Steunenberg, Albert K.

The following data is extracted from Illustrated History of the State of Idaho.

Numbered among the successful and representative citizens of Caldwell. Canyon County is Albert K. Steunenberg, brother of the present governor of Idaho. He is cashier of the Commercial Bank of Caldwell, which institution was established in January. 1894. During the five years of its existence the bank has flourished, largely owing to the fine executive ability and genius as a financier which are marked qualities of Mr. Steunenberg. The capital stock of the bank is twenty-five thousand dollars, and an annual dividend of ten per cent is paid to stockholders. The volume of business transacted has materially increased from year to year, and entire satisfaction has been expressed by every patron of the bank with the manner in which their affairs have been handled. The bank transacts a regular banking business, and sells exchange throughout the United States and Europe. The organizers of the Commercial Bank were John C. Rice, W. S. Badley, S. S. Foote, Robert Aikman, Jacob Plowhead, S. F. Chancy and A. K. Steunenberg. The officials of the bank then elected and still serving in their respective capacities were J. C. Rice, president; Jacob Plowhead, vice-president, and A. K. Steunenberg, cashier.

The subject of this article is a native of the state of Iowa, his birth having occurred in Knoxville, September 11, 1863. His parents, B. and Corinne (Keppel) Steunenberg, were both natives of Holland, and were married in that land of dykes and windmills. The father was a shoemaker by trade and worked at that calling for several years. He enlisted in the United States service during her war with Mexico, and has always been a loyal citizen of the land of his adoption. For some years he lived in Holland, Michigan, and later he made his home in Keokuk, Iowa, and Knoxville, Iowa. He is still a resident of Knoxville, and has attained the seventy-fifth year of his age. His wife died many years ago, in June 1876, when she was forty-six years old. Their ten children all survive and are occupying respected positions in the several communities in which they dwell.

After he had completed his public school education in Knoxville, his native town, Albert K. Steunenberg began learning the printer's trade, as did also his brother Frank. At the end of four years of persistent labor, during which period he had occupied the various positions in the office and had become fairly familiar with every detail of the business, he started out as a journeyman, and in May 1886, came to Caldwell. Here he purchased the Tribune press, type and equipments, and, aided by his brother, Frank, whom he sent for, he resuscitated the newspaper and made a successful and representative journal of the same. The brothers are both practical printers and men of sound judgment and business ability, and during their partnership they were instrumental in bringing Caldwell to the front as one of the live towns of the state in the estimation of the public. Though they were affiliated with the Democratic Party, personally, they edited the paper as an in-dependent journal. For the past five years, as previously stated, our subject has given his chief attention to the duties which devolve upon him as cashier of the Commercial Bank of Caldwell. He has never craved public office, and has served as a member of the city council and as a school trustee merely because strongly urged to do so for the benefit of the town.

For the past twelve years Mr. Steunenberg has held the honored position of secretary of the grand lodge of the state of Idaho in the Odd Fellows society. He is an active member of the local lodges of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias.

In 1890 the marriage of Mr. Steunenberg and Miss Carrie Coulter, a native of his own state, was solemnized at Des Moines, Iowa. A little son and daughter brighten the home of our subject and wife, they being named, respectively, Bess and Ancil K. Mrs. Steunenberg is a member of the Christian church.

Source: Illustrated History of the State of Idaho

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