NORTHWESTERN IOWA
ITS HISTORY
AND TRADITIONS
VOLUME II
1804-1926
W
E. E. WAGNER
Edward E. Wagner, a member of one of the pioneer
families of Iowa, was formerly numbered among the foremost lawyers
of Sioux City but is now practicing in Mitchell, South Dakota, and
he has also aided in framing the laws of that state. He was born
October 22, 1870, in Lyon county, Iowa, and his parents were James
H. and Louisa (Conklin) Wagner, the latter a native of Ohio. The
father was born in Pennsylvania and in Linn county enlisted in the
Twenty-fourth Iowa Infantry. He served for three years in the Civil
war and was twice captured, spending fourteen months in a
Confederate prison. After the restoration of peace he returned to
Linn county and in 1870 migrated to the Lyon district, transporting
his household goods in a covered wagon and driving his cattle ahead.
he entered a homestead, which he improved, and in 1872, when the
county of Lyon was organized, he was made its first treasurer. He
then moved to Rock Rapids, where he spent the remainder of his life.
He was elected a member of the board of supervisors, filling that
office until his death on November 15, 1884, and his wife passed
away September 7, 1901.
Their son, Edward E. Wagner, was the first white
child born in Lyon county and his early education was obtained in
its common schools. After his father's death the subject of this
sketch took charge of the farm, which he operated until 1890, and
then sold the property. He read law under the supervision of H. G.
McMillan and in May, 1893, was admitted to the bar. He began his
professional career in Mitchell, South Dakota, and has spent
twenty-six years in that state. His ability brought him prominently
before the public and from 1905 until 1907 he was a member of the
state senate of South Dakota, bringing to his duties the complete
armory of the well equipped lawyer. In 1907 he was appointed United
States district attorney by President Roosevelt and was reappointed
by President Taft, serving until 1912, when he resigned. He had
previously served as state's attorney of Hanson county, from 1901
until 1903. He was honored with the presidency of the South Dakota
Bar Association and served for one in that capacity. In April,
1919, he located at Sioux City, Iowa, where he practiced with much
success until October 1, 1925, when he returned to his old home in
Mitchell, South Dakota. He is well versed in the minutiae of the
law and powerful in forensic combat.
Mr. Wagner has three children: Hazel L.; Ruth
Motley, of Des Moines, Iowa; and Robert E., who is serving on the
battleship Oklahoma of the United States navy. He is a Knight
Templar Mason, and a Noble of El Riad Temple of the Mystic Shrine of
Sioux Falls. He also belongs to the Elks Lodge and the Hamilton
Club of Chicago. He is a member of the Sioux City and Iowa State
Bar Associations, the South Dakota Bar Association and the American
Bar Association. Mr. Wagner has been the recipient of many
important trusts, all of which he had faithfully discharged, and his
constantly expanding powers have won him distinction in his chosen
profession.
L. B. WATT
Thoroughly imbued with western energy and
enterprise, Lawrence B. Watt has steadily advanced toward the goal
fixed by his ambition and is now numbered among the leading business
men of Storm Lake. He was born June 6, 1891, in Taylor county,
Iowa, and his parents, Roland W. and Viola (Barton) Watt, were
natives of Illinois.
Mr. Watt is a member of a family of several children
and received his higher education in Grinnell College, completing
his course in 1914. He was connected with newspaper work until 1920
and then entered commercial job printing circles of Des Moines. He
was identified with the University Publishing Company for some time
an don March 1, 1923, came to Buena Vista county, Iowa. He
purchased the Storm Lake Register, which he conducts along the lines
of modern and progressive newspaper education, and has made it a
popular journal, carefully edited and devoted to the welfare of the
district, in which it has a large circulation.
On July 20, 1921, Mr. Watt married Miss Hazel
Erickson and the children of this union are Dorothy, Elizabeth and
Mary Ellen. Mr. Watt responded to the call to arms during the World
war and is a member of the American Legion. He belongs to the
Masonic order and is an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal
church, while his political allegiance is given to the republican
party. He is a journalist of ability, a young man of pleasing
personality and a valuable addition to the citizenship of Storm
Lake.
E. L. WHITE
E. La Clare White, a successful publisher, is well
known in newspaper circles of northwestern Iowa as the owner of the
News-Harald, and he also owns a half interest in storm Lake
Register. For ten years Spencer has numbered him among its leading
citizens. He was born August 4, 1884, near Fairfax, Missouri, and
is the youngest in a family of four children. The others are:
Lillian, the wife of H. E. Robinson, of Chariton, Iowa; Cline C.,
who lives in Riverside, California; and Chloe, who married Dr. F. S.
