NORTHWESTERN IOWA
ITS HISTORY AND TRADITIONS
VOLUME II
1804-1926
K
L. L. KELLOGG
In but few persons have there been combined so
perfectly the qualities which commend men to their fellows as was
the case with the late Leonard Lamb Kellogg, president of the Sioux
City Gas and Electric Company, whose death occurred June 7, 1925.
Possessing a strong and alert mind, a kindly and tolerant
disposition, yet positive in his convictions and courageous in their
utterance, a soundness of judgment and shrewdness in business
affairs that would have insured success in any undertaking, and a
never-failing friendliness in his relations with those about him, he
commanded the respect and admiration of the community throughout his
long and useful life.
Mr. Kellogg was born at Haverhill, Ohio, on the 30th
day of October, 1856, and was a son of William and Thurza (Story)
Kellogg, who also were natives of the Buckeye state. The father was
for many years a farmer in Scioto county, Ohio, and commanded the
respect of all who knew him. The subject of this memoir attended
the public schools of Haverhill. At the age of seventeen years he
began his association with the gas business, an industry with which
he remained closely identified to the day of his death, a period of
more than half century. he became office boy for the Ironton Gas
Company, with which he remained about ten years, rising to the
position of superintendent of the company. He then went to Galena,
Illinois, as superintendent of the gas plant there, and about 1883
became superintendent of the gas plant at Nebraska City, Nebraska.
In each of these positions he had achieved eminent success and in
1885 was induced to come to Sioux City as superintendent of the
plant of the Sioux City Gas Company, which at that time had but a
few hundred patrons. Subsequently he was made manager of the
company and eventually became vice-president. When electricity came
into general use, the company was reorganized as the Sioux City Gas
and Electric Company, and in 1912 Mr. Kellogg was made president of
the company, in which capacity he served to the time of his death.
From the beginning of his connection with this company he had great
faith in its future possibilities, expressing his faith by buying
stock in the company from time to time as opportunity offered and
his means permitted, until eventually he became one of its largest
stockholders. He devoted himself closely to the interests of his
company, showing a remarkable comprehension of the situation here in
the days when only a cool and dispassionate judgment could solve the
problems. His labors were effective in their eventual results and
the Sioux City company came to be regarded as one of the best
managed public utilities in the middle west.
Mr. Kellogg was married in 1883 to Miss Elizabeth
Pritchard, of Ironton, Ohio, and they became the parents of two
children, one of whom is deceased, the survivor being Alice Marie,
who was educated at Washington College and is now at home.
Politically Mr. Kellogg was a stanch supporter of the republican
party, in the affairs of which he took a deep interest. He was a
close personal friend of William McKinley and Mark Hanna, and
because of this personal relation he was most active in the great
campaign of 1896, managing the party's interests in Woodbury county.
In 1897 Governor Shaw appointed him a member of the commission for
the erection of the state hospital for the insane at Cherokee, an
office which he filled with rare fidelity to the interests of the
tax papers and with credit to himself. On the completion of this
work, he resigned form the commission and thereafter took no very
active part in public affairs, except as a delegate to the state
conventions of his party. He was a member of Tyrian Lodge, No. 508,
F. and A. M.; Sioux City Chapter, No. 26, R. A. M.; Sioux City
Consistory, No. 5, A. A. S. R.' Abu-Bekr Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S.,
and Sioux City Lodge, No. 112, B. P. O. E. He also belonged to the
Sioux City Boat Club and the Sioux City Country Club. His religious
connection was with the Congregational church. To such men as Mr.
Kellogg the great middle west owes its prosperity. He performed his
full part in the development of Sioux City's resources and through a
long series of years could always be depended upon to support
whole-heartedly and unselfishly every worthy enterprise and
undertaking for the public good. His standard was a high one and he
maintained it faithfully, being universally recognized as splendid
citizen, of lofty character, sturdy integrity and true to his ideals
- such a man that the world was better for his having lived.
J. W. KINDIG
Iowa has always been distinguished for the high rank
of her lawyers and as one of the ablest and most successful members
of the legal profession in the state James w. Kindig is entitled to
specific mention in this work. The firm of Kindig, Stewart &
Hatfield, of Sioux City, is recognized generally as one of the
strongest law firms in the northwest and not a little of this
prestige has been gained through the personal labors and ability of
Mr. Kindig, who has long enjoyed a reputation as an unusually sound
and safe practitioner.
