USA > New York > Bronx County > History of Bronx borough, city of New York : compiled for the North side news > Part 25
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"New York, April 4, 1882. "To the Honorable, the Assembly of the State of New York :
"Gentlemen-The commission appointed by your Honorable Body to report as to the advisability of public parks for the Annexed District, comprising the Twenty-third and Twenty- fourth Wards of the City of New York, and that portion of Westchester County adjacent to said District, beg to report that, in their opinion, it would be desirable to lay out a park or parks in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards of the City of New York and adjacent district, but that the time given for the examination of the matter is entirely inadequate to enable them to form any fixed opinion as to where the proposed park or parks should be located, or what the cost of the property to be required would be.
"The commission is further of opinion that whatever park or parks might be established in the Twenty-third and Twenty- fourth Wards or adjacent territory, should be established only in case the property could be secured at a moderate valuation and the adjoining owners would be willing to submit to an assessment for a fair proportion of the cost of acquiring the land in the shape of an assessment for improvements.
. "The commission further recommend that in case the in- habitants of that portion of Westchester County, which lies be- tween the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards and Long Island Sound should desire annexation to the City of New York, the matter is worthy the consideration of the Legislature in connection with the question of parks.
(Signed) W. R. GRACE, Mayor.
HUBERT O. THOMPSON, Commissioner of Public Works.
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HISTORY OF BRONX BOROUGH
WILLIAM SAUER, President Board of Aldermen. THOMAS B. ASTEN, President Dept. Taxes and Assessments."
It will be seen that by this official report of its chief officers, the City of New York became committed to the proposition in favor of parks.
Mr. Bieen, however, did not stop at this. Having gained this vantage ground, he subsequently offered another resolution of a similar character (also to be found in the legislative rec- ords), appointing a committee of five members of the Assembly to proceed to the annexed district, to examine into the subject and report their conclusions. On this committee Mr. Breen served as chairman, one of his associates being Theodore Roosevelt, then. serving his first term in the Assembly. This committee's expenses were paid by the State. With stenogra- pher, sergeant-at-arms and other officials, the committee came into our territory, and accompanied by many prominent men, they visited several sections, including the ones now occupied by Van Cortlandt, Crotona, Bronx and Pelham Bay parks.
The committee made three separate visits to our district and finally made its report to the Assembly, strongly favoring the project of public parks.
Following these proceedings, Mr. Breen introduced a bill appointing another commission to select and locate; for we find, at page 1464 of the Assembly Journal, this record :
"Mr. Breen offered for the consideration of the House a resolution in the following words:
"Resolved, that Assembly Bill No. 808, entitled 'An Act for the appointment of commissioners to select and locate lands for public parks and a parade ground in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards of the City of New York and in the vicinity thereof,' now on the order of third reading, have now its third reading."
The speaker put the question whether the House would agree to said resolution and it was determined in the affirma- tive.
These reports and the bills based thereon formed the ground- work for the legislation of the years 1883 and 1884, whereby the public parks of the Bronx were established. The expense of this work, however, was paid in full by the city, without assessment on adjoining owners, as suggested by the first com- mission, headed by Mayor Grace. Perhaps it was this sug- gestion of assessment on adjoining owners that induced M1. Breen to form another legislative commission with more just and liberal views.
It is remarkable that Theodore Roosevelt, who to-day is the central figure in the civilized world, was one of the pro- jectors of the system of public parks in the Bronx, including its Zoological and Botanical Gardens, destined to be the greatest in the world.
If Judge Breen did nothing else, the establishment of the parks should entitle him to the gratitude of the people of the Bronx. But he has other things to be recorded to his credit. We like to keep strictly to records. It relieves of any sus- picion of being over-partial. Every man is entitled to his rec- ord-if it he bad, he must bear the brunt; if it be good, fair play demands that it shall be so. recorded. '
We will not go into details of what Judge Breen did, sub- sequently, in connection with other worthy men, to rescue the district from misrule under the old Park Department, and the establishment of the Department of Street Improvements and the election of Louis J. Heintz.
