USA > New York > Bronx County > History of Bronx borough, city of New York : compiled for the North side news > Part 36
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CHARLES WAKEFIELD TARBOX
MICHAEL VARIAN
WILLIAM HONAN KEATING
MARTIN WALTER
259
HISTORY OF BRONX BOROUGH
Trades' Club, United Republican Club, Parish Club and Congre- Rational Club. In politics he is an Independent Republican. He has never sought or held any political office. "Frank" Vought, the name he is generally known by, has been a devotee to ath- letic sports, the same as his brother, and has won laurels as an amateur oarsman and has some thirty or forty medalions emble- matic of his ability as a sprinter. Being an active and sharp business man and having studied law, he has been sought after by his political friends, who are unable to induce him to accept nomination. On October 26, 1886, he married Miss Nellie Lee- ming; three children, all living have blessed the union. The children are Margaret, aged 18 years; Emma E., aged 13 years, and Florence, aged 5 years. Margaret and Emma are pupils of the Normal College.
HENRY H. VOUGHT, senior member of the well known firm of Vought Brothers, architects and builders, was born at Cornwall-on-Hudson, July 19, 1853, where he attended the pub- lic schools, and graduated from the high school. After com- pleting his higher school studies Mr. Vought took up the study of architectural building, a profession in which he excels. In 1801 with his brother, Nathan, he embarked in business under the firm name of Vought Brothers, architects and builders. The high reputation the firm have made is by no means of a local character. Their name and fame has spread to all parts of the country, especially among a clientele who go in for the erection of splendid town and country houses. He is an ardent sports- man and an excellent marksman and takes a deep interest in all sports of an athletic nature. He has an enviable record as an amateur wrestler, but like all successful business men he was compelled to "sacrifice his talent to his art." Mr. Vought is a member of the Building Trades' Club and of the Red Men. He was married October 21, 1882, to Miss Mary A. Brown. Six children, Henry H., Jr., Franklin Douglas, Chancey De Witt, May, Ethel and Sheldon, have been born, all of whom are living Mr. Vought has resided in Bronx Borough since 1889.
LOUIS FALK, architect, of 2785 Third Avenue, was born in this city and has lived in it fifty-five years. He went to school here, too, at the old public school at 169th Street and Third Ave- nue. He began business in his profession as far back as 1859, and can point to many substantial buildings that were planned ty him, all over the borough, more particularly in the neighbor- hood where he has been so long established. Fordham, too, affords not a few specimens of superior work designed by him. Mr. Falk is Past Master of Wieland Lodge. F. & A. M., and Past Grand of Goethe Lodge, I. O. O. F. He has been treasurer of the latter for the past twenty-six years. He is an Exempt Fireman, a Democrat and a member of the Catholic faith. He married, April 22, 1861, Miss Margaret Koenig. One child of theirs, a daughter, Margaret F., is living.
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MARTIN WALTER, born in New York City November 2, 1856, is the son of Martin Walter and Elizabeth Rich, daughter of Martin Rich, of Wurtenburg, Germany. His father and grand- father were born in Guetzenbrigk, Alsace, of an old family of soldiers. Mr. Walter was brought to this country by his mother when two years of age, and resided in New York City, until his death. The son passed through Grammar School No. 63, of the Twelfth Ward, and then entered the grocery business in +++ Harlem store of Paulsen & Bamman. This was in 1874. After remaining in the store as a clerk for six years he entered into an equal partnership with Mr. Paulsen in a branch store which was established at Tremont. The firm name was origi- .
