The family portrait above shows the Samuel Clausen family circa 1895. The back row from the left are Henry, Dora and Bertel. The front row from the left are Carrie Fleck Clausen, Louise, Samuel Jr and Samuel Clausen.
The Clausen Family came from deep Scandinavian roots. The first Clear Lake family member, Soren (Samuel) Clausen, was born in 1852, on the Isle of Faro, Denmark, one of 9 children of Jans Peter and Dorothe Clausen. At age 14, shortly after the death of his father, Samuel joined the merchant marine as a cabin boy. He sailed the Baltic and Atlantic Oceans for seven years until deciding to become a landlubber. He joined his brother Henry in Fox Lake, Wisconsin in 1874. Henry owned and operated a successful grain business and was a Village of Fox Lake Trustee. Samuel, quickly learned the grain business and also became involved with local government as a Village Trustee. It was in Fox Lake where he met his future wife, Carrie Suckow Fleck.
Carrie Suckow Fleck was born in 1853 in the Ole Bull Colony in Potter County, Pennsylvania. Ole Bull was a famous Norwegian violinist who started the colony as a Norwegian farming community. Carrie’s parents, Bertel and Caroline Suckow were founding residents of the short-lived colony. Carrie was the first child born in the Colony (and the last of the Colony to die). Shortly after her birth the Colony dissolved and the Suckow family moved to Beloit, Wisconsin. A year after their move, her mother, Caroline Suckow, died. Bertel was unable to care for Carrie and she was adopted by Henry and Karin Fleck who lived in Fox Lake, Wisconsin. Samuel and Carrie were married in Fox Lake in 1879 and lived with the Fleck family for three years before all moving to Clear Lake.
Samuel and Henry had formed a partnership and took the opportunity to invest in the H.M. Messer elevator in Clear Lake, Iowa. The partnership purchased the elevator and grain operation and Samuel, and his family, moved to Clear Lake in 1882. In 1890, Samuel bought a large lot from the school district at the corner of 5th Street and Benton Ave (now 3 rd Ave North). The sale included the recently closed 1873 school house on the lot which became a carriage house. Samuel built a grand family home for his growing family. (The Clausen House and School House are currently rented for short stays). Henry and Karin Fleck soon moved to Clear Lake and purchased a nearby home.
Sam and Carrie were active in the community. Sam joined fraternal organizations and held positions on the City Council for 9 years and School Board for 12 years and was elected mayor in 1904. In addition to the elevator business, Sam was an early investor in the Cerro Gordo State Bank and the Western Lakes Resort Co., which owned the Oaks Hotel. Sam died in 1924. Carrie joined women’s social organizations and raised their five children, Dora Elena, Henry Warnick, Bertel James, Samuel J Junior and Caroline Louise. Carrie died in 1933.
Dora Elena Clausen was born in Fox River, Wisconsin in 1881. She graduated from Clear Lake Schools and was active in social groups. In 1911, Dora married Carl Olsson who farmed north of Clear Lake. Carl worked for Samuel at the grain elevator for a few years, later becoming a salesman for the Hart-Parr Tractor Company, then the International Harvester Company. Dora was active in church and social organizations. Carl died in 1945 and Dora died in 1962. They are buried in the Clear Lake cemetery and they had no children.
