Claude M. Henry Biography


	This biography appears on pages 414-415 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				CLAUDE M. HENRY. 

	Claude M. Henry, engaged in the banking business in Redfield, 
South Dakota, and also identified with the official life of the state 
as chairman of the South Dakota tax commission, was born in Emmetsburg, 
Iowa, November 19, 1871, a son of William G. and Nancy M. (Spangler) 
Henry, the former a pioneer merchant of Iowa. In a family of four 
children Claude M. Henry was the eldest. He pursued his education in 
the public schools of Emmetsburg and then entered his father's drug 
store, where he received his initial business training and gained that 
experience which has constituted the foundation of his later success. 
After leaving the drug store he became financially interested in a 
house furnishings business but in 1898 put aside all personal and 
commercial interests in order to serve his country, enlisting as a 
member of the Fifty-second Iowa Volunteer Infantry for active duty in 
the Spanish American war. He was commissioned first lieutenant of 
Company K and with that come mend went to Chickamauga. While he did not 
have opportunity to meet the enemy at the front, he saw considerable 
special service. 

	Mr. Henry has been a resident of South Dakota since 1900, in 
which year he took up his abode at Hitchcock and there organized the 
Hitchcock State Bank, which he still owns and controls His financial 
interests and activities, however, have still a much broader scope. In 
1902 he became one of the organizers of the Redfield National Bank, of 
which he has since continuously served as cashier, and he is likewise 
president of the Tulare State Bank. He has made a close and 
discriminating study of the various phases of banking and is therefore 
able to wisely direct the interests and activities of the institutions 
with which he is connected. Aside from his bank stock he holds 
extensive landed interests in South Dakota and in the Pacific coast 
states. 

	Mr. Henry has also been very active in connection with political 
affairs and for a number of years served as a member of the state 
republican central committee, thus directing the interests of the party 
in South Dakota He was appointed to and was the active organizer of the 
state tax commission, being its chairman from the beginning. In this 
connection he has performed a work of the utmost value and importance 
to the state and in the discharge of his duties has been actuated by 
utmost devotion to the public good. 

	On the 3d of September, 1895, Mr. Henry was united in marriage to 
Miss Laura G. Showen, of Emmetsburg, Iowa, by whom he has one child, 
Claudia Maxine. Fraternally Mr. Henry is a Knight Templar Mason and 
also holds membership with the Knights of Pythias, Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows and Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. His career may be 
epitomized in the single phrase-a successful business man and a highly 
esteemed and honored public official.