James W. Kindig was born in Welton, Iowa, on the 3d
of December, 1879, a son of David and Margaret (Tully) Kindig. His
father was a native of Massillon, Ohio, and came of Swiss and
Pennsylvania German stock. The grandfather, Jacob Kindig, drove
through from Ohio to Iowa, with his family, in a prairie schooner,
in 1854, at which time the son David was but two years of age. They
settled in Welton, Clinton county, and were among the earliest
pioneers. There Jacob Kindig spent his remaining years, dying at
the age of seventy-nine years. David Kindig was reared on the
Clinton county farm, and was educated in the district schools.
About 1877 he was married to Margaret Tully, who was born and
reared at Welton. Her father, James Tully, came to this country
from Scotland and first settled in the vicinity of Welton, Clinton
county. David Kindig continued to farm in Clinton county until
1886, when he came to Woodbury county, buying a farm in Arlington
township, which is still a part of the estate. His death occurred
there in October, 1917, at the age of sixty-five years.
James W. Kindig attended the district schools and
Morningside Academy. Later he attended Morningside College, where
he was graduated in 1906, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and
then entered the law school of the University of Washington, where
he received his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1907. he immediately
came to Sioux City and engaged in practice in partnership with W. L.
Harding, who later (1916-19) served as governor of Iowa. Some five
or six years later Mr. Kindig severed this connection and allied
himself with W. H. Munger, now judge of the fourth judicial district
court. This law partnership continued until January 1, 1915, after
which Mr. Kindig served two and a half years as assistant county
prosecuting attorney and corporate counsel for the board of
supervisors. For a year following he served as assistant attorney
general of Iowa and in 1918 the law firm of Kindig, McGill, Stewart
& Hatfield was formed, continuing until 1925, when Mr. McGill
withdrew from the firm to become Iowa attorney for the Chicago
Joint Stock Land Bank at Des Moines. The firm are attorneys for the
Sioux City Public Utilities, for the Armour Packing Company, The Toy
National Bank, The Farmers Loan & Trust Company and for numerous
bonding and insurance companies and has been associated as counsel
with practically all of the more important cases in the local courts
and those of neighboring counties.
On September 3, 1908, Mr. Kindig was married to Miss
Gertrude Crossan, who was born and reared in Sioux City, a daughter
of Allen Crossan, who came to this city in the '80s and for several
years was one of the notable figures in the building of a greater
Sioux City, being extensively engaged in the real estate business.
He now lives in Los Angeles, California. Mr. and Mrs. Kindig have
two children, Burdette C., born February 22, 1911, and Lowell c.,
November 26, 1913. Mr. Kindig is a member of Morningside Lodge, No.
615, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Morningside Chapter, Royal
Arch Masons; Columbian Commandery, No. 18, Knights Templar; Sioux
City Consistory, No. 5, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite; Abu-Bekr
Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and
Sioux City Lodge, No. 112, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He
belongs to the Sioux City Chamber of Commerce, the Professional
Men's Club, the Sioux City Country Club, the Sioux City Rod and Reel
Club, and maintains professional affiliation with the Sioux City Bar
Association, the Iowa State Bar Association and the American Bar
Association. He is a member of the board of trustees of Morningside
College and is a director of the Sioux City Service Company. Mr.
Kindig is a man of forceful individuality and attractive
personality. By a straightforward, honorable course he has built up
a large and lucrative legal business and has been successful far
beyond the average of his calling. In discussions of the principles
of law he is noted for clearness of statement and candor, his zeal
for a client never leading him to urge an argument which is not in
harmony with the law. Years of conscientious work have brought with
them no only increase of practice and reputation, but also that
growth in legal knowledge and that wide and accurate judgment the
possession of which constitutes excellence in the profession of law.
He maintains a deep interest in the public affairs of his city,
giving his earnest support to every measure for the upbuilding of
the city and the betterment of the public welfare, and no worthy
cause appeals to him in vain.
