Øivind Ambrosiusen (aka Eddie Ambrose)

My paternal grandfather was also an Edwin, but people called him Eddie. He was born on August 26, 1899,  in Horten, Norway, as Øivind Ambrosiusen, son of Martinius Ambrosiusen and Hilda Hansen. When my grandfather moved to the States, he Anglicized his name to Ambrose.

Eddie served one compulsory year in the Norwegian Navy, then completed a two-year program at Horten Technical Institute, where he learned to be a draftsman. 

Since there were no employment opportunities in Norway, Eddie sailed to Montreal in 1923. Border Crossing documents show that he arrived in Rouses Point, NY on June 28 and Buffalo on July 18. My father said he then traveled to Massena, NY, where he heard there was work in Syracuse.

Eddie found a job in Syracuse as a draftsman, and was employed all during the depression. He worked most of this time for the Solvay Process Company, a division of Allied Chemical Corporation, in Syracuse, NY.

The Solvay Process Company was established in 1880 in Syracuse and was a pioneer chemical industry of the U.S. in the manufacture of soda ash and a major employer in central New York. The company was the origin of the village of Solvay and it grew around the plant. The Erie Canal passed through the Solvay Process plant, as did the New York Central Railroad. The phone directory I found from 1931 shows how important Solvay was to the city of Syracuse. Solvay, the company, went out of business in 1985.

The Ambrose family lived in Syracuse until 1940 when my grandfather was promoted and transferred to the Solvay factory in Delray, Michigan. Eddie retired from the company after 35 years of service. He lived to be 89, nine years longer than my father did, dying on September 13, 1988.