Reflections - A PennySaver News photo series
Return to the Reflections index page Return to Reflections index page
From the Gowanda PennySaver News "Reflections" series compiled by Mary Pankow.
issue date - July 21, 2002
([PennySaver] Editors Note: I have received correspondence regarding several Reflections photos and am taking this opportunity to share them with all who are interested in Gowanda's past.)

Rebekah Lodge photo (July 7 edition)
     "The lady in the back row is Hazel Purdy." - courtesy of an anonymous phone call.

Southwestern Conference Track and Field Champions photo (June 9 edition)
     "Richard Allen is the the unnamed person in a recent Reflections photo of the 1952 Southwestern Conference Track and Field Champions. Dick's mother, Ruth Allen, lives on the same street as I do in Port Richey, FL.
This morning she said to me, 'Bill, will you look at this picture and tell me who you think this is?'
     I said, 'It's Dick, your son.' Then I looked and saw that he was listed with an unknown status. Dick was her only child and he passed away more than 10 years ago. We are going to send the photo to his only son, Kevin, who lives in Jamestown.      Ruth is my Aunt and, like me, is a subscriber to your newspaper."

-Bill Pine, Class of 1951
Romer Bros. Ax Factory (May 27 edition)
     "I write to you from Denmark, Island of Bornholm.
     I have seen you photos running in Reflections.
     Long time ago my great-grandfather run an axfactory in the United States of America in a place called Gowanda, - so I have been told since I was a child. After my father's death I have gotten different papers from my great-grandfathers time in USA.
     My great grandfather, Peter Andreas Bjornsen, was born in City of Roenne, Island of Bornholm, in 1840. As his father and his grandfather, he was trained to be a smith. He did not work with his father after his education, but emigrated to the United States, where he worked at different places. After more than seven years abroad he went back to Bornholm in 1871, and here he got married in April to his sweetheart, my great-grandmother. In the same month they left Denmark and settled down in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where their first child was born in 1872. They had five children, three born in USA and two at Bornholm. Their second child, a girl, died after a few years in USA, I believe in Gowanda.
     In Gowanda, my great-grandfather ran an ax factory together with two brothers from Denmark, City of Roenne, Bornholm.
     In USA they could not say his surname. Then he called himself Peter Andrew Brunson (or some variety).
     The two other partners in the ax factory were the brothers, Lars Nikolaj Romer and Hans Peter Romer. They called their factory - Romer Bros. Ax Factory. My great-grandfather left Gowanda (and USA) in the beginning of 1891 - and in April 1981 he died at Bornholm, and the two Romer brothers moved to Dunkirk. They both died 1900. In USA they called themselves Nicholas and John Peter Romer. In a while, an older brother to the two Romer brothers stayed and worked in Gowanda. His name was Anders Christian Romer.
     I have a photo of the factory with the workers and the three owners in front of the factory. I have scanned the photo for your purpose. Moreover I sent an article from 1980 in our local newspaper, Bornholms Tidende. Here you see the same photo and the locker I have from the factory in Gowanda containing the models of axes produced in the Village of Gowanda, County of Cattaraugus, State of New York.
     I sent you a copy of my great-grandfathers rights and privileges to the Pine Hill Cemetery Association from 1879. I sent you a List of Members from 1889 of the Relief Logde No. 511, I.O.O.F. - Gowanda, New York.
     If you have some information of the factory, I will be very grateful.
     I will end this mail - and I hope that you can understand, what I am writing. (You write: Donīt worry, you donīt have to be an expert writer, just someone with a story to tell). "

     Bjorn Bjornsen - City of Roenne

(Webmaster's Note: The above letter regarding the Reflections article on Romer Bros. was originally submitted by e-mail through the GowandaOnline site where Mr. Bjornsen had seen the archived version of the original article. I then passed it along to Mary Pankow. After Mr. Bjornsen's letter was printed in the PennySaver, I was contacted by one of his relatives currently living in Nevada, who has seen that article. I then, by mutual request, was able to facilitate the exchange of contact info between the individual in Nevada and his relative, in Denmark. If not for one simple article in a small town newspaper, this connection might never have been made.
-Bill Peglowski
webmaster - GowandaOnline)

P.S.- The second letter (from Nevada) contained additional information about Romer's Bros. Ax Factory. [CLICK HERE] for the full text of that letter.