NORTHWESTERN IOWA ITS HISTORY AND TRADITION VOLUME II 1804-1926 L. L. KELLOGG In but few persons have there been combined so perfectly the qualities which commend men to their fellows as was the case with the late Leonard Lamb Kellogg, president of the Sioux City Gas and Electric Company, whose death occurred June 7, 1925. Possessing a strong and alert mind, a kindly and tolerant disposition, yet positive in his convictions and courageous in their utterance, a soundness of judgment and shrewdness in business affairs that would have insured success in any undertaking, and a never-failing friendliness in his relations with those about him, he commanded the respect and admiration of the community throughout his long and useful life. Mr. Kellogg was born at Haverhill, Ohio, on the 30th day of October, 1856, and was a son of William and Thurza (Story) Kellogg, who also were natives of the Buckeye state. The father was for many years a farmer in Scioto county, Ohio, and commanded the respect of all who knew him. The subject of this memoir attended the public schools of Haverhill. At the age of seventeen years he began his association with the gas business, an industry with which he remained closely identified to the day of his death, a period of more than half century. he became office boy for the Ironton Gas Company, with which he remained about ten years, rising to the position of superintendent of the company. He then went to Galena, Illinois, as superintendent of the gas plant there, and about 1883 became superintendent of the gas plant at Nebraska City, Nebraska. In each of these positions he had achieved eminent success and in 1885 was induced to come to Sioux City as superintendent of the plant of the Sioux City Gas Company, which at that time had but a few hundred patrons. Subsequently he was made manager of the company and eventually became vice-president. When electricity came into general use, the company was reorganized as the Sioux City Gas and Electric Company, and in 1912 Mr. Kellogg was made president of the company, in which capacity he served to the time of his death. From the beginning of his connection with this company he had great faith in its future possibilities, expressing his faith by buying stock in the company from time to time as opportunity offered and his means permitted, until eventually he became one of its largest stockholders. He devoted himself closely to the interests of his company, showing a remarkable comprehension of the situation here in the days when only a cool and dispassionate judgment could solve the problems. His labors were effective in their eventual results and the Sioux City company came to be regarded as one of the best managed public utilities in the middle west. Mr. Kellogg was married in 1883 to Miss Elizabeth Pritchard, of Ironton, Ohio, and they became the parents of two children, one of whom is deceased, the survivor being Alice Marie, who was educated at Washington College and is now at home. Politically Mr. Kellogg was a stanch supporter of the republican party, in the affairs of which he took a deep interest. He was a close personal friend of William McKinley and Mark Hanna, and because of this personal relation he was most active in the great campaign of 1896, managing the party's interests in Woodbury county. In 1897 Governor Shaw appointed him a member of the commission for the erection of the state hospital for the insane at Cherokee, an office which he filled with rare fidelity to the interests of the taxpapers and with credit to himself. On the completion of this work, he resigned form the commission and thereafter took no very active part in public affairs, except as a delegate to the state conventions of his party. He was a member of Tyrian Lodge, No. 508, F. and A. M.; Sioux City Chapter, No. 26, R. A. M.; 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 belonged to the Sioux City Boat Club and the Sioux City Country Club. His religious connection was with the Congregational church. To such men as Mr. Kellogg the great middle west owes its prosperity. He performed his full part in the development of Sioux City's resources and through a long series of years could always be depended upon to support whole-heartedly and unselfishly every worthy enterprise and undertaking for the public good. His standard was a high one and he maintained it faithfully, being universally recognized as splendid citizen, of lofty character, sturdy integrity and true to his ideals - such a man that the world was better for his having lived. Debbie Clough Gerischer Iowa Gen Web, Assistant CC, Scott County http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/ IAGENWEB: Special History Project: http://iagenweb.org/history/index.htm Gerischer Family Web Site: http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/