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Progressive Men of Iowa
1899
 KUEHNLE, Carl F., one of the best-known young
lawyers in the state, is a native Iowan, born in Dubuque
April 7, 1861. He is the son of Charles P. Kuehnle, who
was born in Germany, and Mary Von Eschen Kuehnle, who
was born in Switzerland. He attended the public schools
of Dubuque until he was about 10 years of age, when he
moved with his parents to Waterloo, Iowa, where he
attended the public schools of East Waterloo, graduating
from the East Waterloo high school in June, 1878, as
valedictorian of the class. Honors thus
began to come to him early in life, and more than an
ordinary share have been bestowed upon this energetic,
young Iowa man. Entering the State University of Iowa
immediately after his graduation from the high school,
he began to win honors from the first. He won the prize
offered by the professor of English literature to the
best student of Shakespeare; was one of two successful
contestants in the junior oratorical contest; was
salutatorian of his class when graduating from the law
department, and was a member of the Irving Institute
Literary society. He graduated from the collegiate
department with the degree of Ph. B., in June, 1881, and
from the law department of the same university in June,
1882, with the degree of LL.B. In 1884 he received the
degree of A, M. from the same institution. Mr. Kuehnle's
professional career began, where it is now in successful
progress, in Denison, Iowa. At first he was in the
employ of Conner A Shaw, lawyers, commencing in the fall
of 1882. January 1, 1885, Mr. Conner, of that firm,
became district judge, and the firm was dissolved. Mr.
Kuehnle then formed a partnership with the other member
of the firm, L. M. Shaw, now governor of Iowa, which
still continues under the firm name of Shaw &
Kuehnle. In 1887 the firm established a branch office in
Charter Oak, Iowa, in charge of P. D. McMahon.
In 1888 Mr. Kuehnle became vice-president of the
Bank of Manilla, in Manilla, Iowa, a position which he
still holds. The Bank of Denison was established by the
firm of Shaw & Kuehnle, January 1, 1890, with L. M.
Shaw as president; C. F. Kuehnle, vice-president, and C.
L. Voss, cashier. Mr. Kuehnle is half owner of the bank,
Governor Shaw owning the other half. The firm has done
an enormous business in farm loans, their loans being
valued in the east at the top of the market, because of
the unquestionable character of the securities. The firm
has had the best law practice in the county for years,
and is one of the strongest in western Iowa. To this
result, in both branches of the business, Mr. Kuehnle's
great energy and quick perception have contributed a
very large share.
Mr. Kuehnle is fond of politics, and is well
known all over the state as one of the "hustlers " of
the republican party. He has repeatedly been chairman of
the republican county committee, of Crawford county;
notably, in the presidential campaigns in which Harrison
and McKinley were elected; is president of the Tenth
district republican league; has been chairman of the
senatorial committee of his district, and was
vice-president of the republican national league for the
state of Iowa in 1893-94. He is now the Iowa member of
the executive committee of the national republican
league. He was a delegate to the state convention which
nominated Mr. Shaw for governor in 1897, and his large
state acquaintance was a source of much strength to Mr.
Shaw.
Mr.
Kuehnle is a member of the local lodges of the
Masons, Odd Fellows, and Knights of Pythias; is also a
Knight Templar and Mystic Shriner; was grand chancellor
of the Knights of Pythias of Iowa for 1893-94, and is
now supreme representative from the grand lodge of Iowa
to the supreme lodge of the world, Knights of
Pythias. He
has been president of the Alumni association of the
State university, and was one of the founders and
promoters, and is now a member of the board of directors
of the Denison Normal School association.
He was married, October 11, 1889,
to Miss Lillie M. Laub, the youngest daughter of Hon. H.
C. Laub, of Denison. They have two children: Lydia Belle
Kuehnle, born August 10, 1892, and Carl Frederick
Kuehnle, born June 22, 1896.
 LAUB, Henry Clay, the well-known pioneer of
Denison, is a native of the Keystone state, born in
York, Pa., April 18, 1824. His father, William Laub, was
born at Reading, Pa., and was at one time county
treasurer of Adams county, of which the famous town of
Gettysburg is the county seat. Henry Laub, a brother of
William, was a midshipman in the navy under the command
of the gallant Commodore Perry, and was killed in one of
the naval battles on Lake Erie.
