Karl J. Konzen

Karl J. Konzen has become a wideawake and progressive exponent of the journalistic profession in his native state, and as editor and publisher of the Volga City News he is making his paper an effective exponent of local inteests and of the principles and policies for which the Democratic party stands sponsor. He founded this newspaper in the year 1915, and has a well equipped plant, with modern facilities not only for the issuing of his attractive weekly paper but also for the executing of job printing of all kinds demanded in a community of this order. He has gained for his newspaper a representatives support and is making it a vehicle for the promotion of the best civic and material interests of the section in which it is published, his work being based on alert and vigorous mentality that makes him an effective editor and on a technical knowledge of the printing business in its various departments. His field of enterprise is extended by his publishing also of a weekly paper at Rudd, Floyd county, where he maintained his residence prior to coming to Clayton county, and where he served as secretary of the Commercial Club.

Mr. Konzen was born in Lawler, Chickasaw county, this state, on the 21st of October, 1895, and is a son of John G. and May (Connors) Konzen, both of whom were likewise born in Iowa, where the respective families settled in the pioneer days. The father gave the major part of his active life to mercantile business, and was one of the highly esteemed citizens of Lawler county at the time of his death, which occurred May 3, 1914. He is survived by his wife and three children.

Karl J. Konzen is indebted to the public schools for his early educational discipline and has had the liberal supplemental training ever involved in association with the “art preservative of all arts.” His alliance with the printing and newspaper business had its inception when he was a lad of sixteen years, and from that time to the present he has not wavered in his allegiance thereto, the while he has delved deeply into the mysteries of the art and business and has proved himself not lacking in self-reliance and resourcefulness as a representative of journalism.

As previously intimated, he established his residence at Volga in the year 1915, and here he has, through his personality and progressiveness, gained leadership in community sentiment and action and also a secure place in popular confidence and good will. He is a vigorous and effective advocate of the principles of the Democratic party and as there is no measure of inconsistency in a young bachelor proving an able newspaper man Mr. Konzen can legitimately claim both of these distinctions.

source: History of Clayton County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical Times Down to the Present; by Realto E. Price, Vol. II; pg. 220-221

-OCR scanned by S. Ferrall