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Progressive Men of
Iowa
1899
 DAVIDSON,
Thomas M., the founder of the Elkader Argus, and
a man who has a self-acquired education in the
law as well as in the ordinary departments of
learning, was born in Licking county, Ohio,
December 19, 1838. He comes of poor and obscure
parentage, of whom but little is known except
that they were of Scotch descent.
At the age of 3 years
Mr. Davidson was adopted by an uncle, with whom
he lived until the breaking out of the war in
1861. His school advantages were very limited,
never attending more than three months in the
year and having had no opportunity whatever
after he had reached the age of 18. He came to
Iowa in the fall of 1856 and worked on a farm in
the vicinity of Volga City. At the commencement
of the civil war he enlisted in the Sixteenth
United States infantry and was assigned to
Company P, First battalion. He participated in
the battle of Shiloh and the Corinth and Stone
River campaigns. He was promoted to sergeant and
in February, 1864, was sent to regimental
headquarters at Ft Ontario, N. Y., where he
superintended the drilling and equipping of
recruits, remaining there until the expiration
of his term of enlistment.
He then returned to
Clayton county, Iowa, but as his health was too
poor to admit of farm work, and having had no
opportunity to accumulate capital with which to
go into business he learned the shoemaker's
trade and supported his family by working at the
bench.
Being ambitious for better things, he
took up the study of law, which he pursued at
night, after his day's work, with no assistance
other than the encouragement of a true and
devoted wife. His election as constable gave him
more opportunity and purpose for the study of
law. He was admitted to practice in the state
courts in 1877. In 1883 he formed a partnership
with Hon. Samuel Murdock, of Elkader, which
continued for four years, at which time the
relation was dissolved and Mr. Davidson
continued alone. In 1890, his health growing
worse, he gave up the practice altogether and
established the Elkader Argus, a republican
weekly newspaper. The duties of this enterprise
being greater than he could perform alone, at
the beginning of 1896 he sold a half interest to
Marvin Cook.
Mr. Davidson cast his
first ballot for Abraham Lincoln for president
and has ever since been identified with the
republican party. In 1886 he received the
nomination for the office of county attorney of
Clayton county, and, although the democratic
majority in the county was about 1,200, he was
defeated by only 700 votes. He was
again nominated for the same office in 1896 and
during the campaign took the stump and did much
toward swinging the county into the republican
column by a majority of over 400 and electing
himself and three other republican candidates to
their respective offices. He is now serving a
second term, being re-elected in 1898. He is a
member of the L O. G. T., I. O. O. F., A. F. and
A. M., K. of P., and G. A. R., in
all of which he has held important
offices.
While yet a soldier he was
married to Miss Margaret E. Wickham, of Licking
county, Ohio. They have reared two children, one
of whom, M. Anna, is the wife of Rev. R. C.
Lusk, pastor of the Methodist church at Elma.
and the other, Wilmer W., is foreman in the
Argus office. He is
reading law also, with a view of some day
following the profession of his father. At this
writing the health of Mr. Davidson has so far
improved that he is again in practice in
connection with his newspaper
work.
 RUEGNITZ, Hon.
Charles, was born at Warren,
Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany, January 12, 1849.
His parents were born near the same place. In
1864, with their ten children, seven sons and
three daughters, they came to the United States
and direct to Clayton, Clayton county, Iowa. The
voyage across the Atlantic, from Hamburg to New
York, was made on a sailing ship, and lasted
seven weeks. When out at
sea four weeks the youngest daughter, one year
old, died.
Charles attended the
common schools from his 6th to his 14th year,
when he went to work as apprentice in his
father's cooper shop. During the time, he took
advantage of the Mechanics' school, held at
night, where he received special training by
competent teachers without cost. After
coming to the United States, in 1864, he worked
at coopering until 1868 in Clayton, at which
time he went to Minneapolis and Stillwater,
where he followed the same trade. In 1870 he
joined a party to go to the gold fields of
Montana, but on reaching Omaha gave up the trip,
the reports being unfavorable. He remained in
that city a short time, when he entered the
employment of the Union Pacific railway and
worked on the sections at Alkali and Julesburg
until fall. He then returned to Omaha and
secured employment on the bridge across the
Missouri, then in course of construction, where
the next few months of his life was spent below
the bottom of the river, in the cylinders
wherein so many men parted with health, if not
life.
In 1871 he returned
to Clayton county and again engaged in
coopering, serving as foreman for Krueger,
Werges & Company. In 1874 the Northwestern
Hoop company, of Chicago, erected a factory at
Clayton, which was provided with all the
improved machinery for manufacturing hoops and
box straps, and Mr. Ruegnitz was given charge of
the concern, which he conducted for seven years.
At the end of that time he engaged in business
for himself, which he continued for three years.
Although never having had an opportunity to
attend school in this country, he was possessed
of a good education, self-earned, and to that
was added the thorough and more desirable
knowledge which is obtained by practical
experience. He held the office of township clerk
for several years, and was justice of the peace
and a member of the school board. In 1884 he was
elected county treasurer, which honored position
he now fills. If this were not enough to show
the high esteem in which he is held, both as a
citizen and a public official, it might be added
that in 1892 he received the nomination for
state treasurer on the democratic ticket, but
was, of course, defeated, owing to the
republican party being in the ascendency.
He was married in 1872 to Miss Emma
Venus, who was born in Clayton county in 1852.
Her father, Joseph Venus, a Bavarian by birth,
was one of the original thirteen who founded the
German Colony Communia in this county in 1847.
They have three children, Emma, Fritz and Louis,
all of whom have been reared in the Lutheran
faith. It must not be omitted that, although
always a democrat, Mr. Ruegnitz is an ardent
supporter of the gold standard as against the
free coinage of silver. He was a charter member
of Clayton Lodge 143, A. O. U. W.; of
Mystic Camp 319, Modern Woodmen of America, and
member and president of the Elkader Turn Verein
and its gesangs (singing)
section.
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