C. A. KNAPP
The late Clarence Albert Knapp, prominent Sioux City
hardware merchant, was born at Green Bay, Wisconsin, April 13, 1846,
a son of William Albert and Lucinda Amelia (Gilbert) Knapp, who came
from England in 1630 and settled at Watertown, Massachusetts. From
him and his wife, Unity (Buxton) Brown, the line of descent is
traced through their son Caleb and his wife, Hannah Smith; their son
Samuel and his wife, Hannah Bushnell; their son Joshua and his wife,
Abigail Bostwick; their son Daniel and his wife, Lucy Gray, to their
son, Ezra Gray Knapp and his wife, Anna Peck, who were the
grandparents of our subject. His father became a pioneer hardware
merchant of Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1834 and represented Winnebago
county in the Wisconsin legislature during 1865-66.
Clarence Albert Knapp was educated in the public and
high schools of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and at Lawrence University of
Appleton, Wisconsin. In 1866 he began his business career as clerk
in a hardware store at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and in 1868 became an
independent merchant in the hardware trade at Northwood, Iowa. He
then sought a broader field an din 1881 embarked in the wholesale
and retail hardware trade at Oskaloosa, Iowa, in association with E.
C. Spalding, under the firm name of the Knapp & Spalding Company,
In 1887 the firm removed to Sioux City, where they established a
strictly wholesale hardware business. In 1885 the company was
reorganized as The Knapp & Spencer Company. Mr. Knapp was president
of The Knapp & Spalding Company from its organization and continued
as head of the reorganized business until about 1916, when he
retired from the presidency and was made chairman of the board of
directors. In 1916 Mr. Knapp was elected president of the National
Hardware Association of the United States. He held membership in
the Sioux City Golf and Country Club, the Commercial Club and the
Boat Club and was a worthy exemplar of the teachings and purposes of
the Masonic fraternity, in which he attained the thirty-second
degree of the Scottish Rite and was past commander of Columbian
Commandery, No. 18, K. T., of Sioux City. His political affiliation
was with the republican party and he was a communicant of the
Congregational church.
Mr. Knapp was married May 11, 1870, to Sarah
Elizabeth, daughter of John Sewell, of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and
left two children: Walter S., president of the Knapp & Spencer
Company; and Marguerite Clare Knapp. He died in Sioux City, Iowa,
November 1, 1918, when seventy-two years of age.
The following tribute to Clarence A. Knapp was paid
by G. M. Evenson: "A pleasant journey down life's pathway, in the
company of one whom I have grown to look upon almost as a father,
has been interrupted by the Great Creator of all things who has
taken this fellow-traveler from my side and given to him the great
reward that awaits all men who have used their lives as my companion
used his life. His was a dual personality, but unlike the dual
personality known so well to all of us as Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, my
companion's two personalities were both beautiful. I wish all of
you might have known him as I did. I wish all of you might have
seen him in his home life where he exemplified one side of his dual
personality. I wish you could have seen how he made his home a
beautifully successful home by giving to every detail of it that
same careful, gentlemanly, courteous attention that made his
business life so successful. I wish you might have sat with my
friend in the evening firelight and watched the play of emotion on
his face as he told me of some new book he had just read. I wish
you could have seen, as I have so often seen, his sincere devotion
to the companion of his life, his beloved wife. I wish you could
have seen him pay court to the affections of his daughter, and I
prize it as one of the most beautiful mind pictures I have of him,
the first time I saw him and this daughter together. It was on the
first Sunday I ever spent in Sioux City. I was invited to his home
for dinner on that day and in the afternoon he proposed that he, his
daughter and I go out to Riverside park in order that I might see
that playground. His devotion to his daughter, who was then a girl
of fifteen, was such as the fairest lady of the land might covet
from the most noble knight that ever lived. I stood in profound
admiration watching the manner in which he handed that little
daughter down from the carriage. And this was the same man in whose
presence I had sat the day before and heard drive a shrewd bargain
in galvanized sheets. That wonderful business mind could, during
the passing of a night, cast aside all thoughts of business and so
far as I could see he considered it one of the greatest privileges
of his life to wait upon his daughter.
"Yet his was not a complex life - it was a simple
life because it had a unifying motive. It was his principle - yes,
it was his life's oath, to give every man more than a full measure.