nally Jacob F. Paulsen & Company, but was subsequently chang- ed to Paulsen & Walter. The entire business connected with this store was under the exclusive management of Mr. Walter. The firm also speculated heavily in real estate on the North Side, and were very successful. They were the first to lay out lots at Mount Hope, taking as their first piece some sixteen acres of farm land,, on which vegetables had been raised for marke: at time of purchase. In twelve months time this entire tract had been disposed of. Other pieces of land were bought, attended by the same success. Mr. Walter subsequently sold out his in- terest in the grocery business and he has since been engaged exclusively in real estate enterprises. He has been very succes-tel. He is exceedingly popular, and is known for his enthusiastic advocacy of measures looking to public improvements. He 15 a member of the Executive Committee of the North Side Board of Trade, and takes great interest in its affairs. He is also a member of the Taxpayers' Alliance, as well as of several fra- ternal organizations, is a member of Guiding Star Lodge. N. 555. F. and A. M., and is a thirty-second degree Mason, and a member of Mecca Temple, Odd Fellows, Royal Arcanum ars Ancient Order of United Workmen, and a director of the Tre- mont Building & Loan Association since its institution, and was formerly a director of the Bronx Borough Bank, but is now connected with the Tremont Branch of the Hamilton Bank. Io. cated on Tremont Avenue in an office building which he erected in 1903, and was the first office building in this locality. A Re- publican in national politics, he is known as an advocate . : home rule in local affairs, and gives the Democratic municipal administration the credit of being the best government under which any cosmopolitan city can thrive and be of the most good and benefit to its community, advocating, however, that integrity and justice should govern the populace and not any party. He has long maintained that Port Morris must eventually become the shipping center of Manhattan Island, basing this opinion upon the gradual movement of these interests northward and the lack of proper facilities at any point further south, as well as upcz the advantages afforded by the short connection between the Hudson and the Sound. On June 18, 1891, Mr. Walter was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Jolin Nergenah, a large stock raiser of Chapin, Ill. They have one daughter and a son.
THE VARIANS .-- The name of Varian in this country outdates the Constitution, for it is nearly two centuries since its first appearance. Isaac Varian, the founder of the family in the United States, was a butcher at New York City in 1720, and for how long before that date he had been a resident on this side of the Atlantic is not known. His close friendship with the Dutch settlers of the Colony of New York and his marrying the daughter of Daniel De Voe, leads his decendants to believe :ha: he came from Holland. although the name appears to be of French origin. The Varian homestead stood for many years at Twenty-sixth Street and Broadway. Here were born the six children that established the name of Varian in the historica .. political, social and business life of the city and state. The youngest son, named after his father, Isaac, purchased in :; 22 from the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church a farm of over = c acres, paying about $7,500. It was located at what is now Wil- liamsbridge, Bronx Borough, extending from the Bronx River westward over the heights across what is now Jerome Avents. and the New Reservoir. The old homestead, which was on the farm at that time, is still standing on its original site, overlook ing Mosholu Parkway, which was built through the valley at 1 woodland of the estate some years ago and is still being i :.- proved. This old house became the home of the second 1-3. Varian shortly after his purchase, and here he raised a large
AUGUST HOEBERMANN
WM. T. HAVEY
GEORGE J. MC CAFFREY
LOUIS FALK
261
HISTORY OF BRONX BOROUGH
family, from which most of the Westchester County and Bronx Varians trace their ancestry. Michael Varian, whose portrait we publish, was one of his sons, and the one who was fortunate enough to secure the old homestead and part of the old farm by purchase from the heirs in 1829. Michael Varian was born in November, ISO8. His mother was Jane Betts. Upon the death of his father, when he was a boy of twelve, he went to New York, and was employed with Gilbert Coutant in the grocery business until his return at the age of 21, when he secured the old farm. From that date until of recent years he devoted him- self to farming. He married Martha, daughter of Jesse Huestis. He died at the old homestead in April, 1893, at the age of 85. leaving a daughter Mrs. Martha Archer, and three sons, Michael, I-aae and Jesse H. Varian, all now living except Mrs. Archer, who died in 1901. His grandchildren numbered eight, five of whom ( Emma, Wilbur, Harris, Lulu and Chester ) were born at the old homestead, making the fourth generation to reside there. Edger- ton, Perser and LeRoy were not so sentimentally fortunate. Of the grandchildren, the most foremost at the time of this writing is Wilbur L., who, by his activity in real estate operations in the Bedford Park section of the borough is keeping the name of his paternal founders of that section prominently before the public eye, and views with pride the development of the acres that have descended from generation to generation.
C.