We think that the reproduction of the following resolution, presented to liini in 1890, tells, in a concrete form, the complete story :
"At a meeting of the joint committee of the several tax- payers' associations of the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards of the City of New York, held at headquarters, 163d Street, near Third Avenue, on Friday evening, December 12, 1890, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted :
"Resolved, that the thanks of this committee be and the same are hereby most heartily tendered to the Hon. Matthew P. Breen, the attorney and counsel of the joint committee of the several taxpayers' associations of the Twenty-third and Twenty- fourth Wards for the exceedingly laborious and efficient services, gratuitously rendered by him, during the last two years on be- half of 'The People's Bill,' creating the office of Commissioner of Street Improvements of the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards, in intelligently presenting the complaints and grievances of our residents and skillfully conducting the examination of the same before the Special Committee of the State Senate charged with the investigation of our local affairs, in the thought- ful preparation of the necessary legal measures for introduction in both branches of the State Legislature, and in ably advocating the same before the standing committees of that body and be- fore the Governor.
"Resolved, that we cheerfully record the fact that the suc- cessful enactment of 'The People's Bill,' a measure so essential to the progress and welfare of this portion of our city, is largely due to the indaunted courage, zealous perseverance, skillful man- agement and patriotic motives of Hon. Matthew P. Breen, and that his course in the matter is worthy of the highest commenda- tion.
"Resolved, that these resolutions be suitably engrossed and presented to Mr. Breen, and that a copy of the same be furnished to the press of the city.
LOUIS J. HEINTZ, Chairman. JAMES L. WELLS, Treasurer. JOHN OSBORN, JR., Secretary."
These resolutions were presented to Mr. Breen, who had declined to accept a fee of five thousand dollars for these public services, which was subscribed for him by the persons interested in the above movement.
The joint committee of the taxpayers' associations above referred to was composed of the following well known gentle- men : Louis J. Heintz, James L. Wells, Matthew P. Breen, Hugh N. Camp, John Claflin, John H. Knoeppel, James R. Angel, Ferdinand Bohmer, Jr., Louis Fickwort, B. R. Guion. John Cotter. W. H. Schott, Louis A. Risse, Arthur C. Butts, John Eichler, W. HI. Carpenter, A. F. Schwannecke, Henry Bracken, John Osborn, Jr., John N. Emra, Richard D. Hamil- ton, Adolph Hupfel, John Haffen, Charles Jones, William Eh- ling, William G. McCrea, Gustavus A. Robitzek, C. H. Woehl- ing, John McMahon, George Chappell.
Judge Breen was born in County Clare, Ireland, on Decem- ber 4. 1845, the son of an eminent civil engineer. He was edu- cated in the Royal University of Dublin and in 1866 came to New York, where he entered the law office of Hon. Hamilton W. Robinson, late Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. In due time he was admitted to the bar and in 1871 opened an office of his own. He soon secured a large and profitable clien- tage. Early in his career. he became interested in politics as a Democrat of independent and anti-boss proclivities and was one of the Committee of One Hundred which organized the County Democracy of 1880, and which proved to be a formidable rival of Tammany, yet he continued to be the personal friend of
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HISTORY OF BRONX BOROUGH
John Kelly, the Tammany leader of those days. For six years lie filled the office of chairman of the School Board of the Sev- enth Ward.
In 1800 after long and careful research, Judge Breen pub- lished a large volume entitled "Thirty Years of New York Politics."
It is a coherent study of political doings in this city from the rise of the Tweed ring to the present day. Written with assured authority of personal observation and knowledge, it reveals in
JUDGE JOHN M. TIERNEY
a most interesting manner the interior workings of the "ma- chines" under the direction of Wm. M. Tweed, John Kelly and Richard Croker. It has had an extensive circulation and seems assured of permanent rank among records and studies of munici- palities.
Judge Breen is married and has six children. He resides in the Bronx and has a handsome summer home at Sea Gate, New York Harbor.
