In the death of an honorable and upright citizen the community always sustains a serious loss, and such was the loss Davenport sustained when the subject of this sketch passed away.
Nicholas Kuhnen was a native of Rhenish Prussia, Treves being the place where he first saw the light of day, May 19, 1828. He received a fairly good education and was later apprenticed to the cigar maker's trade. At the age of eighteen he came to America and worked at his trade in different places until June, 1854, when he came to Davenport, where he spent the remainder of his life. On arriving in Davenport he opened a small cigar and tobacco store with capital saved from his earnings as a journeyman cigar maker in St. Louis. In addition to selling cigars and tobaccos he began the manufacture of cigars and thus laid the foundation of a business which has grown to large proportions.
In the course of a few years he established himself in more com modious quarters on one of the more prominent streets. Prosperity crowned his efforts in the new location, and he shortly afterward enlarged his factory and engaged in the wholesale tobacco trade. Year after year his business continued to grow and his trade to extend throughout the Northwest, and after a time he removed his factory and store to its present location, where he built up the largest house of its kind in the State of Iowa.
The success of Mr. Kuhnen marked him as a man of superior business qualifications. The same principle of exact honesty which made him friends in the beginning was most carefully maintained through his entire business career. Thorough discipline prevailed in every depart ment of his factory, and yet his uniform courtesy and the consideration shown for his employés caused them to have for him the most kindly regard. Though enjoying the esteem and confidence of the best business and social circles of his adopted city, he did not seek office or public favors for gain, but accepted various positions in the city council, educational boards and many similar offices as a matter of duty to the public. As a bank director and in other positions of trust and respon sibility he always made a record that his friends may ever regard with just pride.
Nicholas Kuhnen was united in marriage in November, 1861, to Miss Mary Alexander of New York, to whom were born four children: Nicholas V., Mary M., Esther A. and Alice L. In the enjoyment of a handsome fortune and surrounded by the comforts and luxuries of life, Mr. Kuhnen continued to reside in Davenport, and to give a share of his attention to the business he had built up until the end of his life. His son, Nicholas V. Kuhnen, a worthy successor of the elder Kuhnen, has since had charge of the business which his father established.
BIOGRAPHIES