John Rosene (1861-1919) was born in Norway. His business ventures were mainly in shipping, railroad construction and fisheries, in Seattle, Alaska, and the Siberian peninsula. He was connected with the Alaska Midland Railway Company, North Eastern Siberian Co., 1902-1910; and Northern Exploration & Development Company, 1910-1911.
Rosene served as the founder and president of the Northwestern Commercial Co. which controlled the following companies: North Coast Lighterage Co. (1900); Northwestern Steamship Co. (1904); Northwestern Fisheries Co. (1905). It also included the Seward Peninsular Railway Co. William T. Perkins was Secretary for the Northwestern Commercial Co. and became manager of Alaskan affairs. The company was sold to the Alaska syndicate in 1908 as the Guggenheim-J. P. Morgan interests became powerful enough to buy out Rosene.
Parallel to the development of the Northwest Commercial Co., Rosene negotiated with Russian Count Wonlarlarsky forming the North Eastern Siberian Co. which was chartered by the Czar in 1902. This was originally to have included the East Siberian Syndicate as represented by Frederick Baker, but conflicting interests led to the insistence on the part of Wonlarlarsky that Rosene replace Baker as representative.
Correspondence, financial records, maps, and reports relative to his business activities in shipping, railroad construction and fisheries in Seattle, Alaska, and Siberia with the North Eastern Siberian Co., Alaska Midland Railway Company, and Northern Exploration and Development Company.
Open to all users.
Creator's literary rights not transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.
Donated by William T. Perkins, 7/1/1948.
The Northeast Siberian Co. forms part of this series. Correspondence relating to the negotiations proper have been included in the correspondence of Series 1. The correspondence of the company after formal establishment is to be found in this series. Most is interoffice and it has been filed in one chronological order. The chief correspondents are Rosene (General Manager for America and Siberia), Matunin, N. (General Manager, St. Petersburg), Medhurst, Francis (Rosene's Manager in St. Petersburg), Podhorski, Constantine (Manager, St. Petersburg), and Wonlarlarsky, V.M. (Chairman, Board of Directors). Agents include John w. Kelly and A. Potapoff.
The Northern Exploration and Development Co. was established after the sale of the Northwestern Commercial Co. It was founded in 1910 and closed in 1918, with the death of Rosene. Perkins was the Secretary of the Company. The material in the series contains no correspondence; all correspondence for the company would be found in Series 1. The material here contains promotional materials, circulars, mimeographed letters and one scrapbook of the promotional materials and news clippings.
The Alaska Midland Railroad was founded under the Northern Exploration and Development Co. The material contains one book of maps and miscellaneous material.