John Francis Queeny
John Francis Queeny (August 17, 1859 – March 19, 1933) born in Chicago, founded the Monsanto Company in St. Louis, Missouri, as Monsanto Chemical Works, on November 30, 1901, with $5,000.
He attended school for 6 years until the Great Chicago Fire forced him, at the age of 12, to look for full-time employment, which he found with Tolman and King for $2.50 per week.[1]
He moved to St. Louis in 1897 to work for Meyer Brothers Drug Company, one of the largest wholesale pharmaceutical companies at the time. Two years later, he spent his life savings in purchasing a sulfur refinery; it burned down the next day. Two years after that, he founded Monsanto Chemical Works, and began producing saccharine, which he sold to Meyer Brothers. He started to turn a profit in 1905, but it wasn't until 1906 that he left Meyer Brothers to work for Monsanto full-time.[2]
He married Olga Mendez Monsanto with whom he had two children, one of whom was Edgar Monsanto Queeny, who would later serve as Chairman of his company. Olga Monsanto was the daughter of Don Emmanuel Mendes de Monsanto, a merchant and sugar financier with holdings on St. Thomas, Danish West Indies and Vieques, Puerto Rico.
Queeny is buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.
He had 30 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry.