USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume II > Part 48
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JOHN G. VAN DEUSEN, a distinguished soldier in the Civil War, and a well known citizen of James- town, N. Y., died in that city on Aug. 2, 1894, and his remains were interred in Lake View Cemetery. He was born in Grimsby, Canada, Dec. 9, 1848, a son of James and Elizabeth (Van Dyke) Van Densen. Mr. Van Densen, Sr., came from Canada with his family to the United States and settled at Sugargrove, Warren county, Pa. Here he engaged in the trade of shoe- making until his removal to Randolph, Cattaraugus county, N. Y., where he spent the remainder of his life.
John G. Van Densen was educated in the dis- trict school of Sugargrove, Pa., and was but little over fifteen years of age when he enlisted in the 112th Regiment of New York, Company F, under Capt. Joseph Mathews, as a drummer boy. The patriotic young boy served his country until the close of the war. When he returned home he settled in Jamestown, Chautauqua county, N. Y., where he entered business as a shipping clerk in the chair factory of the firm of Jones Giffrod & Weeks. He filled this position very efficiently and continued in the same office for a period of over twenty-seven years. During his life of forty- six years, thirty-one of those years were spent in activity and service-from the day when he enlisted as drummer boy, then fifteen years old, for more than three decades his life was spent in useful office for the benefit of others whom he served. In politics, Mr. Van Densen was a Democrat. In his religious belief he was an adherent of no special denomination or creed, but held liberal church views. He was a member of the James M. Brown Post, No. 285, Grand Army of the Republic, at Jamestown, and was affiliated also with the Union Veterans' League.
On May 1, 1866, John G. Van Deusen married Caro- line Woodward, a daughter of Erastus and Hulda (Beech1) Woodward. She was born at Gaines, Orleans county, N. Y. Mr. and Mrs. Van Densen were the parents of one child, Frank P., who until recently was a grocery merchant, of Jamestown, N. Y., but is now , a traveling salesman. Mrs. Van Deusen is a mem- ber of the Woman's Relief Corps, and in this organi- zation she has given unselfish and untiring service, in reward for which she is held in the highest esteem and regard by the members of that society. Mrs. Van Deusen is a woman of culture and refinement, and is domestic in her taste.
FRANCIS S. STEGELSKE-As a leader of the Chautauqua county bar, and as United States commis- sioner, Mr. Stegelske occupies a foremost position in his community, ranking among the most prominent citi- zens of Dunkirk. He is identified with the business and real estate interests of his home city, and is a well known figure in social and fraternal circles.
Francis S. Stegelske was born Dec. 16, 1879, at Dunkirk, and is a son of Joseph and Constance (Brzuszkiewicz) Stegclske, both of whom are now liv- ing, Mr. Stegelske having retired from business. Francis S. Stegelske was educated in public schools and at St. Mary's High School, graduating in 1902. He then entered the Law School of the University of Buffalo, receiving, in 1904, the degree of Bachelor of Laws. The same year he was admitted to the bar and began his professional career as a clerk in the law office of Nugent & Heffernan, since which time he has practiced alone. By native talent, enforced by thor- ough equipment and unremitting devotion to duty, he has built up a large and profitable clientele, and has made for himself the position of leadership which he has long occupied. He is a member of the Dunkirk- Fredonia Bar Association. In the political life of his community, Mr. Stegelske has long borne a prominent part on the side of the Republicans. For some years he served as police justice, and for the last ten years has filled his present office of United States commis- sioner. He is largely interested in real estate, owning the Gratiot Hotel, the finest in Dunkirk. He is presi- dent and director of the Atlas Seed Company and the Home Farms Company, one of the organizers and director of the Dunkirk Trust Company, president and treasurer of the Bartela & Stegelske Contracting Com- pany. He occupies a seat in the Chamber of Com- merce. His fraternal affiliations are with the Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Columbus, and the Polish National Alliance. In the Knights of Columbus he holds the office of advocate. He is a member of St. Hyacinth's Roman Catholic Church. Francis S. Stegelske has, most emphatically, been the architect of his own fortune and has reared, beyond all doubt, a noble and substantial structure.
