Personside - 298

Francis Bazley Lee fortæller i Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey (Volume 7) om hendes familie:

Elias Sayre Ward, second child and oldest son of Moses Dodd (q. V.) and Justina Louisa (Sayre) Ward, was born in Afton, Morris County, New Jersey, November 25, 1842, and died at his residence, 13 South Ninth street, Roseville, Essex county, New Jersey, December 23, 1896, being the first and so far the only one of his father's children yet to die. He was one of the most prominent of the business men in Newark, and was well known not only throughout the state but beyond its borders, and at the time of his death was president of a great electric traction company, head of a large leather manufacturing firm, a member of the board of directors of one of the most important insurance companies in the country, and an ex-candidate of Essex county for governor of New Jersey.

Mr. Ward's early life was passed on his father's farm, and his education was obtained at boarding school in the Bloomfield Academy. As it has to so many young men, the call of the city proved too strong to be resisted, and when he was about twenty-one years old Mr. Ward left his home on the farm and came to Newark to begin the business career in which he was to prove his worth. Entering the business world as salesman for a New York house, he became widely known for his efficiency, ability, and the thoroughgoing conscientiousness with which he performed his work. His vitality was exhaustless, his nature genial, and he became a familiar figure and welcome friend to all the commercial travellers of his day. It was through his efforts that the Commercial Travellers' Association was brought about, and he was the means of putting a stop to the practice at one time customary in several states of laying a special tax upon salesmen who came in from other states. Mr. Ward being called upon to pay this tax, refused on the ground that it was a discrimination which was unfair, illegal and unconstitutional, and his opposition led to a suit that was carried on in his name, finally decided in his favor by the supreme court of the United States, and caused the abolition of the practice. Mr. Ward's business was leather, and he made himself a master of every detail of leather manufacturing. For a number of years he was associated with others in the business, being for a few years a member of the firm of Butler & Ward, and in 1878 forming an alliance with the firm of T. P. Howell & Company. A year later he determined to begin the manufacturing of patent and enameled leather on his own account, and about the beginning of 1880 he organized the firm of E. S. Ward & Company, whose plant, one of the largest in the city, is situated on the corner of Norfolk and Richmond streets. Mr. Ward's great energy, keen discrimination and untiring perseverance soon made this venture a prosperous one, and he accumulated a large fortune. At his death the firm passed into the hands of his eldest son, who is now managing it.

When the discussion about and experiments with electricity as a motive power and means of propulsion for street cars began, the subject attracted Mr. Ward's attention and he became not only an interested student but also one of the pioneers in the introduction of electric street railways in the city of Newark. He was one of the projectors of the Rapid Transit Railroad Company which built and operated what at the time of Mr. Ward's death were the West Kinney street and Central avenue line of the Consolidated Traction Company, which later became the North Jersey Street Railway Company, and finally in 1903 the Public Service Corporation of New Jersey, in which the Rapid Transit Company is represented by the Kinney and Central avenue lines. The old Newark and South Orange horse car railroad company had been incorporated March 7, 1861, and built at about the same time as the Springfield avenue line. Like the latter it fell into financial straits, and was at last bought by Mr. John Radel, who tried the experiment of running it with his son Andrew as superintendent.

In 1892 Mr. Ward turned his attention to this line, and forming a company, purchased it, placed it upon a sound financial basis, changed the motive power to electricity, and as president of the new company directed its affairs until his death. He was also very largely interested in other electric railroads outside of Newark, both in and without the state, notably the electric railroad at Plainfield, New Jersey, and the Bridgeport Traction Company, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, which he organized in 1894, and of which he became vice-president. Soon after the organization of the Prudential Insurance Company, Mr. Ward became a heavy stockholder, and for many years was prominent in its board of directors and as chairman of its executive committee. In this as in all other enterprises with which he became connected, Mr. Ward exhibited a broad public spirit, a generous liberality, and a warm regard for the welfare and comfort of his employees. At the time of his death Mr. Ward, in addition to all the other posts of responsibility that he held, was a director of the Fidelity Trust Company. He was a Mason, a member of the Essex Club, of the Essex County Country Club, of the New Jersey Historical Society, and of the Washington Headquarters, Association, of Morristown, following in the footsteps of his ancestors, Mr. Ward was brought up in the Presbyterian faith, but after his marriage became a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Barnabas in Roseville, where he made his home, and where his charitable benefactions though not widely known were very widely felt. Mr. Ward was always an ardent Republican, and from the early days of his youth took an active interest in politics.

