Joseph Wheeler Aylor, 32°
(Sep 29, 1839-Apr 27, 1917)

Member, Webb City Lodge #512, Webb City, MO

1901 - 32° Consistory of Western Missouri, Kansas City

Occupation: Mining magnate, banker
Interred: Mount Hope Cemetery, Webb City, MO

Joseph Aylor served in the Confederate army as a private with the 9th Battalion, Missouri Sharpshooters in both Arkansas & Louisiana. After his unit disbanded in the Spring of 1865, he went to Texas where he married his first wife and had two children before settling in Jasper county, Missouri where he purchased a farm for $4,000 that proved to be rich in minerals. He became a successful lead and zinc mine operator and among his holdings were the Eleventh Hour Mines and McCorkle Hill Mines. In 1883 he built the Grand Opera House in Webb City, later known as the Middlewest Hotel. In 1915 he became the director of the Carthage National Bank, at 401 S Main with his brother-in-law George B Wood, Jim Luke and others, which merged in 1921 after 29 years of service to Carthage and created the Bank of Carthage. He moved to Kansas City where he built a mansion at 51st and Broadway where he resided until his death from heart disease in 1917. He maintained an art collection containing paintings of contemporary European and American artists.

Brother Aylor was a member of Webb City Lodge #512 and became a 32° Mason in the Valley of Kansas City Scottish Rite in 1901.