Louis S. Cass

As printed in 1915

LOUIS S. CASS.

A well known figure in railway circles in Iowa is Louis S. Cass, who since the fall of 1895 lis made his home in Waterloo and is the president of the Waterloo, Cedar Falls & Northern Railroad Company. Opportunity has been to him the open door through which he has entered to success. He has never over-estimated nor undervalued his chances but has made wise use of his time and native talents and thus step by step has progressed.

Mr. Cass was born in Vernon county, Wisconsin, in 1865, and when but six months old was brought by his parents to Iowa, the family home being established in Bremer county, where he was reared to manhood upon a farm. He acquired his education in the schools of the county and in the Sumner high school and also attended the Iowa State Teachers College at Cedar Falls and the J. F. Wallace Commercial College of La Crosse, Wisconsin. For some time he was engaged in the lumber business at Sumner and from the outset of his career he has steadily advanced, each forward step bringing him a broader outlook and wider opportunities.

Mr. Cass became connected with railway interests when in 1883 he entered the employ of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company as telegraph operator, becoming later a brakeman on a freight train. He was connected with the Dubuque & Dakota Railroad for some time and later engaged in the retail lumber business, establishing, owning and controlling four retail lumberyards in Iowa. At the same time he engaged in the manufacture of cedar shingles on the Pacific coast, his active connection with the lumber business continuing from 1885 until 1895. During a part of this time he was also connected with the Minnesota & Northwestern Railway and was later with the Chicago, St. Paul & Kansas City Railroad and subsequently with the Chicago Great Western Railway. While with those companies he acted in various capacities. He advanced from the position of brakeman to station agent and later became train conductor, superintendent, assistant general manager, general traffic manager, vice president and chief executive officer to the receiver and signed the papers transferring the road to the Chicago Great Western Railroad in August,

In the meantime Mr. Cass had extended his efforts to other lines of activity, having in 1895 established the Waterloo & Cedar Falls Rapid Transit Railway. In 1896 he extended the system in Waterloo, converted the horse-car line into an electric line and the following year built the line to Cedar Falls. In 1898 he made further extensions in Waterloo and in 1899 purchased the Cedar Falls & Normal Gasoline Road, which was operated with a Patton motor. This he converted into an electric line. In 1901 he built the line to Denver, Iowa, and in 1902 extended it from that place to Denver Junction to connect with the Omaha division of the Great Western. On the 31st of August, 1909, he severed his connection with the Chicago Great Western and since then has devoted his entire time to the Waterloo, Cedar Falls & Northern Railway, successor to the Waterloo & Cedar Falls Rapid Transit Railway. In 1910 he extended the line from Denver Junction to Waverly and in 191 2 built the road from Waterloo to LaPorte City and the following year from LaPorte City to Urbana, while in 1914 the circuit was completed in the extension of the line from Urbana to Cedar Rapids. In the building and development of the interurban railway system Mr. Cass has contributed in large measure to the welfare of those sections through which the road has passed. His plans have been carefully formulated and promptly executed and in all of his business career he has readily discriminated between the essential and the nonessential.

In addition to his other interests Mr. Cass is a stockholder in the Commercial National Bank of Waterloo, in the Black Hawk National Bank of Waterloo, in the Denver Savings Bank of Denver, Iowa, in the Bank of Sumner at Sumner, Iowa, and in the Tripoli State Bank of Tripoli, Iowa; is vice president of the Iowa Real Estate & Investment Company of Waterloo and vice president of the Cass Farm Company, having two thousand acres of land in Bremer county. These connections indicate something of the nature and range of his interests and of the business ability and resourcefulness which enable him to carefully direct the interests of so many different important concerns.

Mr. Cass is a thirty-second degree Mason, a Knight Templar and a member of the Mystic Shrine. He also has membership in the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias. He is furthermore connected with the Commercial Club and Board of Trade, with the Chamber of Commerce and the Waterloo Club. His pleasant home life had its inception in 1885, in his marriage to Miss Lillian Emmons, of Sumner, and they have become the parents of two children: Zathoe C, the wife of W. H. Burke, auditor and treasurer of the Waterloo, Cedar Falls & Northern Railroad Company; and one son who died in infancy.

Throughout this section of Iowa Mr. Cass is spoken of in terms of admiration and respect. His life has been so varied in its activity, so honorable in its purposes, so far-reaching and beneficial in its effects that it has become an integral part of the history of Waterloo and has also left an impress upon the annals of the state. To build up rather than to destroy has ever been his broad policy and he attacks everything with a contagious enthusiasm.

As printed in History of Black Hawk County, Iowa, and its people (1915). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.