When young Henry was less than a year old his
parents moved to Gettysburg and he lived in that town
for about twelve years, attending school for about three
months of each year when he became old enough. When
about 12 years old his father died and Henry was from
that time obliged to work very hard to assist in
supporting the family. For several years he worked in
the country and had very little chance to attend
school. At
the age of 19 he became a shoemaker and traveled from
house to house working at his trade. All this time the
young man was eagerly grasping every opportunity for the
development of his mind, and often the cold gray of
early morning, before time for commencing work, would
find him busily engaged with book and pencil. His
evenings were always thus employed, indeed sometimes the
active mind would be engaged in the pursuit of knowledge
by the uncertain light of a tallow dip, until far into
the night, when others, less eager to learn, were calm
in the enjoyment of "natures sweet restorer." This same
habit of perseverance has characterized Mr. Laub's whole
existence.
He was married February 14, 1848, to Miss Lydia
Baer, of Frederick county, Md. In 1851 Mr. Laub
and his wife came west and stopped at Muscatine, Iowa,
where he secured a position as teacher in the public
schools and also held the position of city clerk. After
leaving Muscatine he spent a year in Cedar Rapids, and
in 1855 went to Crawford county and settled on a farm
near Denison and began breaking up virgin sod
preparatory to tilling the soil. In about 1856 he became
interested in the city of Denison, then in the embryo,
and, desiring to widen the scope of his activity,
erected, on the corner of what is now Main and Broadway
streets, the first store building of Crawford county,
and the first building of any kind in Denison,-a
miniature affair 14x18, well stocked with goods hauled
overland from Cedar Rapids. Mr. Laub is, in very
truth, justly entitled to be designated "the father of
the town." All went well in the new enterprise until the
stock was exhausted and then an un-expected difficulty
presented itself. The country was wild and sparsely
settled, consequently the few customers who patronized
Mr. Laub were as short of money as they were desperately
in need of provisions. Mr. Laub was too
kind hearted to let them suffer, and with that
magnanimity predominant in his nature, dealt out
provisions with a generous hand until all were
gone. Then,
lacking the wherewith to purchase more, and finding it
impossible to make collections, there was no alternative
but to shut up shop; so, locking the door behind him,
the proprietor passed out and returned to the farm,
concluding for the time his career as a merchant. In
1858 he returned to Denison, having traded his farm for
a store and hotel. Mr. Laub was a member of the first
board of supervisors for the county, and by reason of
special qualifications, served twelve successive years
as county superintendent. He was also the second sheriff
of that county; and for one term was county surveyor. To
show their appreciation of this gentleman's services,
the people of Crawford county elected him to the
honorable position of representative, where he, for a
term, rendered very satisfactory service. Later he made
the senatorial canvass, but it was at a time when the
liquor traffic influenced the issue, and, owing to his
pronounced prohibitory proclivities, he suffered
defeat.
During the war he served as government recruiting
officer for this district, and also erected a stockade
and fortress at Cherokee to protect the citizens from
Indian ravages.
He organized Company D, celebrated in history as
the Northwestern Iowa brigade, of which he was first
lieutenant and quartermaster.
Mr. Laub was for many years the leading merchant
of Denison, and in 1874 he took his clerks into
partnership and himself retired from active management
of the business. The new management was not satisfactory
and in 1876 the firm had become insolvent, in debt to
the amount of $78,000. With this great burden resting
upon him Mr. Laub resumed management or the business
and, having the confidence of the creditors, secured an
extension of three years, at the end of which time he
had paid every cent of the debt. Politically, Mr.
Laub has always acted with the republican party. He is a
member of the Masonic order, Odd Fellows and Good
Templar fraternities, and for the past forty two years
has been connected with the Methodist Episcopal church,
of which he has been one of the most active members and
liberal supporters.
Mr. and Mrs. Laub have eight children: William
H., born June 24, 1855, who is engaged in the livery
business at Denison; Eli C., born November 30, 1859, who
is a merchant at Correctionville; Alice M., born August
25, 1849, now the wife of J. D. Ainsworth,
and is editing Mr. Ainsworth's paper, The Onawa Gazette;
Mettie E., born April 9, 1851, who is the wife of Hon.
J. B. Romans, one of the leading merchants of Denison;
Julia Catherine, born January 20, 1857, now the wife of
W. T.
Perkins, a lawyer of Bismarck, N. D.; Anna L., born
March 31, 1862, now the wife of George Bartholomew,
Chicago, 111.; Lydia Bell, born November 27, 1864, who
died at the age of 20 years, and Lillie M., born
November 2, 1866, wife of C. F. Kuehnle, lawyer
and banker of Denison.
