Susan Sharp's Research Notes:
Booklet printed at the time of P.K. Tadsen's death by the Ohio Farmers Insurance Company.
Peter Knudsen Tadsen Peter Knudsen Tadsenwas born in Port Clinton, Ottawa County, Ohio, on November 6th, 1874. He lived all of his life in the town where he was born. He came to be recognized by all classes of people as the first citizen of his native city, and here, in the town which he loved so deeply and to the development of which no one contributed more generously or wisely, he passed away on April 8, 1945.
Pete Tadsen was a worker. At the age of ten he began working in a store. This he did after school hours and during summer vacations until his graduation from High School. He then decided to engage in the insurance business, and became an agent of Ohio Farmers Insurance Company. At the age of twenty eight he was elected Mayor of Port Clinton on the Republican ticket in a community that was strongly Democratic, and was twice re-elected. During this time he threw his energy and vision into bringing new industries to his city, to provide employment for people, and into plans for the beautification of the city and its Lake Front, and into organizations to bring happiness to the people, old and young, and he never stopped in the continuous pursuit of these activities so long as he lived.
With one other person he founded the American Gypsum Company. He served as its Vice-President, and was a member of its Board of Directors during the years of its greatest development and until it was purchased by the Cellotex Corporation. For thirty years he served as a Director of the American Bank of Port Clinton, and as its Vice-President. For many years he was a Director of the Matthews Boat Works of Port Clinton. He was the founder of the Community Chest. He was a Director of the Boys' Welfare Society of Ottawa County, and of the Port Clinton Welfare Society. He was a member of the Kiwanis Club. He served as Commodore of the Yacht Club. He served as head of the Red Cross. He was President of the Chamber of Commerce and was in the vanguard of every good cause to advance his native town and the welfare of its people.
For many years he successfully operated amodern dairy farm in Bay Township, near Port Clinton. Pete Tadsen was a builder. Things to which he put his hand and applied his rare ability grew and prospered and the community was stronger and better for it. The business interest which claimed his first attention, however, was the Insurance Agency which bore his name. The keystone of that agency was the Ohio Farmers Insurance Company. He represented this Company for more than half a century. For fifty consecutive years he attended every Annual Meeting of the Ohio Farmers Insurance Company. During all of that time his agency never operated a single year at a loss. It is safe to say that in the aggregate he wrote a million dollars in premiums for the Ohio Farmers Insurance Company. He had an all-time low loss record, perhaps not excelled in the records of America. This could only have been accomplished by the observance on his part of the highest ethical standards in carrying out his trust as agent of the Comapny, while at the same time giving the maximum of honorable service to the policy holders who entrusted him with their business. He was a student of the business and he worked at it. He was progressive. He was thorough. He did things the right way, and always the straight way. He hewed to the line and he cut no corners. He was aggressive but he was fair.
On October 15th, 1919 he married Miss Helen Gordon of Port Clinton. Together they established a beautiful home. They loved their home and were deeply devoted to one another. Here their friends and the members of their families gathered, drawn to them by the strongest of ties of admiration and affection. Pete was the most delightful of companions. He loved the out of doors. He had a genius for making and holding friends. He was a sportsman. He had a delightful sense of humor. He was big. He loved to talk and people loved to hear him and be with him. He was intensely human and so inherently good.
On March 22, 1934 he was elected a member of the Board of Directors of Ohio Farmers Insurance Company and of Ohio Farmers Indemnity Company. He not only brought to the Board his broad experience as a business man and his wide practical knowledge of insurance, but he brought as well his rare quality of spirit, his unyielding honesty, his brilliant intellect and his generous heart. He also came with an unfaltering faith in the good name and the high purposes of this Company -- a faith nurtured and rooted in a lifetime of service to this Company. As a member of the Board all of his activities, thought and deliberation were characterized by his indefatigable industry, clear thinking, consideration for the opinion of others, loyalty to his associates and above all, by his constant striving to make the Company, which he loved so much, one of the soundest and best Insurance Companies in America. In October, 1944, he attended his last meeting as a member of this Board. The following month he became ill and on April 8, 1945 he passed away. We shall never see his like again. He had the qualities of true greatness. He asked so little of others but he gave so much. He was born, he lived, worked and played on the shores of Lake Erie, and there he was laid to rest by his friends. Of him it can truly be said, 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant." -- C.D. Mc Vay President, J. C. Hiestand Secretary