Rock Island Illinois

Biography of Walter A. Rosenfield

Walter A. Rosenfield, the eldest son of Morris and Julia E. Rosenfield, was born in Rock Island, June 13, 1877. The sketch of his father and of the history of the Rosenfield family precedes this. After completing the Rock Island public schools, Mr. Rosenfield entered St. John’s Military School at Manlius, New York, and graduated from that school. In 1898 the lingering and hopeless illness of his father, Morris Rosenfield, having made it impossible for him to longer assume the duties devolving upon the president of an industry like the Moline Wagon Company, his son, our subject, was elected to … Read more

Biography of Harry P. Simpson

Harry P. Simpson, editor of the Rock Island Argues, was born in Davenport, Iowa, on July 6, 1863, and moved to Rock Island in 1887. He attended the public schools in his native city, and while yet in high school he developed a decided taste for newspaper work, serving as reporter on a society paper called the Saturday Afternoon People. His work attracted attention and he was offered a position on the staff of the Davenport Gazette, which he accepted, representing that paper in a reportorial capacity in Rock Island and Moline. A little later he was made city editor … Read more

Biography of Virgil Marion Blanding

Virgil Marion Blanding was born December 8, 1827, at Grenell Mills (now Aldenville), Wayne County, Pennsylvania, and died March 3, 1907. His father, Reba Blanding, was one of the original proprietors of Grenell Mills, but spent his later years on his farm nearby. His mother was Beulah Ann Grenell. Both branches of the family were of Hugunot stock; the known line of descent on the father’s side running from William Blanding, who emigrated to America and settled in Boston in 1640, where he soon after became “selectman.” His four great grandfathers, Noah Blanding, John Martin, Michael Grenell and Elijah Marshall, … Read more

Biography of Stephen Henry Velie

The City of Moline owes its prominence throughout the United States, and in fact, throughout the entire civilized world, chiefly to its manufactories. And to Stephen Henry Velie, deceased, who, during his life, was conspicuously identified with several of that city’s leading manufacturing establishments, Moline is greatly indebted for the preeminence she now maintains in industrial enterprise. Mr. Velie was born April 21, 1830, near Hyde Park, Dutchess County, New York, his boyhood, until he arrived at the age of fifteen years, being spent upon his father’s farm in that county. During this period he attended the public schools of … Read more