Williams and resides in Villisca, Iowa. Their parents were James R.
and Ruth May (Cadwell) White. The former, a native of Illinois,
engaged in farming and merchandising as a young man and later spent
several years in Denver, Colorado. He next purchased some orange
groves in California and is now living retired in Riverside, that
state.
In 1890, when E. when E. La Clare White was six
years of age, the family moved to the town of Fairfax and there he
attended the public schools until hi parents migrated to Colorado.
He was a student in the West Denver high school and went with the
family to the Pacific coast, spending a year in the Golden state.
He then returned to Colorado and for about nine years was
identified with mercantile interests of Denver. On the expiration
of that period Mr. White engaged in the printing business in Forest
City, Missouri, and worked for some time on the local Forest City
Press, then edited by Fred R. Barkhurst. Subsequently he located in
Iowa, becoming a reporter on the Villisca Review. In partnership
with B. C. Hullinger he afterward purchased a half interest in the
Review and for about nine years was a resident of Villisca. In
June, 1915, Mr. White sold his interest in the paper back to Mr.
Hullinger and came to Spencer. Since March 1, 1916, he has been
manager, editor and owner of the News-Herald, which combines the
best elements of modern journalism, and now has a wide circulation.
Its editorials are well written and his broad experience in
newspaper work enables him to conduct the business without loss of
time, labor or material.
On April 27, 1910, Mr. White married Miss Agnes E.
Lundberg, who was born in Rhode Island. Mr. White is liberal in his
political views and regards the qualifications of a candidate as a
matter of first importance, refusing to obey the dictates of party
leaders. He is a member of the Congregational church and shapes his
conduct by its teachings. He exerts a strong influence upon public
thought and opinion and has made his paper an effective exponent of
local interests, writing many articles which have led to the
accomplishment of valuable results.
AUGUST WILLIGES
America has never proven to be "the land of
opportunity" in a more emphatic way than in the noteworthy career of
August Williges. Coming to the United States with limited financial
resources, but possessing elements of character which will
invariably win success, he faithfully and conscientiously performed
every duty that fell to him and in the course of time forged ahead,
gaining not only valuable experience, but also winning the
confidence and good will of with whom he was associated. His career
since coming to Sioux City thirty years ago has been characterized
by a very gratifying measure of prosperity and he has long been
numbered among the representative men of this community.
August Williges was born in Mueden, Hanover,
Germany, on the 26th of March, 1858, and is a son of William and
Mary Dorothea (Isensee) Williges, both of whom died in Germany,
their native land, the father at the age of ninety-one years. He
had served for thirty-five years as postmaster at Mueden and for a
number of years prior to his death had been a pensioner of the
government. August Williges was educated in the public schools of
his native city and at the age of fourteen years apprenticed himself
to the furrier trade. After serving four years, he spent the
following five years as a journeyman furrier, as was the custom in
that country, two years of that time being passed in Switzerland.
In 1881, desiring a field of larger opportunity for individual
advancement, he came to the United States, locating in New York
city, where he was employed for six years - 1881 to 1887. In 1886
he took out his final naturalization papers and cast his first vote
for Henry George for mayor of New York city. In 1887 he went to
Springfield, Illinois, where he became manager of the fur department
of C. D. Roberts, a position which he held until 1895. During the
latter years of his service here he was casting about for a place in
which to locate and establish business. He had friends in the same
business at various places in Illinois and did not care to complete
with them. At that time Sioux City was advertising its "Corn
Palace" and was running a special train through from Massachusetts.
Notwithstanding the fact that the city was then practically
bankrupt, it seemed to be a live town and in June, 1895, Mr.
Williges arrived here, leaving hi family in Springfield. He at once
established business as a manufacturing furrier and having decided
that he had made the right move he sent for his family, who arrived
here six months after he had come. During the three decades that he
has been established here he has enjoyed a steady and continuous
growth in trade and is now one of the leaders in his line in this
section of the country.
While living in New York city, Mr. Williges was
married to his old sweetheart from Heidelburg, Miss Regina Schruff,
two children being born to them in that city. They are now the
parents of five children, namely: Mathilda, the wife of Martin
Jorgenson, who is associated with her father in the fur business;
William A., who is in charge of the skin department and is factory
manager of his father's business; Henry George, who is in charge of
the sales department of the business; and Elsia and Eleanor at home.
