Adair County Iowa
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| Adair County Iowa |
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James F. Laude is secretary and manager of the Greenfield Creamery Company and bears the well earned reputation of being the greatest creamery expert in Iowa. Experience, laudable ambition and enterprise have brought him to this creditable position. Iowa claims him as a native son, his birth having occurred in Dubuque county, eight miles south of the city of Dubuque, on the 5th of April, 1848, his parets being Fred J. and Louise (Leclere) Laude, both natives of France, whence they were brought to the United States by their parents in their childhood days, the mother being but three years of age when she accompanied her father and mother to the new world, while the father was a youth of eleven years. They settled in the town of Mexico not far from Syracuse, New York, and in that locality Fred J. Laude and Louise Leclere were reared and married. In 1846 they removed westward to Dubuque county, Iowa, where they took up government land on which they resided until called to their final rest. Their old homestead is now the town site of Laudeville. James F. Laude was reared under the parental roof and after attending the district schools continued his education in Lenox Collegiate Institute at Hopkinton, Iowa, where he made excellent use of his time, his standing at the first term being ninety-nine and two-fifths per cent. During his second term he had for a teacher the late Samuel Calvin, for many years state geologist of Iowa. Following the completion of his studies he devoted himself to farming. He was married in his twentieth year, on the 31st of December, 1867, to Miss Eugenia Valley, a native of France. At the age of eighteen years he was as large as he is now, standing six feet tall and weighing one hundred and eighty-five pounds, while few men could do as much work as he. While Mr. Laude was born and reared in Iowa, his children could not speak a word of English when entering school. He devoted his attention to farming in his native county until 1878, when he removed to Jones county and bought a farm of two hundred acres, which he afterward increased by an additional one hundred acres. There he lived for twenty-two years and in 1900 he came to Adair county, where he invested in one hundred and sixty acres of land in Grove township. A year later he sold that property and purchased the Lee Christ farm of two hundred and forty acres in Summerset township. The following spring he bought the N. C. Gibbs farm, also in Summerset township, and about 1908 he sold that place and the same day became owner of the Samuel Allen farm of eighty acres in Summerset township. A few days later he invested in one hundred acres lying across the road and in 1901 he became owner of his town property in Greenfield, where he has two acres, on which stands a comfortable and attractive residence which he has occupied since ecoming the owner thereof. He still owns three hundred and eighty acres in Summerset township and an eighty acre farm near Flint, Michingan, and from his property holdings derives a gratifying income. In 1900 the Greenfield Creamery Company was organized. Mr. Laude had previously been secretary and manager of a creamery company in Jones county and his reputation for business ability in that connection had become known to the Greenfield company and he was offered the position of secretary and manager of the newly organized company. Three days after his arrival he made out the bill for the machinery for the new creamery. He began his work with the company at a salary of twelve and a half dollars per month an dtoday receives a salary of one hundred and twenty dollars per month. He has built up a business of between one hundred and twenty-five and one hundred and thirty thousand dollars a year, making this the most important industry in the county. He was the dominant factor in the erection of the new brick creamery building about 1906. It was an uphill fight on his part and when the vote was taken for the proposition it passed with only one-half majority. Prior to the election Mr. Laude guaranteed to pay for the new building in three years out of the sinking fund and the building was erected and paid for without the issue of additional stock. The product of the Greenfield plant is unsurpassed in the entire United States. At the Louisiana Purchse Exposition in St. Louis it received the silver medal and in the awarding of the medals the Hutchinson, Minnesota, product which received the gold medal was so exactly like the Greenfield exhibit that it was impossible for the judges to decide and they drew lots for the decision. The first butter maker under Mr. Laude was subsequently appointed deputy United States dairy commissioner and later made United States creamery inspector and educator. There is no man in all the country with more expert knowledge of the creamery business and of more proficient skill in this direction than Mr. Laude and his ability in that connection has made him known throughout the entire country. In addition to his creamery business Mr. Laude is a stockholder in the First National Bank of Greenfield. To Mr. and Mrs. Laude have been born eleven children: Emma, Eugenia, Ada, William, Alfred, Lulu, Lottie, Peter, Lucy, Fred and one who died in infancy. The parents and nine of the children are members of the Presbyterian church and the family is one prominent in the community. In his political views Mr. Laude is a republican, and keeping well informed on the questions and issues of the day, his vote is intelligently cast. He concentrates his energies, however, upon his business affairs and steady advancement has attended him, the Greenfield Creamery Company being now widely known. |