He made liberal contributions to the party campaign funds, and willingly gave his time and labor to advance its interests. He was not an office-seeker, and the only public position ever held by him was in the board of chosen freeholders, of which for several years he was a member. In 1895, at the earnest solicitation of many of his friends, he became a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor of New Jersey, and at the nominating convention at Trenton he received the solid support of Essex county, besides a number of votes from other counties, until it became evident that John W. Griggs was the choice of the convention. In October, 1896, Mr. Ward started on a trip to Europe, but while he was in London he was taken ill with an attack of kidney trouble, and although he apparently recovered, he decided to return home again, where, a short while after his arrival, kidney disease developed again and reached a fatal termination on December 23, 1896. This was Thursday, and the funeral was held at his residence on the following Saturday afternoon, by Rev. Stephen H. Cranberry, of St. Barnabas, and his body interred in Mount Pleasant cemetery, the pallbearers being Vice-President elect Garret A. Hobart, Senator William J. Sewell, Governor John W. Griggs, John Kean, John F. Dryden, William Scheerer, Czal H. McCarter, Henry W. Dorenuis, Judge Gottfried Krueger and William T. Hunt. On the day of his death the Republican county convention, of which he was a member, drafted a minute on his death and resolved to attend the funeral in a body. The Republican state committee, of which Mr. Ward was also for a long time a member, took similar action on the day of his burial, and the Eleventh Ward Republican Club, by a rising vote, testified to its sympathy with the family and to the great loss caused by his decease. As a public character Mr. Ward devoted much time and thought to the improvement of the city and the advancement of its commercial and manufacturing interests. He was an active member of the Board of Trade and of many other organizations of a semi-public character, all having the betterment of the community as their object. In private life he was noted for his genial disposition, his unostentatious charity and his never failing generosity. Few men in the state had a wider circle of personal friends, and a common opinion was voiced by the town council at his death, "Newark is poorer today in every way for this untimely loss." Elias Sayre Ward married, March 4, 1872, Anna Dickerson, only daughter of Joel M. Bonnell, of Newark, who died March 19, 1903. Children: 1. Jessie Bonnell Ward, born June 20, 1873; married to Henry R. Angelo, now of Copenhagen, Denmark. 2. Robertson Sayre Ward, who will be referred to later. 3. Charles Bonnell Ward, see forward. 4. Allen Bonnell Ward, died in infancy. 5. Laurence Colin Ward, referred to later.

(IX) Robertson Sayre, second child and eldest son of Elias Sayre and Anna Dickerson (nee Bonnell) Ward, was born in Newark, New Jersey, October 27, 1875, and is now living at 172 Harrison street, East Orange.

His early education was obtained in the Newark public schools and in the famous Newark Academy, from which latter institution he entered Princeton University, where he graduated in 1898. On leaving college Mr. Ward at once returned to his mother's home in South Ninth Street, Roseville, and in the ensuing fall assumed control of the business which his father had organized and so successfully built up. Under his management the firm of E. S. Ward & Company, which now (1909) consists of Mr. Ward and Mr. John F. Conroy, has steadily enlarged and prospered until the work of their one hundred hands in the manufacture of patent and enameled leather for furniture, carriages and automobiles, has become known and finds a ready market all over the country.

