My Genealogy Hound

JEROME LA DUE, who has been identified with the business interests of Westfield since 1870, is a son of Joshua and Julia Ann (Cowles) La Due, and was born in the town of Chautauqua, Chautauqua county, New York, December 12, 1839. The La Dues of New York are of French Huguenot origin, and are descended from a La Due family that settled in Lower Canada during the last century. Joshua La Due was born in Dutchess county in 1794, and died in the town of Portland in 1865. He came to Chautauqua county in 1819, where he settled in what is now the town of Sherman, but afterwards became a resident of Mina. He was a farmer by occupation, served as keeper of a government light-house for four years under President James K. Polk, and was a supervisor and afterwards a justice of the peace in the town of Mina. He married Julia Ann Cowles, who was a native of Farmington, Connecticut, and of New England ancestry.

Jerome La Due was reared from four years of age at Westfield, where he attended the academy of that place and then (1858) entered the law-office of H. C. Kingsbury. After reading for two years he went west, and completed his legal studies in the office of his brother, Joshua La Due, who was prosecuting attorney of the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1867 he was admitted to the bar of Milwaukee, at which he practiced for three years, at the end of which time he went to Winona, Minnesota, where he practiced for nearly a year and attended to a part of the legal business of the M. & St. P. Railroad company, of which his brother had charge. In 1870 he returned to Chautauqua county, where he established himself at Westfield in the real estate and insurance business, in which he has continued successfully ever since. Under President Cleveland’s administration, in 1885, he was appointed postmaster of Westfield, which position he held until 1890.

In 1867 he united in marriage with Ada Wells, daughter of S. V. R. Wells, a resident of Westfield.

He represents two important branches of business which are necessary to the growth and prosperity of any place. Beside handling desirable residence and valuable business properties, he also has good farm lands for sale and is the representative of the most solid and reliable insurance companies.