Information Sheet

 

 

R         Gillioz, M. E. (Maurice Ernest), 1877-1962.

575                  Collection, 1926-1994.

                                    Four folders, photocopies.

 

 

 

This is a collection of printed material and newspaper clippings concerning the life and ca­reer of M. E. Gillioz, a construction contractor and businessman from Monett, Barry County, Mis­souri.  Included are biographical materials, a program on the opening of the Gillioz Bank & Trust Co., the Gillioz memorial edition of the Monett Times, material on the construction of the Gillioz Theater in Springfield, Missouri, in 1926, and stories on the plans for its restoration in the 1990s.

 

M. E. Gillioz was born at Dillon in Phelps County, Missouri, the son of Swiss and French parents.  He left home to take a job with the Santa Fe railroad; later he became foreman of a bridge and building gang on the Frisco railway.  He left the Frisco’s employ after twelve years to begin his own construction company.   In 1914, Gillioz located in Monett, the city with which he would be associated for the rest of his life.  He organized the Gillioz Company, Inc., which be­came one of the largest construction firms in southwestern Missouri.  The company built the Blue Mountain Dam near Booneville, Arkansas, and the bridge at Fort Smith, the Medical Arts build­ing and Gil­lioz Theater in Springfield, Missouri, viaducts in Kansas City, the Gillioz Theater in Monett, and many other highway, commercial, and civil projects.  Gillioz was also involved in many other business enterprises in Monett, including a bank, clothing store, automobile dealer­ship, implement company, paint shop, and office building.  He was active in national Republican political circles and in local civic affairs, and was one of the most prominent citizens of Monett by the time of his death in 1962.

 

 

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