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HON. JOHN M. TIERNEY .- As resident of the borough from boyhood, and the incumbent of a position keeping him much in the public eye, our subject may certainly claim a very considerable measure of distinction in this locality. He has been Justice of the Municipal Court of the City of New York, Second District of the Bronx, since January 1, 1898, which office, it is agreed on all sides, he has administered since with good judg- ment and sound sense, as well as knowledge of the law, conscien- tiously and capably. Judge Tierney was born in the City of New York October 14. 1860. He came to the Bronx to live in 1860. As a youth he attended the public schools and was an apt and diligent pupil. He studied law in the office of Erastus .New, of New York, and was admitted to practice the profession, after the customary examination, in 1882, soon after he had
attained his majority. He is a Democrat and drifted into pub- lic life early. He has been Associate Counsel of the Fire De- partment, and Counsel also for the Department of Buildings. He is president of the Jefferson Tammany Club, and a member of the Tammany Society, Democratic, Fordham, and Tallapoosa Clubs. He belongs, of course, to the Bar Association of the Bronx; also to the North Side Board of Trade and Taxpayers Alliance; also to the Schnorer Club, that famous Bronx social organization, and the Brownson Club; also to the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, the Knights of Columbus, Friends of Erin and Bronx Lodge, No. 871, B. P. O. E. Judge Tierney is a man of family. He was married February 12, 1889, to Miss Frances J. Kennedy. They have one child, Frances Henrietta, born August 31, 1891.
WALLACE S. FRASER, well known as an attorney of standing' and. importance in New York, has his home at No. 570 East 145th Street in the Bronx, and there, as a resident for five years or more, takes an active interest and part in public mat- ters. Mr. Frases was born in New York at No. 255 Second Street. November 20, 1856. He comes from an old Knicker- bocker family, and is a descendant of David Van Arsdale of
WALLACE S. FRASER
Revolutionary fame, who on the historic evacuating day hauled down the British flag in New York City and replaced it with the American emblem. When a boy, Mr. Fraser attended the public schools in the section of the city in which he was born. and graduated therefrom in 1873 at the age of seventeen. Then desiring to learn the plumbing business he entered the employ of Alfred Ivers, whose place of business was where the Me:> politan Life Building is now, the same in which he, Mr. Frase: himself, has his suite of offices. A year or so later in 1874, he entered the law office of his father, Charles Fraser, a highly re-
HON. WILLIAM MC CREA
HON. RICHARD N. ARNOW
HON ARTHUR C. BUTTS
WILLIAM STEBBINS SMITH
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HISTORY OF BRONX BOROUGH
spected practitioner of that era, located at No. 124 Bowery, in the Butchers and Drovers' Bank Building. His certificate as law clerk was officially filed November 6, 1874. In this capacity he continued, except for some months of illness, many years. He was law clerk under his father until the latter's death in 1887, and was managing clerk then under his brother, John C. Fraser, who had succeeded his father in 1898, until his brother's illness, which incapacitated him from business, and whose death occurred in 1905. Since 1898 Mr. Fraser has continued his practice with marked success up to the present time. He has made many warm and influential friends, and has been associated with many prominent lawyers and law cases. In politics he is a Demo- crat like his father before him, but has, devoted himself largely to his profession, and has never been an aspirant for office. In the 1905 Municipal election, Mr. Fraser received the Tammany Hall nomination for coroner and was on the same ticket with Jerome F. Healy, the labor man from the Thirty-fifth Assembly District. There were two tickets against Mr. Fraser, the Re- publican and the Municipal Ownership League; the Republican candidate against Mr. Fraser, being on both tickets, was elected. Mr. Fraser ran ahead of his associate, Mr. Healy, an indication of his great popularity. Mr. Fraser is a member of the Thirty- fourth District General Committee, North Side, and has acted as chairman of numerous Tammany committees; he is a mem- ber of the Eugene J. McGuire Association and of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. He has been a member of the Harlem Rowing Club, and the Mott Haven Athletic Club, manifesting his devotion to athletics. In 1889 he married. The only child surviving his first wife is Wallace S. Fraser, Jr. In 1900 he married again, this time to Miss Amelia L. Reynolds. They have two children, Marion S. and Wesley J., both living.
RICHARD N. ARNOW was born March 20, 1851, in East- chester, now a part of the city. He is therefore in his 54th year and has lived in the borough all that time. He went to school here, grew up and studied law, married, held office and pursued his career all within the confines of the district. He was ad- mitted to practice in the year 1885. In March, 1896, Governor Morton appointed him to the position from which he derives his title, viz., Justice of the Municipal Court, First District, Borough of the Bronx. His term expired the following year. Judge Arnow married August 15, 1878, Miss Helen Secor. They have had one child, Norma, now the wife of Albert Duryea.
