BIOGRAPHIES:  Cyrus S. KOONCE, Rice Lake, Barron County, WI

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This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by:  
Vic Gulickson <vic@indy.net>  8 November 2000	
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Cyrus S. Koonce, of the firm of Koonce & Koonce, Rice Lake, better known as
the K. & K. dry cleaners, was born at Fairview, Butler County, Penn., Feb. 23,
1873, and there received a good education. As a youth, he clerked three years
in a grocery store, in his native town. Then for four and a half years he
was identified with the livery business at Duke Center, Penn. The next three
years were spent in sawmill work at Coudersport. In 1903 he came West to
Osage, Iowa, where he learned the printing trade, remaining with the
Woolverton Printing & Publishing Co. for eleven years. In 1914 he started to
learn the dry cleaning trade from Eldridge, the Cleaner, by whom he was
employed for three years. In 1917 he came to Rice Lake, and with his wife,
established their present business. He is well liked among his fellows, and is
a popular member of the Modern Woodmen, the Yeomen and the Maccabees, as well
as of the Business Men's Association and the Commercial Club. Mr. Koonce was
married Feb. 5, 1906, to Lola Hain, who was born in Stillman Valley, Ogle
County, Ill., Dec. 23, 1886, received a good education in the public schools,
taught for a while, then took a course in business and stenography at the
Cedar Valley Seminary at Osage, Iowa, and with this preparation became a
stenographer and bookkeeper until her marriage. After her marriage she took a
course in ladies' tailoring and dressmaking at the American College at Kansas
City, Mo., and the Queen City Dressmaking and Tailoring School at Waterloo,
Iowa. In both of these schools she still holds diplomas. For eight years she
devoted her time to making women's wear, but now confines her work to the K. &
K. establishment. Mr. and Mrs. Koonce have a pleasant home at 214 West
Marshall Street, blessed with the presence of two fine children: Eva H., born
March 26, 1907, and Virgil E., born March 9, 1908. Mr. and Mrs. Koonce are
both members of the Security Benefit Association. The K &. K. Cleaning
Works, established in 1917, is already demonstrating its importance as one of
the stable business places of the city. The business has grown from the very
beginning, and now covers not only the city of Rice Lake, but also for quite a
large territory in the vicinity. The concern does dry cleaning, pressing of
all kinds, repairing, remodeling and overhauling, and handles an agency for
men's and women's ready-to-wear garments. All the dry cleaning for the whole
city is done in this establishment, as the tailors of the city all send their
dry cleaning work here. Both Mr. and Mrs. Koonce are actively employed in all
branches of the business, and their hard work, efficiency and honest dealing,
have won for them a deserved success.

--Taken from: History of Barron Co., Wisconsin, H. C. Cooper, Jr., &
Co., 1922, pg. 235.