WM. A. HUNTRESS
WM. A. HUNTRESS .- From long residence, and a con- nection formerly with the police force, Mr. Huntress is one of the best-known men in these parts. Ile was born in the Eleventh Ward, New York City, on Christmas Day, 185t. Hle is of old Bronx stock; his ancestors once owned extensive tracts of land lereabouts which was acquired from the Indians. These lan Is, however, have long since passed out of the possession of the family, though the record of them and traditions concerning
them still exists. Our subject was educated in the old public school at Fifth and Stanton Streets, away down town. At four- teen he was apprenticed, as an orphan, to the ship-caulking trade. During the Civil War, though still only a youth, he enlisted and served with the 40th New York Volunteers all through the last campaign of that war. Returning home in 1865, he secured em- ployment on the Third Avenue Railroad, on which he was con- ductor later for about ten years. In 1882 he resigned his place and went on the police force. He served twenty-one years and was then retired. He was Wardman during this term of service for many years. After his retirement he spent some time in travel over the United States; then, in October, 1903, he opened up in his present line-the real estate business-of which he has :nade a pronounced success. He has been always an independent in politics, and has hield aloof from political and social organiza- tions, his preference being for home life. He married, July 10. 1882, Miss Annie A. Cooper. Their union, though childless, has been a very happy one.
WILLIAM HONAN KEATING, one of the notables of the Williamsbridge section of the Bronx, is also a prominent figure in the wholesale grocery district of .ew York. He was born at Kilrush, County Clare, Ireland, September 27, 1858, and was edu- cated in the national schools and by the Christian Brothers of the Emerald Isle. He came to this county in 1880 and was at first employed by the house of Acker, Merrall & Condit, long leaders of their line. Later he took up the commission sales business and has since been identified with another big house of the trade, the house of Austin, Nichols & Co. Sixteen years ago, when he moved to Williamsbridge, it was a village on the border of New York. He identified himself with its government, with special attention to its finances and improvement, and shortly became one of its most influential residents. Many betterments there in the shape of grading, drainage, etc., were inaugurated by him and his associates in the local or town government prior to the annexation of the place by New York. He was a member of the board which gave the Union Railroad its franchise with a clause for a five-cent fare, a proviso, at that time, of special importance to the residents thereabouts. His interest in the schools had recognition also at the hands of Mayor Strong, who appointed him School Inspector of the Thirty-fifth District after annexation. Mr. Keating, of course, holds Williamsbridge the ideal place to live in, and has exemplified his faith in it by in- vesting heavily himself. In Williamsbridge and Wakefield his appraisals are in demand by investors and financial institutions. Ile signified his judgment and independence also in the rental of l'is properties by giving the preference to families with children wherever he can. Politically Mr. Keating is usually a Democrat. He is pronounced for tariff reform and municipal ownership. Ile is a member of numerous organizations, social, fraternal and religions, among others the Knights of Columbus, Royal Arcanum. A. O. U. W., Red Men, Emerald Association of the Bronx, Irish Club of New York and St. Mary's R. C. Church. He belongs also to the Williamsbridge Improvement League, Taxpayers' Alliance and North Side Board of Trade, and he is a director of the North Side Savings Bank. He married Miss Agnes Kennedy in 1881. Ile is an accomplished musician, frequemly performing on the piano in public for charity's sweet sake. They have been blest with ten children, seven of whom are living, three sons and four daugliters. It is Mr. Keating's rule to have them attend at first the local public school and then send them for the higher branches to nearby academies and colleges. His eldest son is a graduate of Fordham University and two others are students there now. Ilis daughters attend the Ursuline Academy and St. Angela's College at New Rochelle. A feature of his real estate develop-
262
HISTORY OF BRONX BOROUGH
ment is a business block on White Plains Avenue, between 225th and 220th Streets, comprising fourteen stores, each store a differ- ent line of business.
WM. T. HAVEY .- Mr. Havey is a resident of Williams- bridge. He is Democratic Captain of the Eighth Election Dis- trict and Secretary to the Superintendent of the Tenement ilouse Department of the city, Bronx branch. Mr. Havey was born in Eastchester, then separate but now a part of Greater New York, December 22, 1871. He is a graduate of the public schools, and having finished his course in them immediately sought employment. This he found in the real estate business, a line with which he is identified, in his official capacity. He be- longs to a family which is one of the oldest and most repre- :entative of Williamisbridge, and is a popular and well thought of young man. He is a staunch Democrat and a good Catholic. Besides the Tammany Hall General Committee he is enrolled in the Democratic Club of the Annexed District, the Chippewa Club and other local organizations. Having been born and brought up here, he naturally takes a lively interest in the progress of the borough, of that part particularly over which he exercises political supervision.
