Axel Westeen

WESTEEN

Posted By: County Coordinator (email)
Date: 5/10/2010 at 11:02:55

Among the prosperous financial institutions of Boone county is the Farmers Savings Bank of Boxholm, of which Axel Westeen is the cashier. Much of the success of this enterprise is due to his initiative and able management and he is conceded to be one of the best informed men in the county on financial matters, particularly as regards local conditions. Mr Westeen was born in Webster county, Iowa March 1870 and is a son of Olaf and Carrie (Olson) Westeen, natives of Sweden, who came to America in 1868 and located in Webster county, where the father was engaged in farming until 1882. He then came to Boone county and bought land in Grant township which he successfully operated until 1904, when he retired in the enjoyment of a competence and moved to Pilot Mound, where he now resides at the age of eighty-three years, his wife having passed away in April 1913.
Axel Westeen was reared and educated in Webster and Boone counties and after completing his lessons worked on his father’s farm and then learned the blacksmith’s trade, conducting a shop and hardware store. For ten years he conducted an establishment of this kind on the farm and for fifteen years he conducted an establishment of this kind on the farm and for fifteen years acted as postmaster, this being before the town of Boxholm had come into existence. Subsequently he entered the hardware business exclusively, conducting a store of that kind for eight years, and then went to Boone, where for two years he was employed by the Wheelock Hardware Company. IN 1910, Mr Westeen returned to Boxholm, acquiring an interest in the Farmers Bank, which was then a private concern owned by J H Roberts. In 1910 the bank was reorganized as the Farmers Savings Bank, the capital stock being ten thousand dollars. The present officers are: J H Roberts, president, O L Lidvall, vice president, and Axel Westeen cashier. The directors include: M J Lundvall, J H Roberts, Alf. Sundberg, Axel Westeen and O L Lidvall. Mr Westeen is proving himself an able financier and in the last few years has done much toward increasing the business of the bank. He is careful and cautious as regards investments, and yet he is always ready to extend credit when suitable security is forthcoming. His advice is frequently sought upon matters relating to financial transactions, and he is ever ready and willing to accommodate those who seek his opinion.
On June 6 1894, Mr Westeen married Miss Nettie Sundberg, a daughter of Olaf and Anna Sundberg, natives of Sweden, who located in Boone county in 1866. Mr Sundberg engaging in farming and coal mining. He died in 1884, but his widow yet resides on the Sundberg home farm in Grant township. Mr and Mrs Westeen have five children: Florence, Edith, LeRoy J, Earl, Gladys and Dorothy, who are respectively eighteen, sixteen, thirteen, eight and three years of age.
Mr Westeen has always taken a helpful part in all movements tending toward the improvement of his town and county. He is a democrat and loyal to the principles of his party .He has served as justice of the peace and at present fills the position of town clerk of Boxholm. His religious faith is that of the Swedish Mission church, and fraternally he is connected with the local lodges of the Masonic order and the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr Westeen is one of the popular business men of Boxholm and in the social and business life of that town has many warm friends.

1914 Boone County History Book