Page 205 - Family History

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Bertel Poulsen (Paulsen) Bios

[Note: Bertel is the brother of Niels Poulsen. Interestingly, both Bertel and his brother Niels
owned and operated “Spoke and Handle” shops. Bertel at some point changed the spelling of
his name from Poulsen to Paulsen. Stephen]

Taken from the Titusville (PA) Herald, Jan. 31, 1939

Operator of One-man Factory
Making Tool Handles
Puts in Spare Time Painting, Drawing

By Larry Lowing

Bertel Paulsen observed his 82nd birthday Wednesday by turning out a few

handles in his one-man factory on St. John street. He walked to work this
particular morning because the previous Sunday he had narrowly avoided a nasty
spill from his bicycle on the ice. Ordinarily it is his habit to pedal his ancient, but
nevertheless excellent, chainless-drive Pierce-Arrow to work every day. "I enjoy
bicycling," he told us. "It keeps me young. But the other day, it was pretty windy
and it blew me every which way. You can't have much control of a bicycle on the

ice."

Since 1889, Mr. Paulsen has been operating his factory where he turns out pick,
sledge hammer, hatchet and bent hook handles and whiffletrees and yokes. A
more recent product is baseball bats. Virtually all these years he has operated the
factory single handed. Only very occasionally has he employed any person to help
him during a rush season. The factory is a frame building of three-rooms --
machinery room, office and storage chamber. In the way of machinery, he has

three lathes, circular saw, saw gummer and four motors. Hickory for his product is
imported from Tennessee.

MAKES ONLY WHAT HE CAN DO

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