Henry Jacob Laubach

HENRY JACOB LAUBACH. An extensive and enterprising agriculturist of Hamilton County, Henry Jacob Laubach is pleasantly and profitably engaged in his independent vocation on one of the most desirable ranches to be found in the vicinity of Coolidge. He was born August 25, 1867, in Saratov, Russia, which was likewise the birthplace of his father, John Laubach.

Born, reared and married in Russia, John Laubach, who was of German ancestry, came with his family to America in 1877, locating first in Hamilton County, Nebraska, where he lived about ten years. In 1887 he drove from there with his family to Hamilton County, Kansas, and having entered land near Coolidge was successfully engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death in 1912, at the venerable age of eighty-seven years. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Schneider, died in 1910, aged eighty-two years. Their children were Annie, wife of John Heidenreich, of Saratov, Russia; Henry, of Alva, Oklahoma; Frank, of Hamilton County, Kansas; and John, in partnership with his brother; Henry J., the youngest child.

Henry Jacob Laubach was ten years old when the family settled in Nebraska. Living in an unsettled Country, he had scant opportunity for attending school as a boy, his education having been gained from reading, observation and practical experience. He came with his parents to Hamilton County, Kansas, and soon after attaining his majority took out naturalization papers, becoming a loyal and faithful citizen of his adopted country. Taking up a homestead in section 6, township 22, range 42, he began his career as a rancher, at first raising bountiful harvests of wheat. At the end of three years he was forced to give up that industry owing to changes in the climate and a period of drouth. Beginning then to grow broom corn on an extensive scale Mr. Laubach introduced his own method and acquired a wide reputation for the successful manner in which he handled the corn, cutting, binding and stacking it as he would any other feed.

Subsequently, in partnership with his brother John, Mr. Laubach turned his attention to the feeding and raising of cattle, beginning on a modest scale with one or two cows and gradually enlarging their operations until the brothers found themselves the owners of more than 1,000 head of valuable stock. Disposing of their cattle, Messrs. Laubach purchased an alfalfa farm on the Arkansas River, four miles east of Coolidge, where they have title to 350 acres, 200 of which is devoted to the culture of alfalfa. Their ranch was improved by J. J. Donahue, one of the early settlers of the county. They own one-fifth of the ditch that supplies them with irrigation, and in addition to raising alfalfa they keep Duroc hogs and have a fine bunch of Percheron horses, which have been in good demand for several years.

Mr. Laubach is a democrat in politics, and has served in various official positions. For a number of years he was director and trustee of school district No. 3, and for one term was trustee of Medway Township. In 1912 he was elected as a representative to the State Legislature, and served under Speaker Brown, being a member of the committees on boundary lines and irrigation. He acted independently and introduced bills and supported such measures as seemed worthy, having no axe to grind. With the exception of two days when he was called away on business, Mr. Laubach was neither absent from a session or tardy. He helped elect William Thompson to the United States Senate, confirming the action of the people at the primaries. Mr. Laubach has also served as county commissioner, having been elected to fill an unexpired term. He had on the board with him S. S. Clapp and Thomas J. Crist, and under their administration much important work was put through, including among other things, the matter of deposits of county funds, the board demanding that the banks pay the county the same rate of interest that individual depositors received. The building of two large bridges was completed by the board, who also assumed the supervision of the building of the Court House Safety Deposit Vault, thus saving the county several hundred dollars by rejecting all bids for the work.

Mr. Laubach has never married. He is not a member of any fraternal order and belongs to no church, although he is orthodox in regard to a Supreme Being. His parents were reared as Lutherans, but after coming to this country became Adventists.