MAYOR IN MONASTERY: Was Saloon Owner and Politics Led Him to Shun the World
The New York Times, July 11, 1908
DUBUQUE, Iowa, July 10— Mayor H.A. Schunk, saloon owner and politician who disappeared recently. was to-day found in the Trappist Monastery, eighteen miles from here. Troubles in legal and political affairs are listed as the cause for official’s desire to shun the world. It is said that he is following the rigid discipline of the monks, arising at 2 a.m. and attending devotions as prescribed by the order. Simultaneously with Mr. Schunk’s disappearance there was a suit filed for an injunction by ex-Alderman Joseph Needham, seeking to enjoin the Mayor from operating the liquor store run in his name while discharging the duties of Mayor. It was charged that the Mayor violated the law in that his place of business was kept open on June 2, an election day.
NOTE: Henry A. Schunk (1857-1921) was Mayor of Dubuque from 1906 to 1910. His stay at the monastery was a brief one. New Melleray Abbey was founded on land outside Dubuque in 1849 by the Trappist monks, and is still in operation today.