Buxton and Skinner

Buxton and Skinner (1878 - 1999) were stationers and lithographer active in Saint Louis in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The firm was founded by Charles Mather Skinner (November 3, 1847 - January 13, 1929) and Oliver W. Buxton (1835 - 18??). Little is known of Oliver Buxton save that he was a clerk at R. P. Studley and company as early as 1866. Skinner was born in New York and first became involved in the printing business in 1865 in Chicago. He relocated to St. Louis in 1869, taking work with the firm of R. P. Studley and Company. Studley and Company closed its doors in 1878 and their business was taken over by staffers Buxton and Skinner, who renamed after themselves. The firm served initially as a stationer with just two small water driven presses. Their offices were initially located at 219 and 221 Chestnut Street, St. Louis. These offices burnt to the ground in December of 1880, causing considerable loss, and forcing them to relocate to new offices at 215 Chestnuts Street, at the same time they formally incorporated. Buxton retired in 1886, at which point his shares were acquired by Charles Skinner, but the name, Buxton and Skinner, remained. In 1898 they added a new printing facility at 306-308 North Fourth Street. By this time, it had become one of the largest printing concerns in the United States. The firm continued to prosper through multiple generations of the Skinner family. In 1999 Buxton and Skinner was acquired by the conglomerate Mail-Well.