William B. Waddell

Waddell was born on October 17, 1807, in Fauquier County, Virginia to parents of Scottish descent. Following the remarriage of his father in 1811, he and his family moved to Mason County, Kentucky a busy center of immigration activity. In 1824, at the age of 17, he ventured from home to first work in the lead mines at Galena, Illinois, and then to St. Louis, Missouri, clerked for a time in the Berhoud & McCreery dry goods store. He returned to Kentucky soon after. On January 1, 1829, he married Susan Byram and settled down to farm. Finding farming not to his liking, he moved and opened a successful dry goods store in Mayslick, Kentucky.

In 1835, Waddell again moved his family, this time to Lexington, Missouri, where he opened another dry goods store on the waterfront near Jack's Ferry. In 1837, he joined William Hepburn Russell, and others in creating the Lexington First Addition Company, the Lexington Fire and marine Insurance Company and the Lexington Female Collegiate Institute. He was also able to build a brick store and a hemp warehouse.

Waddell's first experience with the freighting business came through his partnership with Russell. In 1853, they created Waddell & Russell, a wholesale trading firm. Later that year, they hauled military supplies by wagon train to Fort Riley, Kansas, and Fort Union, New Mexico. The firm failed to obtain a contract the following year.