WILLIAM G. McCREA, ex-Judge and Counsellor at Law, of 90 West Broadway, though a native of St. Louis, Mo., has been a resident of this city forty years. He was brought up here, in fact, and received his education at Public School No. 14 and in the New York College. He is a Democrat in politics and has been on the bench here as Civil Justice of the Tentli District Court, City of New York. He belongs to the Columbia and Stuyvesant Yacht Clubs, to the Bronx and the Democratic Clubs, and was for five years president of the Schnorer Club succeeding in that office the late L. J. Heintz. He was secretary also of the Citizens' Local Improvement party when Heintz was nominated to office as commissioner.
JOHN HOMER HILDRETH, Counselor at Law .- The sub- ject of this sketch has long made his home in and been identified . with the Bronx. Ile is a man of clean reputation and recog- nized as one of the learned, able and reliable members of the New York Bar. Mr. Hildreth is a native of Massachusetts, but has lived in New York City thirty-eight years and within the ยท Bronx upwards of thirty years. He prepared for college at the Wesleyan Academy near Springfield, Mass., and graduated at
the Columbia College Law School, this city, with the degree of Bachelor of Law, in 1869. He was admitted to practice soon after in both the Supreme and United States Courts, and in a few years achieved an enviable name and position in the pro- fession. He is now president of the Bronx Borough Bar Avy. ciation, a preferment significant in itself of his standing both in the profession and among his brethren. Though a Republican in politics, taking an active interest in the success of that party. he has never held office. In 1882, however, he was its standard bearer in a fight for election to the Assembly in the Twenty-thir 1 and Twenty-fourth Wards, but was, like many others, defeated by the Cleveland landslide of that memorable year. He is an
JOHN HOMER HILDRETH
active member of the North Side Board of Trade, the Odd Fel lows and Masonic orders, and a vestryman of St. Ann's Protest- ant Episcopal Church. He is likewise a member, by virtue of his ancestry and election, of the New England Society in the City of New York; a Fellow of the American Geographical Society, and the Bar Association of the State of New York. Mr. Hildreth has been married twice. His first wife was Miss Fannie J. Benner, with whom he intermarried in 1867; the maiden name of his second, with whom he united in 1882. was Miss Cora J. Birch. He is the father of seven children, three of whom are dead. Two sons, the elder of whom, Homer W., is a clergy- man, and two danghters, survive.
HON. ARTHUR C. BUTTS, a distinguished attorney, resi dent in the Bronx, has served in the State Legislature and is al present, as for seven years past, Assistant Corporation Consel Mr. Butts was born in New York City August 23. INS. He was educated in the public schools here and at the Delaware Literary Institute. Franklin, Delaware County, N. Y. He studied law with Senator Henry R. Low at Monticello, Sullivan County, this
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HISTORY OF BRONX BOROUGH
state, and in New York City, and was admitted to the bar in 180g. He began practice at Monticello, N. Y., in 1870. In 1872 he was elected special county judge. and surrogate of Sullivan County. He was counsel there for many persons accused of crime, and in the defense of prisoners, in four trials for murder, succeeded in all but one. That was the case of Mark Brown, in 1875. Said the judge then of Mr. Butts, in sentencing the ac- cused to the scaffold: "Whatever could be done for you by the skill of man has been done. Rarely if ever has there been heard, in a court of justice, a more eloquent plea than that made by your counsel in your behalf." In 1884 Mr. Butts came to the City of New York, and has lived in the Twenty-third Ward, now the Borough of the Bronx. He took active part in the movement resulting in the election of the late Louis J. Heintz, Comunissioner of Street Improvements for the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards. He was one of counsel for the Citizens' Committee which urged the passage of the well known "People's Bill," creating that office, and in 1891 was chairman of the Execu- tive Committee of the Citizens' Local Improvement party. In 1893, 1894 and IS96 he represented the Twenty-ninth Assembly District in the State Legislature. In 1894 he secured the pass- age of the five-cent fare bill, providing for a five-cent fare from the City Hall to the terminus of the "L" road, and a continuous ride, without change of cars at 129th street. In 1894 he was a member of the Judiciary Committee of the Assembly and in 1896 of the Committee of Ways and Means. In 1898 he was appointed Assistant Corporation Counsel and served four years. . In 1902 he was re-appointed to that position. In September, 1904, he was chosen orator of the day for the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the Village of Monticello. He is author of the poem published by Putnam's entitled, "Monticello, a Picture of the Past."