Worry was not a part of my friend's life because there was no
confusion. He met each day's tasks with a smile and a feeling of
confidence that he was equal to them. His imagination never soured
because he kept away from gloom and small, petty things, and instead
of letting his life grow moldy as he grew old he let in the sunlight
and pure air of which he knew there was such an abundance. It was
his philosophy that a life lived in pessimism, which frowns upon
gaiety, and takes delight in suspicions and fault findings, grows
moldy and poisonous. Love of our own kind, he believed, turns us as
naturally towards happiness as a fern in a lady's window bends its
stalks towards the sunlight. In all the days that I have been
associated with him - during all the trying business periods through
which he steered this business ship, I never heard a cross word pass
his lips, and no matter what the turmoil of problems that lay before
him, he received every caller promptly, and neither his manner nor
his face showed other than that each one was welcome, and his
business, no matter how selfish or uninteresting, received courteous
consideration and attention. But it was in his work as a buyer that
he proved that a man does not have to indulge in sharp or
questionable practices to be successful in business. He knew
hardware and its value as few men did, and the dignity with which he
approached a business proposition always called from the seller a
like dignity and brought from the seller the best he had to offer.
I have seen and heard him drive many a bargain, yet I never knew or
heard of a man who had entered into a business contract with my
friend who was not happy because of that fact. His business was his
life's blood - he loved it, not with avariciousness - not as a miser
loves his pot of gold, but just because this magnificent institution
that stands at the corner of Third and Nebraska streets is the
realization of his dream, while he drive his ox team forty miles
across country to his little hardware store at Northwood, Iowa.
"Ill since last March, yet with days now and then
when there was a partial return to his former strength and vigor, he
always wanted, when out for a ride, to 'go down past the store' so
that he might once more embrace with his eyes the product of his
life's work. he loved his business because it was a part of
himself, and into the principles of its conduct, into the rules that
governed it, into the very mortar that held the bricks of the walls
together, he had put the rules that he had laid down, early in his
life, to govern his conduct. I never have known and never expect to
know any man whose ideals of business honesty and integrity were
higher than my friend's because there are no higher rules. His were
the rules of the Great Creator and of His Son whom my friend chose
to take as his example.
"My friend read the future, not as the clairvoyant
does by fakes and bluffs, but he read the future because he read
men. His gray eyes under bushy brows looked straight through one,
and his keen mind quickly separated the truth from untruth. His
prognostications of future market conditions were so true as to
cause one to believe that he held the fate of any line of goods
being considered in his own hands. Men left his office, stripped of
the very best they had to offer in the matter of price and terms and
always glad that they had given it up. His going out of the lives
of the rest of us leaves a void that can never be filled because God
does not make duplicates of men and there will never be another
Clarence A. Knapp.
""It is fortunate for the Knapp & Spencer Company
that his son, Walter S. Knapp, approaches the task of taking his
place at the head of the institution founded by his father, with
deep and sincere knowledge of the great task that lies before him.
Mr. Walter S. Knapp has for twenty-six years been a close student
of his father's methods and so devoted were these two men to each
other, so in accord were their ideals and principles, that all of us
who are left to continue this business may proceed with a confident
feeling that the right man has his hand upon the helm of this
business organization and that the principles laid down for the
conduct of the business by its founder will continue to be its
principles as long as his name remains a part of it. And if it be
given to those who have preceded us on the great journey, to pause
and look back upon us mortals whose time has not yet come, I know my
friend well enough to say that a smile of satisfaction will come
over his face when he sees us laboring here below and steering this
ship of business true to the course he laid out upon the chart of
life."
W. S. KNAPP
Among the families that through past years have been
closely and actively identified with the progress and upbuilding of
Sioux City, none takes precedence over the one of which Walter
Sewell Knapp is a worthy representative. In all phases of community
life the members of this family have stood staunchly for progress
and improvement and have been potent factors in the city's
substantial prosperity. Walter S. Knapp is a native son of Iowa,
born in Northwood, Worth county, on the 12th of September, 1874, his
parents being Clarence Albert and Sarah Elizabeth (Sewell) Knapp,
the latter born at Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1851. A sketch of
Clarence Albert Knapp, deceased, may be found on another page of
this work.
Walter S. Knapp received his education in the public
schools, attending the high school but not graduating. He was about
thirteen years of age when the family came to Sioux City and when a
youth of sixteen he entered his father's hardware store. He has
been actively identified with the business to the present time,
being now president of the Knapp & Spencer Company. The trade of
this firm has steadily increased through the years until now it is
one of the largest independent wholesale hardware concerns in the
northwest, selling to retailers in northwest Iowa, southwest
Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and
Montana. Practically every item carried in the largest and most
up-to-date hardware stores anywhere in the country may be found in
this establishment. The company is housed in splendid building,
six stories and basement, the large stock carried insuring quick
service to buyers. One hundred and ten men are employed and the
policy of the company has made friends of all who have had dealings
with it. Walter S. Knapp is also a stockholder and director of the
First National Bank of Sioux City. Like his honored father, he has
shown as effective interest in the public affairs of his city,
giving his support to all movements for the betterment of the
community and contributing generously to all worthy objects.