CHARLES WAKEFIELD TARBOX .- Mr. Tarbox, hav- ing been in the real estate business, extending from the Bat- tery to Yonkers, for about the last quarter of a century and leng a city appraiser in condemnation proceedings-a position need we say, of great responsibility-is well and widely known throughout the entire city. He is also of note as a worker in the Democratic cause, his initial work in this line having been exerted with great influence and his whole energy toward the election of former Mayor William R. Grace. He has fought for the clection of good, honest, capable men to public office, though never an office holder himself. He has, in fact, refused nominations to office several times. Mr. Tarbox was born June 8, 1850, in the lower part of this city, but removed during his infancy, and now lives on the same property which was pur- chase from Gouverneur Morris in 1849, by his father, the late Hiram Tarbox, who was one of the original settlers in the Tremont section. He is a direct descendant on his mother's side of Paul Davenport, one of the earliest settlers in Connecti- cut, where the colony of New Haven was founded by his brother, John Davenport, and also a descendant of Samuel Adams, of Revolutionary fame and John Adams, who was second president of the United States, and also of John Quincy Adams, who was sixth president of the United States and son of John Adams. The name of Davenport has been continuous for several generations down to Mr. Tarbox's grandmother, Abigail Davenport, who married Seth Clark, of Connecticut. On his father's side he is a descendant of the noted General Greene, also of Revolutionary fame and who was considered next to General Washington. Mr. Tarbox attended the pub- lic schools in New York as a boy and, after the usual course, graduated from them, secured employment and started to carve out a career. He was energtic and as he is to-day, a hard work- er, very self-reliant and may be called self-made. He took up engineering for instance, was his own tutor, mastered it thor- oughly, and made it a means of success. He has been an in- ventor of no mean ability, his first invention having been pro- luced at the age of sixteen years, and others perfected up to the present day, amounting to upward of 150 mechanical. elec- 'rical and other applicances. His genius seems to have been a gift or to have been hereditary as his father was a mechanical genius and one of the founders of what is now the American Waltham Watch Company, he having conceived the idea of producing watch movements by machinery instead of by hand.
Mr. Tarbox married in June, 1889, Miss Margaret Behrens. iney have one child, Miss Elsa Davenport Tarbox. Mr. Tar- box is a member of the Democratic Club of the City of New York : of the Schnorer Club, and also the Fordham Club. He is a director in the Provident Savings Loan Investinent Com- pany of this city and has been connected as a trustee and other- wise, with several institutions in this and other cities. He re- sides at 1877 Washington avenue, this city. Mr. Tarbox has a brother who has lived in Boston for the past 30 years, and is noted as a structural engineer. He served in the Civil War, partly under General Ellsworth, and reenlisted under other generals during the war. After his discharge (1865) he pro- ceeded to St. Louis and was engaged upon one of the greatest engineering feats in those days, the construction of the Eads bridge. Two sisters, who formerly resided on the old prem- ises with Mr. Tarbox, Sr., now reside in Boston. Miss Mary C. Tarbox was engaged in educational pursuits and is well known in those circles. Mrs. Lee, formerly Miss S. E. Tarbox. was, before her marriage, deeply interested in the same voca- tion as her sister.
FRANZ BRAUN (deceased) was one of those whose enter- prise directed in manufacturing and industrial channels con- tributed, largely to the development and progress of the borough. He died December 4. 1900, after thirty-five years residence here at the age of sixty-three. He was twenty-eight when he came to this city from Germany, and after an experience in various lines he embarked in the manufacture of embroidery. Mr. Braun himself was not a politician; he was of an independent dis- position and character, but he interested himself in many popular movements and exerted himself in behalf of the improvement and development of the district. The bridge crossings of the New York Central Railroad was a particular hobby, and it was through his efforts that these were built. His logical arguments in these efforts before the Mayor and Board still linger with those who knew him. He gave his adherence to the 23d Ward Property Owners' Association and helped make it an influential body. He never sought office, but he heartily favored everything for the good of the community in which he had his business and home, and contributed freely time and money therefor whenever called upon.
