by M. Luther King. Used with
permission.
HISTORY OF AN EARLY BAGDAD FAMILY
(This material was obtained from Mrs. William S.
Rosasco, Jr.)
We have previously mentioned that William S. Rosasco was
interested for many years in the lumber industry and sawmill operation
in western counties of Florida. William S. Rosasco was a man of cosmopolitan
background and great practical abilities, who exerted an influence which
has continued in this section of the state. Mr. Rosasco was also a dominant
figure in banking, and influential in the import and export trades.
A native of Oakland, California, he was born in 1854, and
given the advantage of an education in England, graduating from Ramsgate
School, outside London. Remaining in Europe after the completion of his
education, Mr. Rosasco became associated with the U. S. Consular Office
in Genoa, Italy. His first business connection in the United States was
with the Tugboat Pilot Association in Philadelphia. In 1880 he and his
brother, A. T. Rosasco, entered business in their own right as ship brokers
and Commission Merchants. The firm was designated Rosasco Brothers and
of its two partners, William S. came to Pensacola, while A. T. remained
in Italy, assuming responsibility for the foreign aspects of the enterprise.
It was these operations which led to William S. Rosasco's becoming firmly
established in the Peninsula State as an important figure in commercial
affairs. During 1907 this sawmill was sold, but the brothers, with William
S. as active partner on this side of the ocean, retained extensive woodland
holdings from the continuance of lumbering operations, so that extensive
international trading was carried on.
Within his own locality, William S. Rosasco was director
of Robinson Point Lumber Co., Bay Point Lumber Co., and also director
of two banks, The American National Bank in Pensacola, and the First National
Bank.
In 1884, in Pensacola, Mr. Rosasco married Adolphine Jean
Bronnum, who was born in Bagdad in 1855. Her parents, Severin and Hannah
(Bang) Bronnum, were both natives of Frederichshaven, Denmark.
To Mr. and Mrs. Rosasco were born five children: Anna, Ada
G., Edna Vivian, Barbara Pauline, and William S., Jr.
Anna Isabel married Henry G. Wells of Atlanta, Georgia and
they became the parents of Henry, Gordon, William, and Albert.
Ada G. died in 1934.
Edna married Commander Walter Decker and they have two children,
Elizabeth and Suzanne.
Barbara married Captain Louis R. Moore and they have one
son, Louis R., J r.
William S., Jr. married Ethel Paderick in Pensacola on November
21, 1923. Before this time William S. Rosasco, Jr. had graduated from
the University of Pennsylvania (1918) and had been associated with the
American International Shipbuilding Association. He joined his father
in 1921 at Pensacola. Upon the death of William Rosasco, Sr., on October
15, 1944, William Rosasco, Jr. assumed management of the firm as its head.
He also served as president of the Aiken Towing Corporation, secretary
and treasurer of the Florida Towing Corporation, and president of the
Santa Rosa Lumber Company.
Mr. and Mrs. William S. Rosasco, Jr. are the parents of
two children: Elizabeth who was born October 28, 1926, and William S.
Rosasco, I I I who was born February 13, 1929.
William S. Rosasco, I I I is now associated with Santa Rosa
Lumber Company in Milton, where he and his family reside.
