Crawford-Woodbury-Harrison County IA Archives Biographies.....Laub, H. C. 1851 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 9, 2007, 2:22 am

Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1893)

HON. H. C. LAUB, one of the pioneers of Crawford county, Iowa, has resided here
since the fall of 1855. First locating in Mason's Grove, he purchased a tract of
unimproved land and farmed for a time. In the fall of 1856 he opened a stock of
general merchandise in a room, 14 x 18 feet, in the new town of Denison. This
was the first store in the county. He continued the mercantile business in
Denison until 1876, and in the meantime established branch stores at the
following places: Deloit, this county; Smithland, Woodbury county; Carrollton,
Carroll county; Gallan's Grove, Shelby county; Westside, this county; Harlan,
Shelby county; Butler's Mill, Harrison county;  Dunlap, Harrison county;
Correctionville, Woodbury county, Denison being headquarters. This business
started in a small way, soon grew to large proportions, his sales one year
amounting to $120,000. He hauled his first goods by wagon from Cedar Rapids,
when he sold out his stock in Denison and Westside was valued at $30,000, and
that at Dunlap $16,000, besides the stock at the other points referred to.
During his business career up to 1876 he was also engaged in farming and
stock-raising. He has handled much of the land in Crawford county, improving
perhaps more land than any other man in the county. He now owns more than a
thousand acres here. He has taken an active part in introducing higher grades of
stock, such as Jersey and Durham cattle, draft horses, etc. In advancing the
material interests of Denison, few, if any, have done more than Mr. Laub. He has
erected five churches, two schoolhouses, the McKim Hall, upward of forty
dwellings and  two brick business blocks. His own residence, built in 1887, is
one of the finest homes in Denison. He not only established the first general
merchandise store in the county, but also the first hardware store here. He
still has mercantile interests, having under his supervision stores at Dunlap
and Correctionville. He also has roller mills at Westside and Deloit, one steam
and the other water-power.

  Mr. Laub was born in Little York, Pennsylvania, April 18, 1824, son of William
and Catharine (Snyder) Laub, natives of that State, his father of German
extraction and his mother of German and Irish. He was reared at Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania, and in his youth learned the trade of shoemaker, at which he
worked three years. After that he taught in the district schools four years, in
Pennsylvania and Iowa. It was in the fall of 1852 that he came West. In
Muscatine, this State, he lived two years; thence to Cedar Rapids, where he was
engaged in the mercantile business; and in 1855, as above stated, he came to
Crawford county.

  He was married in Frederick county, Maryland, February 7, 1848, to Miss Lydia
Baer, daughter of Jacob and Matilda Baer. She was born in Montgomery county,
Maryland, February 7, 1824. They have eight children: Alice M., wife of James D.
Ainsworth, of Onawa, Iowa, editress of a journal at that place; Mettie M., wife
of John B. Romans, of Denison; William, engaged in the livery business at
Denison; Catharine, wife of W. T. Perkins, an attorney of Bismarck, North
Dakota, she being a practicing physician of the Homeopathic school, having
graduated at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and taken a post-graduate course at Boston and
Chicago; Anna L., wife of George F. Bartholomew, a banker of Valparaiso,
Indiana, she too, being a practicing physician; Ely C, a merchant of
Correctionville, Iowa; Lydia B., who died at the age of twenty years; and
Lillie, wife of C. F. Kuehnle, a banker of Denison.

  That Mr. Laub is a man of business ability is shown by the progress he has
made since coming to Iowa. Politically, he is a Republican, and in various
official capacities he has served his county. He served as County Sheriff one
term, County Surveyor, County Superintendent twelve years, County Commissioner
three or four years, and has also filled all the minor offices. In 1880 he was
chosen as a Representative to the State Legislature, and served two years. He is
a member of the A. F. & A. M., the I. O. O. F., and the I. O. G. T., and for the
past thirty years has been connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is
one of the most active members and liberal supporters of the church at Denison.
It can truthfully be said of Mr. Laub, that, wealthy as he is, and having
accumulated his fortune by his own efforts, he has yet ever been free from
everything of a sordid nature, and is known as a genial and whole-souled man,
who is ever ready to assist the poor and needy, and dispenses charity with a
liberal hand among the deserving of the city.


Additional Comments:
Extracted From:

BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF 
Crawford, Ida and Sac Counties, Iowa.

Containing Portraits of all the Presidents of the United States, with
accompanying Biographies; a Condensed History of Iowa, with Portraits and
Biographies of the Governors of the State; Engravings of Prominent Citizens of
the Counties, wth [sic] Personal Histories of many of the Early Settlers and
Leading Families.

"Biography is the only true history."—Emerson.

CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1893.


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