 McHENRY, W. A., son of James and Sarah
(Allen) McHenry, was born in Almond, N. Y., on the 6th
of March, 1841. He is of Scotch-Irish descent. His
grandfather, John McHenry was born in Coleraine, County
Antrim, Ireland, and came to America in 1730, on the
same ship with the father of DeWitt Clinton. He served
as major of the First New York battalion in the French
war of 1756-7. His son, Henry McHenry, was born at
Wallkill Valley, Orange county, N. Y., July, 1752, and
served as captain in the Second United States (or
Continental army) infantry during the war of the
revolution. His son, James McHenry, was born at Fishing
Creek, Northumberland county, Pa., in 1788, and in 1797
the family moved to McHenry Valley, Allegany county, N.
Y. In the
war of 1812 he served as first lieutenant in Captain Van
Campen's company of rifles, and died in June, 1841.
W. A.
McHenry was his youngest son. He lived in the old
homestead until he was 14 years of age, when he went to
Milton, Wis., with his brother, Vincent McHenry. He
received a common school education, and, in 1860,
removed to Ogle county, 111., where he worked on a farm
until the commencement of the civil war. Thrilled with
patriotic fire he volunteered, September 5, 1861, as a
private in Company L, Eighth Illinois cavalry. The
regiment was immediately sent to Washington and attached
to the army of the Potomac, participating in all the
important battles in which that army was engaged until
January, 1864, when the regiment was veteranized and
transferred to the department at Washington. It was then
made their duty to look after Mosby's band of
guerrillas, and the regiment gained for itself great
distinction in hand to hand encounters with the
enemy.
During his service Mr. McHenry personally
captured eight of the enemy and had many narrow escapes,
but escaped without injury. He was mustered out of the
service as first sergeant, July 23, 1865. He was
previously recommended by Captain Bradley to fill a
vacancy of lieutenant in the company but owing to the
close of the war did not receive the commission.
At the close of the war he formed a partnership
with his brother in the real estate business at Denison,
Iowa. Emigration rapidly followed the extension of
railroad lines to the Pacific and the firm of McHenry
Bros, did a large and profitable business in the selling
of land. Banking was added and success attended both
enterprises.
In 1877, Mr. W. A. McHenry purchased his
brother's interests and conducted the business alone
until the W. A. McHenry bank was merged into the First
National bank of Denison, with a capital stock of
$100,000. Of this bank Mr. McHenry is president and
principal stockholder. In business methods he is
conservative, and, during the panic of 1893 he was not
obliged to borrow a single dollar. The rapid
accumulation of deposits testifies that the people in
his vicinity have the utmost confidence in his ability
and integrity and the Iowa bankers have honored him by
electing him president of their association.
During his long experience in the real estate
business Mr. McHenry has bought and improved many
valuable tracts of land, some of which be still retains.
Of late years he has engaged extensively in feeding
cattle for market, and on his fine valley farm, of 600
acres, adjoining the city of Denison, he has a large
herd of thoroughbred Aberdeen-Angus cattle which have a
world-wide celebrity as the "McHenry Park Herd." They
carried off the highest honors at the World's Columbian
exposition in Chicago, taking twenty-four prizes. He served three
years as president of the American Aberdeen-Angus Cattle
Breeders' association, and takes great pride in
everything pertaining to the improvement and advancement
of the "doddies.''
Politically, Mr. McHenry is a republican and cast
his first vote for Abraham Lincoln. His great business
interests, however, prevent him from entering the
political arena. He is an enthusiastic member of the G.
A. R., and always meets with the "boys" in the state and
national encampments. He is a past department commander
of Iowa. He is a prominent member of the Baptist church
and has for many years been one of the most earnest
supporters and generous contributors.
While at home on furlough, in 1864, he married
Miss Mary L. Sears, of Rockford, 111. She preceded him
to Denison and served as deputy county treasurer and
recorder until the close of the war. She is prominently
identified with the Woman's Relief Corps of the G. A.
R., was elected department president in 1887 and
national president in 1890. Mr. and Mrs. McHenry have
four children, two sons and two daughters. In 1885 Mr.
McHenry built the elegant residence he now occupies, and
surrounded by congenial friends and a happy family he
enjoys the comforts of a well earned
fortune.
 SHAW, Leslie
Mortier, governor of Iowa, was born in Lamoille county,
Vt., in 1848. He learned when a boy, while fighting
stones on a rough, upland farm, that the good things of
life are secured only by hard work, and that has been
the rule of his life. He came to Iowa when 21 years of
age, He resolved that he would never again see his Green
Mountain state till he had won some measure of success.