HON. ADOLPH C. HOTTENROTH is one of the most conspicuous of the younger element of professional and public men in Bronx Borough, and one of the most able also-one whom, too, his fellow citizens have more than once delighted to honor. Hle has been an adviser and valued worker in behalf of its taxpayers' associations and other public bodies; he has been a member of council-a working member accomplishing some- thing; and as the representative of his people in the State Con- stitutional convention has shown himself wise and influential beyond his years. He is, moreover, a home product, so to speak, He spent his early life in 1869 in Melrose, of that sturdy Ger- man stock which so largely peoples this section. He received his early education in the public schools of the district and with it, in all probability, the inspiration which has made him the enthusiastic advocate and champion of its claims. Mr. Hotten- roth is a graduate of the College of the City of New York and of the law school of New York University. He began practice as a member of the law firm of Gumbleton & Hottenroth, and soon achieved exceptional prominence in the profession. In 1893 he was elected to the Constitutional Convention, and in 1895 to the Municipal Council. As counsel and an active member of the Twenty-third Ward Property Owners' Association, and the Alliance of the Taxpayers' Association of the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards he fought strenuously for the following issues, most of which have been realized: The retention of the Department of Street Improvements, the making of the Grand Boulevard and Concourse, the reduction of the assessment for the widening and improvement of East 149th Street, which established a precedent for the reduction by the Legislature of the assessments on 161st Street and Washington Avenue; the building of the new Third Avenue Bridge and the Willis Avenue
Bridge; the building of viaducts over the tracks of the Harlem Railroad at 153d, 156th and 158th Streets, to Cedar Park, and Melrose to Webster Avenues; Rapid Transit and Improve- ment of our Parks and Parkways; the extension of the Elevated Railway system as provided for in the company's charter ; re- duced fares on all railways or railroads operating in our city ; improved streets and pavements; the final and speedly completion of the street system of the entire Borough of the Bronx at the lowest possible assessment; the speedy construction of a new bridge over the Harlem River at East 140th Street; the construc- tion of the Botanical and Zoological Gardens in the North Side. Those who live in the district appreciate tl:cir importance. As a member of the Constitutional Convention he was an ardent advocate of home rule for cities; fought for additional repre- sentation for this district in the State Senate and Assembly; opposed monopolies and trusts; was among the foremost in opposition to an attempt to ruin Niagara Falls by water powe. promoters; and was chosen by the minority to lead the fight for canal improvement. The fight he made for that last named im-
HON. ADOLPH C. HOTTENROTH
provement, railroad opposition notwithstanding, was memorable. "In that convention of five months' session; indeed, though one of its youngest members, he won the respect and admiration of all its members, irrespective of party." Mr. Hottenroth is a mian of family and the father of three, Adolph Christian, Viola Emily, and Annette Muriel.
JOHN J. BRADY .-- It seems hardly necessary to say he has served the public long and ably in various official capacities, making him thus one of the best known men of the borough. He is by profession an attorney and counsellor at law, and has been Assistant Corporation Counsel, Attorney for the Department of Street Improvements, Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards.
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HISTORY OF BRONX BOROUGH
Commissioner of Taxes, Commissioner of the Department of Parks, Bronx Borough, Commissioner of Taxes again and so forth, in one and all displaying exceptional application, fitness and capacity. He has been a life-long resident of the borough and knows its ground and people intimately. Born in the city August 30, 1854, he has lived in it fifty-one years. His prelimi- nary schooling began in old Public School No. 4, situated at what is now the corner of Field Place and the Grand Boule-
JOHN J. BRADY
vard and Concourse. In 1872 he graduated from St. John's Col- lege, Fordham, and taking up the study of law, was achmitted when he had attained his majority. Mr. Brady is married. He has been blessed with a family of seven, four daughters and three sons, all of whom are living. He is a member of the Fordham Club, the principal social organization of the Fordham District; of the "Schnorers," which has more than merely local reputation ; of the Catholic Club and Brownson Club, institutions identified with the religious faith he professes; of the Irish Club, the Navajo and Democratic Clubs, the latter the swell downtown organization of the party; of the Elks, the Ancient . Order of Hibernians, the Knights of Columbus and others.
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