Claus J. Claussen

CLAUSSEN, KAESE, GATHE, HAYUNGS

Posted By: Michael Kearney (email)
Date: 2/24/2003 at 11:13:54

1911 Wolf's History of Clinton p. 454-456 Whether the elements of success in life are innate attributes of the individual or whether they are quickened by a process of circumstantial development, it is impossible to clearly determine. Yet the study of a successful life, whatever the field of endeavor, is none the less interesting and profitable by reason of the existence of this same uncertainty. So much in excess of those of successes are the records of failures or semi-failures, that one is constrained to attempt an analysis in either case and to determine the measure of causation in an approximate way. But in studying the life history of Claus J. Claussen, one of the enterprising men of Clinton, we find many qualities in his makeup that always gain definite success in any career if properly directed, as his has evidently been done, which has resulted in well earned success for himself and of good to others. Mr. Claussen was born in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, January 5, 1858, and he is the son of Peter and Margaret (Kaese) Claussen. The mother died when her son Claus J. was three years old, and the father, who was a farmer and a man who stood high among his neighbors, lived until 1909. Claus J. Claussen spent his youth and early manhood in his home community and was educated in the schools of his native vicinity. Believing that America held greater opportunities for a young man of his ambitions, he came to our shores in 1880 and first found employment in the large lumber camps of Wisconsin. He came to Clinton, Iowa, in 1881 and worked for C. Lamb & Sons in their lumber yard, then worked in the Chancy lumber yards for four years. He then went to Crawford county, Iowa, and farmed two years, then to LaCrosse, Wisconsin, and entered college, graduating from the institution there on April 24, 1887. He is deserving of a great deal of credit for the courage he displayed in obtaining a higher education, for he worked his way though college by working in the lumber yards. The big fire at LaCrosse in 1887 resulted in throwing Mr. Claussen out of work and he came to Clinton. He worked for W.J. Young one summer, then entered the grocery business under the name of Claussen & Petersen. After continuing in this line for three years they sold out and bought the Park Place grocery, which was conducted with equal success for two years, then Mr. Claussen came to Cammanche avenue, where he continues in the grocery business for a period of ten years, then bought the Clinton Milling Company. He rented it for a period of six years and in the meantime again engaged in the grocery business. He was later interested in the Critron Manufacturing business. In 1906 he took active charge of his mill and has since operated the same with signal success, doing a large and growing business and reaching new territory constantly. His mill is well equipped in every respect and is popular with his patrons. He has proven himself to be a business man of no small magnitude and he has succeeded at whatever he has directed his attention, believing in doing well whatever is worth doing at all. The Clinton Milling Company, of which he is proprietor, is across the road from Curtis Brothers' old flour mill, which was built in 1864 and which has long been one of the most widely known mills in eastern Iowa. It is three stories with a basement, one hundred by ninety feet, with an engine room attached. It has a capacity of fifty barrels of buckwheat and thirty of corn meal, five people being employed. Politically, Mr. Classen is a Republican, but he does not find time from his business affairs to take any special part in political matters. Religiously he is a Lutheran and fraternally he belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The domestic life of Mr. Claussen began in September, 1882, when he married Augusta Gathe, who was born in Holstein in 1859, of an excellent old family. To this union four children have been born, named as follows: Emma, wife of F. Hayungs, who lives in South Dakota; Minnie and Freda are members of the family circle, and Hulda is attending school.