removed to Kentucky immediately following the close of the Civil war, in which he had served throughout the period of hostilities as an officer in the Confederate cavalry.
Guy Wilson obtained a public school education in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and started in business as a telegraph operator at a very early age with the Louisville & Nashville Railway Company in Kentucky. He remained in the railroad business until 1904, when he came to St. Louis and here turned his attention to insurance, becoming connected with the Prudential Insurance Company of America. He subsequently organized the firm of Rowland & Wilson, becoming state agents for the Prudential in Missouri, and within a brief period they developed the largest agency of the Prudential and one of the largest insurance agencies in America. Mr. Wilson continued in the insurance business until the spring of 1915, when he retired from that field to look after investments in the automobile business. He became vice president o1 the Brandle Motors Company of St. Louis and soon afterward joined with Theodore C. Brandle, president of the Brandle Motors Company, and Harry P. Mammen, general sales manager for the Westcott Motor Car Company of Springfield, Ohio, in organizing the Traffic Motor Truck Corporation, of which he is the president. Within three years' time this has become the largest exclusive builder of four thousand pounds capacity motor trucks in the world and its product is used through every civilized country on the face of the globe. In addition to his presidency of the Traffic Motor Truck Corporation, Mr. Wilson is also the president of the Finance Investment Trust. His business career has been one of notable success and prosperity, due to his thoroughness, his splendid powers of organization, his systematic management of interests, his initiative and laudable purpose.
On the 21st of May, 1910, Mr. Wilson was married in Evansville, Indiana, to Miss Louise May, daughter of Adam and Phillipine May. They have become parents of two sons, Richard Henry and Louis Guy. Mr. Wilson belongs to the St. Louis Club. His political endorsement is given to republican principles and he keeps well informed on the questions and issues of the day, but he has never had time nor inclination to become an aspirant for public office, preferring to concentrate his energies upon his rapidly developing business interests and today St. Louis classes him among her prominent business men.

Source: Centennial History of Missouri

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