FREDERICK A. GRON-For many years Mr. Gron was identified with a large number of the impor- tant business interests of Jamestown, N. Y. He was not a native son, but when but a lad of nine years was brought to Chautauqua county by his parents, and until his death at the age of sixty-three he was a resident of the county, and from 1865 was engaged in business in Jamestown. His devotion to the land of his adoption was strongly displayed in his military service during the four years of the war between the states, and in his participation in all movements looking toward a better Jamestown. Both he and his brother, Charles Gron, were commended for gallant conduct and soldierly qual- ities, and a brother of Mrs. Gron, Peter Peterson, born in Sweden, came to the United States in 1851, enlisted in 1861 in the 112th Regiment, New York Infantry, and was killed at the taking of Fort Fisher in Jan., 1865, having previously been engaged in many of the hard fought battles of the war. There is great debt due these brave men of 1861-1865, greater perhaps than is realized. Their sacrifice did more than save the Union from dis-
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ruption; it saved the world from ruin more than half a century later by this country being able to present a solid front to her enemies, and to throw the entire weight of the United States against the foe. That many of the brave men who fought and fell were born in other lands than this adds to the obligation we owe to the world to do our utmost to prevent a recurrence of the awful scene through which it has recently passed.
Frederick A. Gron was a son of Andrew and Mary (Simpson) Gron, both born in Sweden, their home until 1850, when they came to America, in a sailing vessel, which consumed eleven weeks. Landing in Bos- ton, the family came west to Buffalo, N. Y., finally settling in Busti, Chautauqua county, N. Y., where An- drew Gron bought a farm upon which he spent the remainder of his life. His wife, Mary (Simpson) Gron, born April 1, 1811, died in Jamestown, N. Y. They were the parents of seven children: Caroline, who married and moved to the State of Ohio; Louisa, married J. S. Westbury; Charles, a veteran of the Civil War, and a long time manufacturer of Jamestown, now residing in Lakewood; Frederick A., to whom this review is dedi- cated; Augusta, who became the wife of Benjamin Brown; Christina, wife of Nelson Stanton; and Han- nah, wife of Arthur A. Amidon, of Jamestown.
Frederick A. Gron, second son of Andrew and Mary (Simpson) Gron, was born in Stockholm, Sweden, Jan. 26, 1841, and died in Jamestown, N. Y., Nov. 9, 1904. The first nine years of his life were passed in Sweden, he coming with his parents, two sisters and brother to the United States in 1850. He grew to manhood at the home farm in Busti, Chautauqua county, N. Y., several of the years of his minority being spent with Ira Young, also a farmer of Busti. In Oct., 1861, being then nearly twenty-one, he enlisted in Company F, 9th Regi- ment, New York Cavalry, and with that command saw three years of hard service. At the expiration of his term of service in Oct., 1864, he reënlisted, and served in the same command until the close of the war in 1865. His brother, Charles Gron, who yet survives (1920), served in the same company and regiment, and both brothers received official commendation for gallant and meritorious conduct.
After receiving honorable discharge at the close of the war, Frederick A. and Charles Gron returned to their Chautauqua county home, but soon located in James- town, where for a quarter of a century they conducted a very prosperous business enterprise. They became the owners of much valuable property in Jamestown, which they held jointly until the dissolution of their partnership, when it was equitably divided between the two men. Frederick A. Gron continued in business until his death in 1904, and was uniformly successful in all that he undertook. In addition to his business activi- ties, he took a prominent part in the general life of the community, and was well known socially. He enjoyed the regard of his fellowmen to a high degree, and bore an unblemished reputation for integrity and square dealing. He was a man of strong domestic tastes and tound his greatest pleasure and recreation among the members of his intimate household.
Frederick A. Gron married, March 21, 1871, Caro- line M. Peterson, born in Sweden, Sept. 1, 1848, daugh- ter of Andrew and Mary Christina Peterson. Mrs.
Gron survives her husband, and has continued the busi- ness along the same lines very successfully. She is a woman of excellent business judgment, is an able, capable manager, and most practical in her opinions and plans of operation. Among the holdings of real estate left her by Mr. Gron was a valuable farm near Jamestown, which Mrs. Gron has since sold to the : Lakeview Cemetery Association. As a wife and mother, Mrs. Gron has proved the gentleness and devotion to 1 her home, and when called from her womanly pursuits ; 1 :
she showed that she possessed the business quality which wins success. Mr. and Mrs. Frederick A. Gron became the parents of the following children: 1. Mabel, born April 16, 1872; married Charles Parks, and has chil- dren : Marjorie and Frederick Gron Parks. 2. Bertha 1 May, born July 4, 1874; a graduate of Jamestown High 1 School, class of 1893, now a teacher in Jamestown public : school No. I. 3. Edna L., born May 13, 1882, died in 1916, and buried in Lakeview Cemetery, Jan. 15, of that ( year ; she was a graduate of Jamestown High School, and a teacher in the public schools until her marriage with Herman Paquin in June, 1911; she left a daugh- ter, Carolyn.