The former is president of the Business and Professional Girls'
Club of Sioux City. Mr. Williges is a member of the Chamber of
Commerce and served three years on its board of directors. He
belongs to Landmark Lodge, No. 103, Ancient Free and Accepted
Masons; Sioux City Consistory, No. 5, Ancient Accepted Scottish
Rite; Abu-Bekr Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic
Shrine; Sioux City Lodge, No. 112, Benevolent Protective Order of
Elks; War Eagle Tribe, No. 45, Improved Order of Red Men, and the
Germania Club of Sioux City. He has long been an active member of
the Sioux City Rotary Club and he was one of the six men who
comprised a committee which drafted the Rotary code of ethics, which
was adopted by the Rotarians of Iowa in 1914, by the national Rotary
convention in San Francisco in 1915, and later by the International
Rotarians. Despite his age, Mr. Williges retains his physical vigor
to a remarkable degree, walking being his favorite recreation, and
not infrequently he will walk ten miles after closing his business
house for the day. He is regarded as a good business man, an
excellent manager, possessing sound judgment and keen foresight,
and, because of his success, his fine public spirit and his cordial
and friendly manner, he enjoys to a marked degree the respect and
esteem of all who know him.
H. L. WOOD
Among the prominent and successful business men of
Sioux City, Hardy L. Wood, manager here of the branch of Crane
Company, is entitled to specific mention in the history of this
locality, for during the years of his identification with the
commercial interests of this community he has in a large measure
contributed to its prosperity and advancement. Mr. Wood was born at
Avoca, New York, on the 29th of December, 1861, and is a son of
Alvin and Juliette (Roberts) Wood, both of whom were natives of New
York state, the father being of English ancestry and the mother of
Pennsylvania Dutch stock. Alvin Wood was a farmer and school
teacher during the early years of his active life, but later turned
his attention to journalism, becoming owner and editor of the Avoca
Advance. In 1889 he came to Iowa, locating in Hawarden where he
bought the Hawarden Commercial, publishing it for many years. His
death occurred in 1909, at the age of seventy-nine, and he was
survived a number of years by his widow, who passed away in
February, 1924, at the advanced age of eighty-six years.
Hardy L. Wood attended public schools of New York
state and Haverling Union School, at Bath, New York. For two years
following the completion of his studies he taught school. He taught
his first school when but sixteen years of age, though at that time
he held a state regent's certificate. In the fall of 1880, when
nineteen years of age, he came west, stopping a few months in Sioux
Rapids. He then came through with the building of the Chicago &
Northwestern Railroad to Hawarden, where he located and, soon
afterwards, in partnership with Giles F. Hunter, established the
hardware house of Hunter & Wood. This proved a profitable venture
and they conducted the business until 1890, when they dissolved
partnership and for three years thereafter each operated a store and
engaged in the plumbing and heating business, which he conducted
until 1898, when he sold out in order to become associated with the
Crane Company, of Chicago, as a traveling salesman. After remaining
on the road for eight years, he was appointed to the important
position of manager of the Sioux City branch of the Crane Company,
which position he has filled continuously to the present time and
during this period his branch has become one of the most important
business institutions of Sioux City, reflecting great credit on his
business ability and his energetic and progressive methods. In 1910
a new vitrified brick building was erected and the establishment is
now housed in a handsome and well arranged structure, well adapted
to the company's stock and business.
In November, 1887, Mr. Wood was united in marriage
to Miss Carrie A. Melius, of Storm Lake, Iowa, and to them have been
born three children, namely: Florence C., deceased; Gracie M., who
is the wife of Ralph E. Pierce, electrical engineer with the
American Telephone & Telegraph Company at New York city; and Hobert
L., who is engaged in the insurance business in Sioux City. Mr.
Wood is a member of Tyrian Lodge, No. 508, A. F. and A. M.; Sioux
City Chapter, No. 26, R. A. M.; Columbian Commandery, No. 18, K. T.;
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
belongs to the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce. He and his
family are members of the First Congregational church. He has taken
a commendable interest in the material, civic and moral welfare of
the city, giving his unreserved support to every movement for public
advancement and upbuilding. For these reasons, together with his
friendly manner, he has long held an enviable place in public
esteem.