My Genealogy Hound

OTTO L. BLOOMQUIST, a member of the leading furniture manufacturing firm of Kennedy, is a son of Jonas P. and Hattie (Zacharias) Bloomquist, and was born on the Island of Gothland, town of Wisby, August 17, 1864. His paternal grandfather was Herr Vigert, a native of Smaland, Sweden, but descended from German ancestors. He lived and died in Sweden. On the mother’s side, grandfather Johannes Zacharias was a native of Sweden, where he was born in 1799. By occupation he was a hotel-keeper, living in the province of Smaland, and was at one time a member of the Reichstag, and in maturer life became possessed of large estates. His later years were devoted to the management of his properties and keeping a government hostelry. Mr. Zacharias was a member of the Lutheran church, and his wife bore him six children. Jonas P. Bloomquist was born in his father’s native town, about 1820, and in 1854 removed from that province to the Island of Gothland, in the Baltic Sea. He remained there until 1880 and then emigrated to America and settled in Jamestown, New York, where he now resides. In 1842 he married Hattie Zacharias and the result of the union has been eleven children, eight of whom still survive, six sons and two daughters. All are married, except two sons, and are residents of the Empire State. Jonas P. Bloomquist is a contractor but originally learned stone-cutting. For many years he was a Lutheran but is now a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is a very energetic man, whose conscience is of the Wesleyan mould and which cannot be contorted to suit occasions. Firm in his convictions, he stands steadfast in the right as he sees it and is upright in every line of his character.

Otto L. Bloomquist was in his young manhood when he left his native land, and acquired the major portion of his education there in the common and high schools, which rank well for excellence and thoroughness. Simultaneously with his book training, he learned ornamental painting and we find him in Jamestown in 1881. He worked at hardwood finishing and pursued that manual labor until 1886, and then went to Kennedy, where he has resided since and is now a member of “Carlson, Bloomquist & Snow,” manufacturers of furniture. Theirs is the leading industry of the village and employs about thirty men. Politically he is a republican and is a member of the First Presbyterian church of Jamestown.