Andrew Peterson, father of Mrs. Caroline M. ( Peter- son) Gron, was born in Sweden, and came to the United States in 1851, his daughter Caroline M. then a child of three years. He located on a farm which he bought in the town of Busti, Chautauqua county, N. Y., and there lived until 1860, when he moved to a farm in Chandlers Valley, Pa., where he remained prosperous and contented until a few years before his death, when he moved to Jamestown, dying in 1886, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Gron, at the age of seventy-eight. His widow, Mary Christina Peterson, survived him fif- teen years, dying at the home of her son in 1901. The old home farm in Busti, where Mrs. Gron spent her I girlhood until 1860, was on the old plank road between Mayville and Jamestown.
Peter Peterson, brother of Mrs. Caroline M. Gron, was born in Sweden, and in 1851 came to the United States with his parents, two brothers and five sisters. He lived on the Busti farm with his parents until the removal to Chandlers Valley, he then enlisting in the 112th Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, and serving until the last year of the war. He was with the Union army under General Terry that in cooperation with the fleet under Commodore Porter attacked for the second time the forts at the mouth of the Cape Fear river, and after three days' fighting captured Fort Fisher. In one of these days of hard fighting, Peter Peterson was killed, the fort surrendering on Jan. 15, , 1865. He was a good soldier, and made the supreme sacrifice for the land he loved, although it was not the land of his birth.
NATHAN P. NEWTON, who for many years was a well known citizen of Jamestown, Chautauqua county, N. Y., was a native of this county. He was born at Mayville, Jan. 10, 1852. His parents were Abraham F. and Mary (Biglow) Newton, of Mayville. The father was a sadler by trade and lived in Mayville, but later moved to Fredonia, N. Y., where he was engaged in business for himself. He spent the later part of his life in Sinclairville, where he died.
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At the Mayville and Fredonia academies, Nathan P. Newton received his education, and after the comple- tion of his studies there, he became a teacher in the public schools. He taught school for almost four dec- ades, at Fredonia, Dunkirk, and other places. Giving up this profession, he became engaged as a dealer of pianos and organs, representing the Ithaca Organ Company. He removed to Jamestown, where he later settled and engaged in the piano business. He owned teams for the work of the moving of pianos and general draying, for which he maintained several teams. On April 27, 1912, Mr. Newton died at Jamestown, and was buried at the Lakeview Cemetery. In his political belief he was a Republican, and in his religious views was liberal minded.
Mr. Newton married (first) Hattie Main. She died at Fredonia, N. Y. They were the parents of five chil- dren, as follows: Nathan P., who resides at James- town; George, of Jamestown; Everett, deceased; Lil- lian, of Bemus Point, and Frank, of Jamestown. Mr. Newton married (second) on Thanksgiving Day, 1876, at Fredonia, N. Y., Alice A. Owens, who was born at Cameron, Steuben county, N. Y., Dec. 16, 1852, a daugh- ter of Ithamar and Waty Ann (Briggs) Owens, of Fre- donia, where they moved from Cameron, N. Y. Her father was a retired farmer and fruit grower. Mr. Newton had no children by his second wife. Mrs. New- ton is still living and resides on Tenth street, in this city. She is a woman of enterprise, and she has made much improvement on her property. She has taken unusual interest both in the town and its people. She is broad-minded and liberal in her religious views, and is a woman highly respected by all who know her.
ROSWELL FELLOWS FOSTER, M. D .- Nine years of successful practice has made Dr. Foster's name a household word in Westfield and also in a wider region. This period suffered an interruption of two years which were spent in military service in this country and in France, and which constitute a most honorable chapter in Dr. Foster's career.
Roswell Fellows Foster was born Nov. 4, 1882, in Fre- donia, N. Y., and is a son of Frederick J. and Mary (Fellows) Foster; the former was engaged in business, also taking an interest in farming. The Fellows family is a very old one in Western New York. Both Mr. and Mrs. Foster are now deceased.
