Kuck Family History: Business Dealings

Although John Kuck first opened up a harness shop in Lansing, Iowa, I have not been able to find any information on where it was located, what it looked like or if the building still stands. The second one he opened up in Charles City however, is better documented. Above is the picture I previously posted of the harness shop. It is hard to tell but I'm pretty sure that John is the man in the dark colored suit standing in the doorway. He sported fascial hair in just about every photograph I have of him.

Below is the harness shop as I found in back in 2011. It was a bar back then and wasn't opened. Since I know what most bars look like inside and enough time had passed that there probably was nothing of interest to me about how it looked back in John's day, I have never gone back or been inside it. I do know that John Kuck probably would be rolling over in his grave if he knew it was a bar based upon a letter to the editor he once wrote in the local newspaper supporting prohibition.

Besides a leather harness business, John also seemed to be involved in banks where ever he went. 

First he was looking for locations to start a bank.

Then he built a building that housed a bank, or at least a banking room.

Finally he was a stockholder and on the board of directors at a bank. 

Finally, around the age of 60, John decided to ease back a bit and sold his harness shop to younger brother Frederick Kuck. But evidently, sitting at home enjoying his golden years never crossed his mind or if it did, it was fleeting. Two years later he was a superintendent of the local flour mill... at least until it burned two years after that.

Perhaps it was still out of boredom or perhaps just finding new ways to invest his fortune, but by age 69, John had purchased quite a bit of land in Colorado for timber and mining, some land in California and some also in Georgia. The land in California, I have not been able to find so I don't know what the reason for it was but at his death, court proceedings determined the back taxes were worth more than the land itself and so it was forfeited. The land in Georgia was in the same area that his third wife was from and though I don't know for sure, I suspect it was a charitable investment of sorts for someone in her family. It had very little value though to his holdings in Colorado and in Charles City, Iowa. John also at the same time as he was purchasing the Colorado land was also purchasing considerable quantities in South Dakota too. But none of that showed up in his probate file so I'm not sure if it wasn't known to the family or if perhaps he sold it before his death. More on his death in the next post.