He worked on a farm when he first came to Iowa, in Linn
county, where he cast his first vote; taught school;
attended Cornell college at Mount Vernon, where he
graduated in 1874. Part of his school expenses were paid
in selling fruit trees, in which he was eminently
successful. He sold to the farmers of Crawford county
over $4,000 worth of nursery stock, which he delivered
in 1874 and 1875 at Denison, where he located in the
practice of law in July of 1876. He had in the meantime
graduated from the Iowa College of Law. He went to
Denison because he liked the country and the people, and
was willing to risk his reputation among those with whom
he had had dealings. He was successful in his
profession, as he had been in other lines. As his
practice increased, an extensive loan business was
added, until he became joint proprietor and president of
two banks in the county. Of over $2,000,000 loaned by
his firm on farm security for eastern clients, only one
mortgage has been foreclosed.
While Mr. Shaw is one of the best trial lawyers
in the state, it has always been his policy to settle
his cases whenever it can be done with justice to his
client. This policy has probably contributed its share
to the harmony among the business interests of his
thriving town. During twenty years of Governor Shaw's
residence there, no case has ever come to trial between
the business men of Denison.
While in Cornell college, Governor Shaw joined
the Methodist church, and has ever since been an active
worker and a liberal contributor to that church. For
about twenty years he was superintendent of the Sunday
school at Denison, and for the last few years of his
superintendence had an average attendance equal to
one-seventh of the entire population of the town. He is
practical in religion as in all things, believing that
Christianity, to be of use in the world, must be made to
fit the ordinary experiences of
life.
Mr. Shaw has manifested great interest in
educational matters. He has made several donations to
Cornell college, Simpson college, and some other
institutions of the state. He was the principal
contributor to the Denison Academy and Normal school
erected in his own town, and has been president of the
board of trustees since its inception. He is also a
member of the board of trustees of Cornell
college.
Though always active in support of the republican
party, he was never a seeker for political preferment in
the campaign of 1896 he took a prominent part in
battling against what he thought to be a most dangerous
attack upon the national honor and commercial and
industrial interests. As early as February of that year,
Hon. William Jennings Bryan, subsequently silver
candidate for president, delivered an address in
Denison, in support of the doctrines afterwards
formulated in the Chicago platform, on which he ran for
president. A few days after this speech, Mr. Shaw was
requested by the sound money men of his town to reply to
Mr. Bryan, which he did. From that time
his services were in constant demand; he made over sixty
speeches in various parts of the state in favor of a
single gold standard. He makes no pre-tensions to
oratory, as most people understand the art, but he is a
persuasive, logical, incisive, earnest and effective
speaker. He
made friends wherever he spoke. His candidacy
for governor was not of his own seeking; his name was
brought forward three weeks before the convention, where
he was nominated on the fourth ballot in a field of ten
candidates, every one of whom was worthy of the highest
honors of the state. The campaign of 1897 centered
around the gubernatorial contest. He made his
campaign on the money issue, and never indulged an
unkind utterance against his opponent. He requested the
committee in charge of the speaking campaign not to send
him into the county of his adversary, preferring to do
nothing personally to reduce his opponent's vote at
home. He was elected over the fusion nominee, Hon. Fred
E. White, by 29,875 majority. The next year he conducted
a similar campaign in the interest of the state ticket,
and contributed his full share to the republican
majority in his state of 63,282, and the election of a
solid republican delegation to
congress.
The administration of Governor Shaw has been
eminently successful, though he has had some serious
problems to solve, chief of which has been the
preparation of the Iowa troops for the war with Spain,
and the protection of the soldiers after they entered
the United States army. To these duties the governor
gave his best thought, and while reflecting credit upon
the state for the high grade of troops furnished,
succeeded in securing for them many concessions, and in
adding to their comfort in many ways. At his suggestion
and request, the legislature, previous to its
adjournment, placed $500,000 at his disposal in aid of
the government in supplying the troops. From this fund
Governor Shaw equipped the regiments to such an extent
that they won the admiration of every camp where they
went; and he declined no request for supplies or
equipment made by any officer or soldier in the four
regiments sent forward.
Governor Shaw is now, with but little more than
half of his term completed, a national character, on
account of his contributions to monetary science, and
his other excellent addresses. While declining a large
majority of the invitations received to speak outside of
the state, he presided and made the principal address at
the national monetary convention at Indianapolis, in
February, 1898. He addressed the Chamber of Commerce at
Rochester, N. Y., at their annual banquet in 1898. He
was the guest of honor and principal speaker at the
annual banquet of the manufacturers of the state of New
York, in February, 1899, where President McKinley had
preceded him as the principal speaker the year
before.
Governor Shaw has an ideal home at Denison, which
is the center of hospitality. Mrs. Shaw was
Alice Crawshaw, daughter of James Crawshaw, one of the
best known pioneers of eastern Iowa, who came to the
state when a territory in 1837. They were married in
Camanche, in December, 1877. Three children
have been born to them, Enid, who is now a student in
Cornell college, Earl and Erma, both in the public
schools of Des Moines.
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