The education of Roswell Fellows Foster was re- ceived in the public schools and High School of Dun- kirk, N. Y., and in 1902 he graduated from the High School. He then took a two years' course at the Uni- versity of Michigan, passing thence to Marquette (Wis- consin) University and graduating in 1907 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. After serving eighteen months as an interne in Mount Trinity Hospital, Mil- waukee, Wis., Dr. Foster practised for a time in that city. The occurrence of a death in the family recalled him to the East, and in 1910 he began practice in West- field, meeting with marked success. In April, 1917, Dr. Foster volunteered for the World War, and in June of the same year he was commissioned lieutenant and sent to Fort Benjamin Harrison and later to Battle Creek, Mich. He then spent nine months in France, where he was attached to the Medical Corps of the Replace-
ment Division, and participated in nearly every bat- tle fought in France during the period of his service. After his return to the United States he received, on April 15, 1919, an honorable discharge, and at once resumed practice in Westfield. He is medical examiner for the John Hardrock Life Insurance Company. In the sphere of politics, Dr. Foster is an independent voter. He belongs to the Loyal Order of Moose. He is a Mason, affiliating with chapter, council and consistory, having attained the thirty-second degree. He also affili- ates with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of Dunkirk, and is medical examiner for the Maccabees.
Dr. Foster married, July 12, 1917, Ruth A., daugh- ter of John and Margaret (Johnson) Neill, of West- field.
Successful in the early years of his professional activ- ity, and having a most honorable military record, Dr. Foster enters upon the future period of his career under exceptionally favorable auspices.
JOHN A. HALLIN, who for twenty-seven years has been a resident in Jamestown, N. Y., and who, since he came in 1892, has been a steady, industrious pro- ducer, connected in responsible capacity, for the greater part of the time, with the operation of furniture fac- tories of appreciable consequence to the city of James- town, has had commendable success in his business efforts, and for nine years has been one of the principal stockholders, president, and also general manager of the Elk Furniture Company, Incorporated, the plant of which company is at Jamestown. He might therefore well be included among the group of successful manu- facturers who have so satisfactorily aided in the devel- opment of the city and its environs, and particularly who have made Jamestown generally known through- out the country as a furniture manufacturing center of magnitude.
Like so many others of Jamestown's successful men of to-day, John A. Hallin was born in the town of Smoland, Sweden. His birth occurred on March 8, 1874, and his father, now deceased, was Carl J. Hallin, a farmer of that place. John A. Hallin attended the public school of Smoland until he was twelve years of age, at which time he had to end his school days and take to the more serious affairs of industrial life. He began to work at the paper mills, and as a mill hand remained in Sweden, near his parents, for a further six years. In 1892, however, he had made the decision which in that year brought him to America and to Jamestown, N. Y. Of course, he was in a strange land, but he was not altogether a stranger in James- town, for although he knew very little English, he met many good residents of Jamestown whom he knew, or who knew his parents, and still many more with whom he could converse comfortably, they being also Swedish. And he had no difficulty in finding employment, although that employment was not, at the outset, a very lucrative one. However, his inclinations were to things mechanical, and it was not long before he was quite proficient in the operation of the machines then used in wood working. He first found work in the furniture factory of the Norquist Brothers, now the A. C. Nor- quist Company ; later he found better and more respon- sible employment, as a skilled workman, with the Bailey
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& Jones Table Company, and subsequently with the Liberty Furniture Company, all of Jamestown. With the last-named company he was a foreman for seven years. In 1910 he, with others, including Frank A. Jacobson and T. E. Linderholm, sought to form an incorporated company, to specialize in the manufacture of library tables and pedestals. The project eventually resolved itself into the firmly established corporate con- cern, operated at Jamestown under the name of the Elk Furniture Company, of which company Mr. Hallin became general manager and president, and of which he became one of the principal stockholders, and its success in operation has been due primarily to John A. Hallin, who devotes the whole of his business hours to its affairs.
During his residence of more than one generation in Jamestown, Mr. Hallin has upon many occasions shown that he has the interest and development of the city at heart, and although he is more a man of production than of verbal expression, he has taken his due part in civic responsibilities. He is a member of the Jamestown Chamber of Commerce, the Manufacturers' Association of Jamestown, and the Merchants' and Manufactures' Association of New York State. By his commendable business effort, and his estimable private life, John A. Hallin has earned place in the history of Chautauqua county, N. Y., and has brought credit to the country of his origin, which has yielded to this country so many men of sterling worth, so many men who, like Mr. Hal- lin, by private enterprise and steady production have had so consequential a part in the industrial develop- ment of Jamestown, N. Y., during the last few decades.
