SPAANUM, Carl H.

SPAANUM, BRUSH, BOECK

Posted By: Gordon Felland (email)
Date: 3/26/2010 at 16:44:03

Carl H. Spaanum, attorney at law of Osage, is a representative of one of the honored pioneer families of Mitchell county and was born upon the old family homestead in Cedar township, June 28, 1883, being a son of Sever K. and Augusta (Boeck) Spaanum, who are mentioned elsewhere in this work. He is the eldest in a family of three children and, reared under the parental roof, he early became familiar with tilling the soil and caring for the crops. His education was pursued in the country schools of Cedar township, supplemented by a course in the Nora Springs (Iowa) Seminary, from which he was graduated on the completion of an academic course. He also pursued a business or a commercial course and completed his school work in 1905. He then went to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he became a law student in the State University, and subsequently he attended the Iowa City State College, from which he was graduated on the completion of the law course with the class of 1908. He next went to Waterloo and was connected with William N. Birdsell in the practice of law for six months. He afterward removed to Osage and had an office in connection with G. E. Marsh for three years. For a time he practiced alone, and then formed a partnership with F. C. Bush, an attorney, under the firm style of Bush & Spaanum. After two years spent in that connection Mr. Spaanum took charge of the management of the Union Real Estate & Abstract Company, but after about a year entered into a law partnership with H. G. Bartlett in July, 1915, under the firm style of Bartlett & Spaanum. They purchased the abstract business, which they are now conducting under the name of the Mitchell County Abstract Company, and they also engage in the practice of law. They are likewise the secretaries of the Merchants Trade & Credit Association. Their business in its various departments has reached extensive proportions and has become of an important character.

On the 7th of September, 1911, Mr. Spaanum was united in marriage to Miss Laura Brush, a native of Osage and a daughter of Avery and Dell Brush. Two children have been born of this marriage, Jean and Julia. The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in fraternal relations Mr. Spaanum is connected with the Delta Tau Delta, a college fraternity. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and he keeps well informed on the questions and issues of the day but has never been active as an office seeker. While probably not without that laudable ambition which is so great an incentive to faithful service in public office, he has ever regarded the pursuits of private life as in themselves abundantly worthy of his best efforts, and in law practice and in the abstract business his devotion to his clients' interests has become proverbial, and he has made for himself a most creditable place in professional circles.

Source: History of Mitchell and Worth Counties, Iowa, 1918, Vol. II, page 205