On October 18, 1899, at Unadilla, New York, Mr.
Knapp was married to Miss Mary Catherine Robinson, who was there
born June 10, 1878. Mrs. Knapp is active in the club and social
life of Sioux City and is a member of the Woman's Club.
Politically, Mr. Knapp gives his support to the republican party.
He is a member of Tyrian Lodge, No. 508, A. F. & A. M.; Sioux City
Chapter, No. 26, R.. A. M.; Zodok Council, No. 24, R. & S. M.;
Columbian Commandery, No 18, K. T.; Sioux City Consistory, No. 5, A.
A. S. R.; and Abu-Bekr Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. He also belongs to
the Sioux City Country Club, the Sioux City Boat Club and the
Chamber of Commerce, of which he has been a director for nine years.
Mr. and Mrs. Knapp are communicants of St. Thomas Protestant
Episcopal church. By reason of strong and alert mentality and sound
business judgment, he holds a place in the front rank of commercial
interests of Sioux City. He is ably carrying forward the business
so soundly established by his father and which has long been
numbered among the most successful and substantial mercantile
enterprises of this section of the country.
ADELAIDE C. H. KNIGHT
One of the most highly esteemed residents of
Spencer, Clay county, is Mrs. Adelaide Clark House Knight, who
enjoys an enviable reputation as a writer for the press and whose
charming personality and gracious qualities have gained for her a
host of loyal and devoted friends throughout this community. Mrs.
Knight was born in Burt county, Nebraska, on the 14th of January,
1868, and is a daughter of Harvey and Mary Jane (House) Clark. Her
father was born at Nunda, New York, November 13, 1838, and died July
8, 1873, while her mother, who was born in Jo Daviess county,
Illinois, October 26, 1843, died September 18, 1869. Mrs. Knight is
descended from sterling gold English stock, her line being traced
back directly to Richard and Frances (Dighton) Williams, who lived
in Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1838, and also to Thomas Rogers, a
passenger on the "Mayflower," through his granddaughter, Elizabeth
Rogers, who was a daughter of John Rogers, and who married Nathaniel
Williams. Her paternal grandfather, James Clark, was the son of
John, whose father, Jonathan Clark, was a soldier in the
Revolutionary army from Morristown, New Jersey. Through these
connections Mrs. Knight has been proved eligible to the Daughters of
the American Revolution, the Mayflower Descendants, the Daughters of
the Colonists, Colonial Dames, Order of the Crown, Americans of
Royal Descent, Magna Charta Barons and other equally exclusive
societies. Harvey Clark, who was born of pioneer parents, received
a common school education, himself became a pioneer in Nebraska and
was a veteran of the Civil war. Mrs. Knight was but one year old at
the time of the death of her mother, soon after which event her
father, who died a year later, took her to her maternal uncle, A. E.
House, at Delhi, Iowa, where she was reared and educated. She was
married in that place, June 7, 1893, to Frank Wadsworth Knight, who
is of English and Huguenot descent, the son of Joseph and Lois
(Acker) Knight, both of whom were natives of Rushford, New York, the
former born March 8, 1829. Mr. and Mrs. Knight had two children,
Louise Lareau, born September 29, 1894, and Frank Albert, born June
19, 1896, who is in the naval aviation service. Mr. and Mrs. Knight
lived in Milford, Iowa, about twenty years, when they moved to
Spencer, where they have lived for the past eleven years. Mrs.
Knight taught school two years and published and edited the
Earlville (Iowa) Phoenix two years. Politically, she is aligned
with the republican party and takes a deep interest in public
affairs. She is a member of the Congregational church and belongs
to the Woman's Club, the Daughters of the American Revolution and
the Mayflower Descendants. She has been an extensive reader, holds
well defined opinions on the leading questions of the day, and
possesses a strong and vigorous literary style, her writings being
widely read. Personally she is gracious and tactful, is a pleasing
conversationalist and is extremely popular in the circles in which
she moves.