Mr. Hallin was married in Jamestown, in 1896, to Anna M. Peterson, of a well known Jamestown family, also of Swedish antecedents. They have five children : I. Mildred, who married C. W. Hutley, of Jamestown. 2. Austrid, who is at home with her parents. 3. Dela- van, who is now a high school student. 4. Evelyn. 5. Adelaide. The two last-named attend the Jamestown Grammar School.
THE ELK FURNITURE COMPANY, which re- ceived corporate powers under the laws of the State of New York in 1910, was founded by well known and substantial men of Jamestown, who had for many years prior to that held responsible positions in James- town furniture factories. The company was organ- ized to enter into the manufacture of furniture, and the incorporators purposed specializing in the manufac- ture of dining room furniture. John A. Hallin, who for more than twenty years had been connected with the Jamestown furniture manufacturing industry, succes- sively with the A. C. Norquist Company, the Bailey & Jones Table Company, and the Liberty Furniture Com- pany, was elected president and general manager of the company, Frank A. Jacobson became vice-president, and T. E. Linderholm was given the secretary-treasurership of the corporation. The plant, which embraces much of the most modern wood working machinery, is housed in a two-storied building at Jamestown, and it has a floor space of 20,000 square feet. At present, the com- pany finds steady employment for thirty-five people. Its principals are members of the Manufacturers' Associa- tion of Jamestown, and the Merchants' and Manufac- turers' Association of New York State.
HJALMAR ROSENQUIST, vice-president of the Advance Furniture Company, a successful manufactur- ing company of Jamestown, N. Y., has had a wide and diversified experience in American plants, of wood working and allied industries, since he came to the country in 1902.
He was born in Smoland, Sweden, Oct. 11, 1883, the son of Theodore and Nellie Rosenquist, who for about eighteen years have been respected and responsible resi- dents in Jamestown, N. Y. His father had a farm in the neighborhood of Smoland, Sweden, and during his years of schooling, which extended to his fifteenth year, Hjalmar did much work on the farm. But when fourteen years old he became apprenticed as a wood carver, in Sweden, starting in the packing room, and later learning wood carving. When he was eighteen years of age, in 1902, he decided to come to America, his father having preceded him by one year and having comfortably settled in Jamestown. Crossing the seas in 1902, Hjalmar Rosenquist joined his parents in James- town, and soon thereafter entered the furniture mak- ing plant of the Norquist Brothers, working with them until 1904, and spending his evenings mainly in study in the night schools of the city. The plant of the Nor- quist Brothers was gutted by fire in 1904, and for ahout six months Hjalmar Rosenquist worked at sundry occu- pations until he entered the plant of the Automatic Vot- ing Machine Company. After three months in that plant, he was engaged as a hand carver in the plant of the Union Furniture Company. There he remained for one year, then going to the Art Metal Construction Company's plant, where for two years he found employ- ment in the assembly room, after which he was for eighteen months in the Ohlnstrand metal plant, now known as No. 2 plant of the Art Metal Construction 1 Company. Later he worked in the case making depart- ment of the Art Metal Company, and in various other metalic furniture plants in Jamestown and Chicago. In 1916 he, with other Jamestown men, organized the Advance Furniture Company, of which he is now vice- president, and which gives indications of developing into a plant of much importance to Jamestown.
It is singular and noteworthy that the majority of his associates in the organization of the Advance Furniture Company should be natives of Smoland, the place from which Mr. Rosenquist came to America. They form a loyal circle of coworkers, and conditions, generally, at the plant are congenial and healthy, both in the spirit of fellowship and in prospects of future substantial expan- sion of business. Mr. Rosenquist is unmarried. He belongs to several fraternal organizations, including the Scandinavian Brotherhood of America, the Lief Erick- son, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
THE PEARL CITY LAUNDRY, of Jamestown, which is a partnership enterprise of Edgar E. Myers and his two sons, F. Laverne and J. Floyd, trading under the name of E. E. Myers and Sons. was estab- lished in 1894 by the present head of the firm, in conjunction and business partnership with his elder brother, W. S. Myers. The brothers, at the outset, rented a small building, twenty-two feet by one hundred feet, at Nos. 19-21 Steel street, Jamestown, and equipped it as a general laundry. In the early years of its operation, the laundry employed five people, but the
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