The biography below was compiled through genealogical and historical research. To learn more about John S. Condell Sr and his career see https://smurphy114.wixsite.com/merchantspringfield
Born in 1818 to Thomas and Jane Condell in County Carlow Ireland, John Shepperd Condell immigrated to America in 1824 with his mother and nine siblings. Their ship, the Telegraph, left Liverpool England and arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 31, 1824. His father, who had come to America before his family, established a Queensware store in Philadelphia. John worked in his father’s store learning the mercantile trade until 1833, when he and his older brother Thomas Edwin Condell Jr, left for Illinois. John was fifteen at the time.
John and Thomas traveled across the mountains to Pittsburgh and then to Cincinnati by stagecoach. On their trip, they witnessed yellow flags denoting the presence of Cholera, an epidemic throughout the west at that time. In Cincinnati, they caught a steamboat to St. Louis. ‘I was impressed by the wildness and the grandeur of the scenery on the river, before it had been molested by the touch of man’ John recounts about his trip. When they reached St. Louis, the brothers took another stagecoach to Carrollton, Greene County, Illinois and established their first store in Illinois. It was here that John met his future partner C.M. Smith, as well as Stephen A. Douglass, who at the time was a circuit lawyer.
In 1840 John and Thomas left Carrollton in search of a better location for their dry goods store. They traveled to Jacksonville, Springfield, Bloomington, and Decatur before deciding to settle in Springfield. In 1841, John and Thomas partnered with Edward Jones and established a dry goods store under the name Condell Jones & Co. They established their store on North Fifth Street in a group of buildings known as Hoffman's Row. They occupied the second building in the row on the Northwest corner of the square.
John Condell met his wife Arabella S Rice at a camp-meeting, a religious event held in the open air or tents, at the Old Salem Camp Grounds. He was attending the meeting while waiting for the first shipment of goods to arrive for Condell Jones & Co. Arabella Rice was in attendance with her brother-in-law Judge Samuel K. Swingley’s family. John and Arabella were married three years later at the home of Judge Swingley on June 27, 1844. The couple had six children, John Jr (1847), Wilbur (1849), Arabella Jane (1851), Ella (1856), Alice (1859) and an unnamed child that died in infancy.
As a member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, John served as secretary of the board of trustees. In 1852 the church sold off an annex to raise funds for a new building to house the church’s growing congregation. John bought the annex and moved it to its current location at 605 S 4th Street. To move the annex, the building was dismantled and rebuilt in its new location. Several modifications were made to the structure to increase space, including lowering the ceilings to provide additional living space on the second floor. The area of town the building was moved to came to be known as Aristocracy Hill. The neighborhood would eventually become home to some of Springfield's most prominent citizens.
Condell Jones & Co existed until 1852 when, by mutual agreement, the partnership between John and Thomas Condell and their partner Edward Jones was dissolved. The store continued with Thomas and John under the name J.S. Condell & Co. They moved to a new store at North Fifth St located on the north-west corner of the north side of the square. They purchased the building from Mr. Blankinship, a merchant in Springfield, Il. It was the first brick building on the north side of the square.
This was the first of several changes of partners and business names over the next fifteen years. In September 1854 Thomas left the company becoming the president of the Marine and Fire Insurance Company upon the resignation of its former president, Mr. Campbell. The company reformed with John Condell, his younger brother Joseph B Condell, and William Stockdale doing business as Condell, Stockdale & Co. The partnership lasted until 1859 when both Joseph Condell and William Stockdale left.
John’s next partner was his nephew Moses Condell, who had previously received a share of the company from his father Thomas Condell, and they did business under the name J.S. & M.B. Condell. The store operated for four years during the Civil War. The war caused the prices of goods to be in constant flux. The price of items increased an average of fifteen cents per year in Illinois. J.S. & M.B. Condell announced it would no longer be able to accept credit in exchange for goods and that anyone who had a balance with them would need to settle their account. In 1863 ads appeared in the local paper announcing that they were selling stock at a reduced price in advance of closing the business.
Later that same year John Williams bought the building from John Condell for the sum of $10,000. This would be the future location of the First National Bank of Springfield. In 1864 the bank was officially designated a depository of public money and a financial agent of the United States Government. At this time John Condell agreed to become bookkeeper for the bank.
In 1864 the partnership between John and Moses Condell was dissolved. Moses began his own company under the name Heartwell & Condell. John Condell bought a share of C.M. Smith company. A partnership between C.M. Smith, S.R. Harriman and John Condell under the name C.M. Smith & Co existed until 1869 when S.R. Harriman left the partnership.
C.M. Smith & Co. expanded their stock from dry goods. The store was divided into five departments, dry goods, clothing, boots and shoes, groceries, and drugs. The store had twenty employees and conducted a trade of over $150,000 a year (more than three million dollars in today’s value). They quickly outgrew the original building. Smith pulled down the structure and built a three-story brick building known as ‘Smith’s Block’ on the same site.
In 1885, upon C.M. Smith’s death, the store closed. On behalf of Ann M. Smith, C.M. Smith’s wife, John oversaw the collection of any outstanding debts and the sale of the remaining merchandise. After the store was sold John retired. John Condell passed away on August 17, 1907 and was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery.