JAMES P. SONNEBORN, one of the Mount Hope pri- mary school boys, of whom there are a large number of them occupied in all the divisions of professional. mercantile and financial pursuits at the present day and who completed their education at the old Tremont Public School No. 61. stands preeminent in his rank as a great and grand factor in the de- velopment of the Bronx, in a locality that fifteen years ago was almost a wilderness. In 1888 James P. Sonneborn, having learnt the "art preservative of all arts," left the printing business and going almost to the extreme end of Greater New York at that period, opened a real estate office at Bedford Park. The latter place. so well known at present, was almost an entire nonentity, so far as its existence was concerned in 1888. It was absolutely a farming community and its lands were nothing more Or less than farms. However, by the means adopted in the con- struction, formation and other systematic methods devised and planned out by Mr. Sonneborn for the proper conduct of his business and also to develop rapidly, if possible, the improve. ment of this elegant section of our great city, his energy, in- dustry and his absolute integrity has been the means of bringing the large number of substantial citizens who have already lo- cated there and its growth is more than largely due to his long, unceasing and untiring efforts to make Bedford Park what it is to-day, one of the finest, healthiest and most picturesque
263
HISTORY OF BRONX BOROUGH
places in the Borough of the Bronx. There is not a record of any transaction such as transfer, mortgage, assessment or anything pertaining to real estate transactions in Bedford Park that Mr. Sonneborn has always kept a complete record at his office and his records are open for public inspection, and having the repu- tation of being the "Andrew H. Green" of Bedford Park, as the former was to our "Greater New York," he is unquestionably worthy of distinction in this complete and authentic history of the Bronx. Mr. Sonneborn's father, F. William and his mother, Harriet L., were sturdy people who inspired into the mind of their son the principles upon which the success in his business has been his "Alma Mater." In 1885 Mr. Sonneborn married the daughter of Dr. Van Vechten and Phebe Elting, of Tremont. Mr. Sonneborn is a member of the Royal Arcanum and vice- president of the Bedford Park Taxpayers' Association. Pros- pective buyers who are seeking investment or financial interests in the direction of Bedford Park for remunerative returns should consult with this active and reliable real estate dealer whose portrait appears on a succeeding page.
JAMES JOHN McGUIRE, a successful real estate man, former justice of the peace and trustee of Wakefield Village, an old-time volunteer fireman and live man generally, was born in Albany, November 3, 1844. He attended school there, and when the Civil War came on enlisted. He was teamster in the service at Hilton Head, Charleston, in the Quarterinasters' Department. and came home after eighteen months. He had a brother, Charles, by the way, also in that war in cominand of vessels, with a roving commission, who was the captor of privateers and blockade runners in Cuban and other tropic waters. On his return he took a position with the Wheeler & Wilson Sewing Machine Company as collector, which place he held for nearly thirty years. For the past fifteen years he has been a resident of the Bronx. He was justice of the peace two terms, trustee of Wakefield before annexation, and is a member of the Veteran Firemen's Association. He belongs to the Chippewa Club, and as long ago as 1857 was a page in the Assembly. His connection with Democratic politics, in short, has been long and intimate. Judge McGuire married, in 1868, Miss Mary M. Cannon, a lady of the Twentieth Ward, New York. They have six children living and one dead. Of those living four are sons and two are daughters.
HENRY SCOFIELD PELL was born in City Island. Borough of the Bronx, on September 25, 1856. He received a public school education at City Island, and at a comparatively early age, embarked in the business of buying and selling real estate. Mr. Pell proved to be an adept to the real es- tate business and was and is a very successful broker. With the northward march of the progress of the City of New York, City Island became a field of agitation for many public im- provements and he became very active in propagating for im- provenients and was found ever-ready to take up the burden of his neighbor, whenever his services were required to per- form such services. This, together with his admirable, man- ly qualities, made him a large factor in the affairs of City I-land. He is an advocate of Democracy and in 1893 he be- came the clerk of the New York State Assembly. He filled his office in an admirable manner and was many times lauded . by the press for his proficiency. He is a member of the City Island Council, 1844, Royal Arcanum. He is still engaged in the real estate business
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