Like his father, Mr. Ward is a staunch Republican, although he has not and does not wish to hold any office. He is a member of many clubs, among them being the Essex Club and the Essex County Country Club, of which his father had been a member. He is also a member of the Union Club of Newark, of the Automobile Club of New Jersey, of the Princeton Club of New York, and of the College Club of Princeton. On April 2^nd, 1906, Robertson Sayre Ward married Marie Baillieux, daughter of Jacques Baillieux, of Aix les Bains, France, who has borne him one child, who died in infancy.

(IX) Charles Bonnell. son of Elias Sayre and Anna Dickerson ( Bonnell j Ward, was born in Newark, April 27, 1879. He was educated in the public schools, Newark Academy and Penn Military Academy, graduating as B. S. He went to Europe with his brother and later to Arizona, where he lived on a ranch for three years, then returned to Newark. He married, in Newark, Aima Heller; they have two children ; address, Livingston Manor, New York.

(IX) Laurence Colin, fourth son and youngest child of Elias Sayre and Anna Dickerson (nee Bonnell) Ward, was born in Newark, New Jersey, July 24, 1882, and is now living with his family at 257 Mount Prospect avenue, in that city. For his early education Mr. Ward, like his brother, went to the public schools and to the Newark Academy. In 1898 he entered the Lawrenceville school in Lawrenceville, Mercer county, New Jersey, where he made his preparation for entering college.

In 1901, when he graduated from this academy, he determined to go abroad in order that he might perfect himself in some of the foreign languages, especially French and German, before he began studying for his university degree. Accordingly he went to Germany, where he lived in a private family and made himself a master of their tongue. Returning to this country in 1902, Mr. Ward entered Cornell University in the class of 1906, but after remaining there through the freshman year of that course he decided to begin at once upon a business career, and consequently in 1903 he took a position in the Prudential Insurance Company, with whom he remained for the following two years. Mr. Ward's gifts, however, lay in another direction, and when the opportunity presented itself in 1905 of purchasing the machine factory and business of Seymour & Whitlock, he promptly seized it and entered upon his present work. This business, which is large, already employing fifty hands, and supplying general machinery all over the country, bids fair under Mr. Ward's able management to be as great a success as is his father's and brother's leather business. On July I, 1908, the firm was incorporated under the name of the L. C. Ward Machine Company. Like his father and brother, Mr. Ward is a Republican. He is also a member of the Zeta Psi college fraternity and of several clubs, among them the Union Club of Newark, the Automobile Club of New Jersey, and the Cornell Club of New York. He is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church, and a member of Trinity parish. Newark. Mr. Ward married, September 6, 1904, in Evanston, Illinois, Marion Roby, daughter of Walter T. Dwight, by his wife Julia Terry, who was born in Evanston, January 31. 1883. Besides Mrs. Ward, he has had three other children — Pauline, Dorothy and one died in childhood. Laurence Colin and Marion Roby (nee Dwight) Ward have two children : Robertson Dwight Ward, born June i8, 1905, and Laurence Colin Ward Jr. December 8, 1908.

Wilhelm R. Knudsen ...havde været bestyrer af den stor dansk-sibiriske forretningsmand Søren Randrups filial i Barnaul, øst for Kurgan.Knudsen og hans kone Ellen havde tre børn på 5, 7 og 9 år (i 1919). (Ellen Knudsen var søster til August Theodor Schalburg, der i mange år arbejdede i Sibirien som mejeriinstruktør og smøropkøber)

I begyndelsen af december 1919 rejste Hansen og Knudsen til Harbin, hvor de traf den danske konsul Jacobsen og danske og engelske bekendte fra Kurgan og andre sibiriske byer. Julen holdt de i Vladivostok, men under forfærdeligt triste omstændigheder, idet Knudsens eneste søn, Ib på fem år, døde af difteritis juleaftensmorgen. Ib var Otto Hansens gudsøn. I 1921 fik Knudsens en ny lille søn, som blev født i Port Said, måske under familiens hjemrejse fra Østen. Ved nytårstid 1921 havde Hansen og Knudsen fået nok. De opgav alt håb om at komme videre ind i Sibirien og rejste hjem til Danmark.