Representative Amos O. Hauge View All Years

HONORABLE A. O. HAUGE

MR. SPEAKER: Your committee, appointed to prepare resolutions commemorating the life, character and public services of the Honorable A. O. Hauge of Polk county, begs leave to submit the following report:

A. O. Hauge was born February 13, 1879, one of eleven children of Halvor and Kari Hauge, who were emigrants from Norway. His father was a sailor in the old country and emigrated to Polk county, Iowa, in the early eighties.

Mr. Hauge received his early education in Lincoln township, Polk county, Iowa, and graduated from Humboldt College at Humboldt, Iowa, in 1897. He taught there for several years and then moved to Des Moines in 1902 to take charge of the Commercial Department at East High School in Des Moines. He served in the State Treasurer's office under G. S. Gilbertson and also was connected with the United States Treasury Department for a period. Thereafter, he was elected cashier of the Iowa Trust and Savings Bank in East Des Moines and in 1906 he became the president of that bank and served as such until 1930. He was president of the Union Realty Company and in that capacity platted and sold the real estate in East Des Moines adjacent to Union Park. He also subdivided and sold several other tracts in East Des Moines that now reflect his foresight in fine residential district planning, the best example being Hauge’s Birchwood Addition on East Thompson Street in Des Moines. He was also connected with various other business enterprises in the city of Des Moines, such as the City Mortgage and Investment Company, the Morris Plan Bank and the Hauge Insurance Agency. He served as secretary-treasurer of the National Farm Loan Association in Polk county for many years and was a director in the Federal Land Bank of Omaha. He was one of the pioneers in the field of Land Bank financing in Iowa.

Mr. Hauge was affiliated with many civic organizations in Des Moines, among them being the East Des Moines Club, Y. M. C. A., Masonic bodies and numerous others.

He was a lifelong member of the Central Lutheran Church and served on the board of directors of the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America during the World War.

On December 31, 1904, he was united in marriage to Elizabeth Heggen and there were born to that union two sons, Herbert H. on March 25, 1906, and Gerhard S. on April 6, 1908.

Mr. Hauge was a lifelong Republican and served in the House of Representatives in the Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, and Fortieth Extra Session and was a leader in the House during his service there. He was chairman of the Appropriations Committee in the House during the time that the University of Iowa Hospital appropriation was made. Those who served in the House during that period will recall the tense battle that occurred at that time.

His eldest son Herbert H., succeeded him as a member of the House from Polk county in the Forty-eighth General Assembly. His youngest son, Gerhard S. Hauge, succeeded him as head of the Federal Land Bank Agency in Polk county and Jasper county and now acts in that capacity.

Mr. Hauge died suddenly at the Iowa Lutheran Hospital on Thursday, September 20th, 1935.

Therefor, Be It Resolved, by the House of Representatives of the Forty­eighth General Assembly, That in the passing of the Honorable A. O. Hauge, the state of Iowa has lost a valued and honored citizen, a man of great character and worth, and the House of Representatives, by this resolution, tenders its sympathy to the family of the deceased.

Be It Further Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be spread upon the Journal of the House, and that the Chief Clerk be directed to forward an enrolled copy to the family of the deceased.

FRANK B. HALLAGAN,

S. E. PRALL,

ARCH W. MCFARLANE,

Committee.

Unanimously adopted, April 12, 1939.