Senator Henry W. Rothert View All Years

HENRY W. ROTHERT was born in Germany, September 11, 1840, and died at Council Bluffs, Iowa, January 29, 1920. Burial was at Keokuk. He came with his parents to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1850. He graduated from high school in that city and at once entered the hardware business with his brothers. In 1858 they established a branch house at Keokuk and Henry removed there and took charge of it and soon built up a very prosperous business. He began public life in 1868 by being elected alderman from the Third Ward and served three years. In 1871 he was elected mayor and was re-elected in 1872. In 1873 he was elected senator and served in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth General Assemblies. He was president pro tempore·of the senate of the Sixteenth General Assembly and when on February 1, 1877, Governor Kirkwood resigned to become United States senator, and Lieutenant Governor Newbold became governor, under the constitution Mr. Rothert became acting lieutenant governor, serving as such until January, 1878. In 1881 he was elected to the senate again and served in the Nineteenth and Twentieth General Assemblies. Although those assemblies contained many men of note and ability, he was a real leader and greatly influenced legislation. In 1881 he was appointed register of the land office at Cheyenne, Wyoming, and held the position nearly four years, resigning when Cleveland was inaugurated. He was then called by the board of directors of the Union Pacific Railroad to investigate and report on their entire land system, which he did. Up to this time his career had been that of a successful business man and a political leader. For years he was chairman of the Republican county central committee of Lee County, and he was perhaps the dominant political figure of the county during the later years of his residence there. In August, 1887, at forty-seven years of age, he turned his back on what appeared to be further and more distinguished political honors, and entered his life work as superintendent of the Iowa School for the Deaf at Council Bluffs. His mind had been directed to this work because of the deafness of a son. When in the senate he had been active in furthering legislation for the deaf. His nine years of service on the board of education of Keokuk, several of the later years as its president, had familiarized him with general educational work. In 1887 he found the School for the Deaf was a small institution with quite limited buildings. He remained its superintendent thirty-two years, or until August, 1919, when he resigned. During that time epidemics of sickness, floods and fires were visited upon them. At one time nearly the whole plant was burned down. Under his constructive management the school became one of the best equipped and best organized in the country. Mr. Rothert was active in Masonic circles, being grand master of the Grand Lodge of Iowa in 1875 and 1876. He was a man of large administrative and executive ability, of strong intellect and of generous sympathies.