Henry Warnick Clausen was born in 1883 in Clear Lake and graduated from Clear Lake Schools in 1901. He joined his father in the grain business after graduation and became a partner in 1910. Henry was active in the community, serving on the school board, Commercial Club and fraternal organizations. In 1910 he married Leita Irish from Forest City and purchased a home at 600 4 th Street near the Clausen family home. Upon his father’s death in 1924, Henry assumed primary responsibility for the grain business until his death in 1927. Leita was born in1889. She graduated from Northwestern University and taught speech at Waldorf College for many years. After Henry’s death she married Harry Rusby and lived in Michigan until his death. After his death, she lived with her children in Oregon and Minnesota, returning to Clear Lake late in life. Henry and Leita had five children, Harry (1911-1990), Carolyn (1912-1993), Max (1915-2008), Robert “Bob” (1921-2000) and Frederick “Fritz” (1922-2013)
Bertel James Clausen was born in 1885 and graduated from Clear Lake Schools in 1904. Bertel married Jean Stevenson from Freeborn, Minnesota in 1925. After college, Jean was a high school teacher in Albert Lea until her marriage to Bertel. He worked as a cashier at the Cerro Gordo State Bank. After the bank closed and liquidated after the 1933 Emergency Banking Act, Bertel was appointed a bank examiner and Chairman of the Cerro Gordo Relief agency. After a financial dispute between Louise and Bertel in May 1933, they moved to Boone, Iowa where Bertel continued as a bank examiner. Bertel struggled to close out his debts resulting from the liquidation of the Cerro State Bank. After the termination of the Reconstruction Finance acts, he was hired to manage the State liquor store in Boone in 1937. Bertel died in 1954 and is buried in Freeborn County, Minnesota where Jean moved after Bertel’s death. Jean died in 1991. They had no children.
Samuel James Clausen Junior was born in 1887 and graduated from Clear Lake Schools in 1905. He continued his education earning a degree in Mining Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 1911. In 1913 he married Helen Peight in Emery, Utah. Sam joined a mining company in 1914 and moved to Mexico to manage their silver mining operation. By 1930, he was living in El Paso, Texas, moving to Phoenix in 1937 with a second home in Santa Monica. He traveled to Clear Lake in late 1939 and on December 26 he committed suicide at the family cemetery plot. A letter in his pocket explained his suicide due to poor health. His wife, Helen moved to California with their two children Sam “Sammie” III (1921-1988) and Hettie “Brownie” (1914-1967). Helen died in 1982 in California.
An incident reported in the Pheonix newspapers in 1938 uncovered additional background reasons for Samuel’s poor health. On September 20, 1938, Samuel was involved in an auto accident that resulted in the death of a local grocery store manager. Sam was arrested for driving while drunk and convicted of manslaughter in early 1939. Also, the victim’s family sued Sam for $75,000 which was settled in mid-1939.
Caroline Louise Clausen was born in 1889 and graduated from Clear Lake Schools in 1907. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1910 and taught high school in Horicon, Wisconsin from 1911 to 1912. Louise returned to Clear Lake in 1912, becoming active in the suffrage movement and other civic activities. She joined her brother Henry in the management of the grain elevator and, after his death in 1927, she operated the elevator for two years before selling it. Louise managed the family’s investments and properties, including three farms. She remained active in politics, campaigning for city ownership and financing of the Library and running for State Representative in 1934 and 1936. After her mother’s death in 1933, Louise’s nephew, Max, moved into the Clausen house on 5 th street where Max lived until his death in 2008. Louise never married and died in 1967.
Of the seven grandchildren of Sam and Carrie, only Henry’s sons Bob and Max remained in Clear Lake. Samuel Junior’s children Brownie and Sammie grew up in Arizona and California. Henry’s son Harry and daughter Caroline moved to Oregon. Henry’s youngest son, Frederick or Fritz lived in Minnesota, as a practicing attorney.
Bob and Max Clausen continued the Clausen tradition of community involvement. Bob was a long time radio and tv personality. He was well known as the KGLO weatherman and was involved with numerous Clear Lake organizations. Max was a character known for sitting down at pianos at Witke’s, Ritz or the 1912 house and entertaining diners with Broadway musical numbers. His primary work was managing the Clausen family investments and real estate holdings. He donated a 250 acre parcel along the southwest edge of the lake that had been in the Clausen family since 1891 to the Nature Conservancy. The land is a mixture of prairie grassland, woods and lakefront that preserves undeveloped land as it was at the City’s founding.